Lahood speaks as Villaraigosa, Metro CEO Art Leahy and Metrolink CEO John Fenton look on, Photo: LA Streetsblog/Flickr

In recent weeks, two competing pieces of legislation are moving in Washington, D.C.  The first, is moving through the House of Representatives on a series of highly partisan votes and is reviled by advocates for transit, walking, bicycling and complete streets for it’s over-the-top support for highway construction.  The other is moving through the Senate with unanimous bi-partisan support and funds a more balanced vision for transportation funding.

But in yesterday’s “sunshine” press conference, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, decided to look on the positive.

“It’s time for them to pass the surface transportation bill.  it’s time for them to pass America Fast Forward,” Villaraigosa offered in a deflection of a question on Congressional investigation of how Los Angeles spent some of its federal stimulus funds.  Later, responding to a direct question from Streetsblog about the partisan bill moving in the House of Representatives, Villaraigosa focused on Congressman John Mica’s (R-FL) support for America Fast Forward.

America Fast Forward is the mayor’s proposal to change and reform federal law to encourage federal investment in projects supported by local dollars.  Under the proposal, Los Angeles Metro would likely be able to accelerate the construction of transit projects funded by a sales tax passed by voters in 2008.

“I am still positive about the portion of the bill that expands the current $128 million to a billion dollars for the TIFIA program which is one of the programs that L.A. needs to accelerate the 30 years of transportation funding into a shorter period of time, hopefully a ten year period,” Villaraigosa began.

“I’m also heartened that he did include three of the five reforms that we have said are necessary to accelerate that program.”

The Mayor did touch on the controversy surrounding the House Bill, but refused to weigh in.   “I know there is some dissidence between the Senate and the House version, and I don’t want to get in the middle of that right now so I’ll leave it with a positive comment, for now.”

However, the non-partisan reaction to the “Mica Bill” didn’t stop Villaraigosa or LaHood from praising the legislation put forward by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and her competing legislation moving through the Senate.

“I want to give a loud shout out to Senator Boxer for working in such a bi-partisan way to put together a surface transportation bill that got total unanimous vote out of her committee, 18-0″ proclaimed LaHood, responding to the same question.   “She has the ranking Republican on her committee, Senator Jim Inhofe from Oklahoma.  That bill is going to be on the Senate floor.  It’s a two year bill.  It’s a good bi-partisan bill that addresses the transportation values of America.  That’s the way transportation has always been done. and I can’t give a big enough shout-out to Senator Boxer to working so hard with Senator Inhofe to get this bill to the Senate floor.”

Villaraigosa jumped in to praise the Senator.  ”Ditto to that, I was remiss.  Barbara Boxer doesn’t have a bigger fan than Antonio Villaraigosa.”

Both pieces of legislation have passed through the committee system in their respective chambers, but a final vote has not been scheduled for either.  While both the former Republican Congressman  and the man some feel could replace him as Transportation Secretary held their fire on the House Republicans, it’s clear that each favors the bill moving through the Senate.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Secretary Ray LaHood exchange a handshake during yesterday's press event at Los Angeles Union Station. Photo: LA Streetsblog/Flickr

Delivering a “message from President Obama,” LaHood set the tone for a defense of the president’s vision for High Speeed Rail. “”High speed rail is coming to California,” Lahood began. “We will not be dissuaded by the naysayers or those that think that high speed rail is not the next generation of transportation.”

Later, noting that the President’s vision was larger than just a rail plan for California, LaHood talked of the California project as a model for the nation.  ”We believe the high speed rail corridor in California will be the role model for high speed rail in the country.”  Other rail projects won’t capture the country’s imagination as the California project.  For example, the proposed rail project in Illinois would increase rail speed from seventy to one hundred ten miles per hour.  California High Speed Rail will run at speeds up to 200 miles per hour.

Responding to complaints from Steve Gregory, a reporter from the conservative news talk radio station KFI, about the costs and ridership projections, Villaraigosa took the microphone to offer his own defense.  After noting that projections for Los Angeles’ subway and Bus Rapid Transit systems are both well above projections, he pointed both to local benefits of a statewide transit network and to the investments America has historically made in transportation over the decades.

“High Speed Rail in California is the natural extension of the 21st Century transportation system we’re building here.  For me, this is an easy one.  We need to get on this train.  We need to stand for the proposition that California needs to lead the way,” Villaraigosa opened.  ”Imagine if they had asked President Eisenhower to cost out the federal highway system in 2012 dollars.”

The Mayor’s verbal gambit to defend the $100 billion price tag for construction of the high speed rail line was seized on by Dan Richard, the executive director of the High Speed Rail Authority.  A recent report by the authority noted that the original $42 billion estimate for a project between Sacramento and San Diego was low.  Instead, a $100 billion estimate for a route between San Francisco and Los Angeles was more likely.  Richard noted that one third of the price increase was because current projections take into account inflation that is expected over the next thirty years of construction.

Despite the high cost projections for construction, Richard notes that the line will pay for itself during operations.

“All of our analysis shows that ridership will be strong.  Every high speed rail project in the world more than pays for its own operations,” Richard said in response to a question from a television news reporter.  ”Even under the most pessimistic projections, we bring in more money than it takes to run the system….none of us wants to launch a system that doesn’t have riders.”

If the goal of the press event was to change the debate on High Speed Rail from complaints about cost and management to a discussion of the benefits the line will bring, yesterday was a mixed bag.  While the press conference was featured on most nightly news telecasts, only one print publication, La Opinion covered the event.

On the way home from the press conference, I listened to Gregory’s coverage on the wildly popular “John and Ken Show.”  While Gregory stuck to playing unedited audio clips of the event, the shows hosts interrupted to lambaste the project as “the biggest waste of taxpayer dollars I’ve ever seen” and the Secretary as “a buffoon.”  At the end of the day, rail supporters were probably heartened by the show of political strength for the project, but the skeptics remained just as skeptical as ever.

Borja Leon. Photo: Mayor's Office

Now, on the eve of announcement of a new federal transportation bill from leadership in the House of Representatives, the Mayor’s office is pursuing three different options to leverage the expected $40 billion in sales tax revenue over the 30 years between 2009 and 2039.  Besides the pursuit of federal dollars, there is also the possibility of asking L.A. County voters to tax themselves again and working with equity firms in China to finance the projects.

Last week, Streetsblog talked to Deputy Mayor for Transportation Borja Leon about the different options being pursued and where the city is in the process.

Plan A: America Fast Forward Née 30/10

Streetsblog will feature ads for the Regional Connector Final EIS/EIR throughout the next 30 days.

“Plan A” is still the 30/10 or America Fast Forward plan to change federal law to reward communities that choose to tax themsleves to expand transit.  If enacted, the Mayor’s proposal would create interest free loan programs that would allow projects to get started earlier and would re-prioritize federal grant programs.  When Republican leadership in the House of Representatives and Democratic leadership in the Senate announced proposals last year, both included major increases in the TIFIA loan program which is a major provision of America Fast Forward.

The Mayor’s Office appears confident that this increase will remain.  ”We have been working with the Federal Government and have a great partnership,” explains Leon.  ”A lot of things have been moving in the last week with America Fast Forward.”

We should find out if the confidence, and Mayor’s lobbying efforts, have paid off this week.

When considering the prospects for Measure R+, it's important to remember the role that highway expansion planed in selling the "transit tax" in 2008.

Plan B: Measure R+

Earlier this month Assemblyman Mike Feuer, a close ally of the Mayor when it comes to transportation expansion in Los Angeles, announced new legislation that would allow L.A. County voters to vote on extending the Measure R transit tax, creating opportunities to speed up the construction time of projects through bonding and perhaps add to or improve existing projects.  Supporters of transit expansion have dubbed the proposal “Measure R+.”  But it could also be dubbed, “Plan B.”

Getting “Measure R+” from legislative proposal to passage by L.A. County voters is a tall bill.  First, AB 1446 must be approved by a pair of committees in the State Assembly before moving to final passage on the Assembly floor.  Then the process has to repeat itself in the Senate.

On this front, Leon is confident that Feuer can shepherd the bill through the process. “Assemblymember Feuer has been a great partner; he helped the Mayor with Measure R at the State Legislature. If its the Extension or anything else to accelerate Measure R, the Mayor will fight hard to get it done,” Leon says.

From there, passage of a sales tax still has a long road to go.  The bill has to be signed into law by the Governor, the same Governor that hopes to have a statewide tax to balance the state budget on the ballot.  Some tax experts believe that the more tax initiatives on the ballot, the less the chance that they will pass.  It’s also possible that funding for High Speed Rail could be on the ballot.  Will Jerry Brown want to risk one his statewide projects to allow a local sales tax proposal?  With this governor, it’s hard to predict.

Even if the Governor signs the bill into law, then the Metro Board of Directors and L.A. County Board of Supervisors has to act to put a measure on the fall ballot.  Even then, it would take a two-thirds vote of L.A. County voters to pass the measure.

The stars were in alignment to pass Measure R in 2008.  Are they similarly aligned in 2012?

Many were surprised when L.A. Times transportation writer Ari Bloomekatz reported that Mayor Villaraigosa was talking to Chinese investors about financing a front-load of Measure R transit projects a mere ten days ago.  Leon writes that negotiations began in the fall of last year and are ongoing, but are still in the early phases.

“In Ocotober 2011, the MTA was approached by several parties concerning unsolicited offers of low-interest financing. Soon after, the CEO released a memo to the Board explaining the interest from Sovereign Wealth Funds. If there are parties that offer financing terms that are below current U.S. market rates, we should be willing to explore them. If the Chinese and/or any Sovereign Wealth Fund is willing to provide such terms we shouldn’t automatically discount it,” he explains.

There are several barriers to bringing this proposal to reality as well.  Working with investors in a foreign country is never easy, even if the investors have experience working in other countries.  Even if the county, Metro and the investors are all in agreement, there’s always the chance that such a deal could become politically problematic.

The other question is whether there will be other “add-ons” to a proposal with the Chinese that could make the loan less valuable than one from a more local equity firm.  Will L.A. have to buy passenger cars or other technologies from Chinese manufacturers?  Will L.A. County actually get a better deal by getting a higher interest loan from an American firm that has less strings attached?  All those details remain to be worked out.

Going Forward

Denny Zane, the executive director of Move L.A., the organization most known for pushing the original Measure R believes there is merit in all three proposals, but sees “Measure R+” as the key to getting the eight transit projects that aren’t under construction, under construction.

As the clock is ticking on Villaraigosa’s term, which ends in June of next year, there’s clearly a lot of work to do to see the Mayor’s transit vision become reality in a near-term timeline.  And as if these three ideas weren’t enough to pursue, Leon hints that there could be another surprise proposal come our way.

“We’re always looking for our next Plan B,” the Deputy Mayor concludes.

Villaraigosa at the L.A. Auto Show in 2010. It's ok, we know you're only smiling because you're daydreaming about the CicLAvia you had ridden in the month before. Photo:Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images North America via zimbio

Picture this.  One day one of the most important political figures in the city stands in front of a major Downtown attraction and announces that train service to this attraction will be increased dramatically in the coming weeks.  The next day, a major political figure, flanked by an up-and-coming political star and the City Council President, stands with the head of the local automotive dealer lobbying group and announces a political proposal to end business taxes for car dealerships.

In most parts of the world, that would be a sign of a hot political campaign with two candidates offering competing visions for a city’s transportation  future.  In Los Angeles, it’s just two days in the life of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.  While car dealerships are praising the Mayor’s proposal, supporters of green transportation options are puzzled by today’s announcement.

“This city can’t take too many more of Mayor Villaraigosa’s ‘business friendly’ policies,” writes Alex Thompson, President of Bikeside. “The guy extends Metro hours one minute, and decides he wants more car dealerships the next.”

Earlier today, Villaraigosa, Council President Eric Garcetti and Councilman Mitch Englander stood toe-to-toe with the car dealership lobby and announced a plan to end local business taxes for car dealerships operating in the City of Los Angeles.  The plan makes sense from a short-term economic point of view.  Auto dealers produce substantially more sales tax than business tax. In 2010, auto dealers accounted for only $3.6 million in business tax revenue but $29 million in sales tax revenue.

But the three pols see a potential sales tax boom if they can convince the car dealerships that have fled the city for Glendale, Pasadena, and Beverly Hills to come back.  Since 1986, the City of Los Angeles has lost 95 auto dealers. If those 95 dealers were still operating within the City limits, Los Angeles would have an additional $57 million per year in sales tax revenue.  In addition to the new tax proposal, Villaraigosa also announced that Beverly Hills Porsche is moving from Beverly Hills to Los Angeles.  The Mayor’s Office of Economic and Business Policy helped to persuade Beverly Hills Porsche to come to Los Angeles by pulling department directors together and speeding the permitting process.

“For too long, LA’s business tax has driven auto dealers outside the City limits,” said Villaraigosa.  ”It’s time to reform the way we tax auto dealers so that we can bring more jobs and more sales tax to our City.”

Before Villaraigosa can sign a law exempting new car dealerships, the City Council would first have to sign off on a yet-to-be-drafted ordinance before the Mayor could sign the proposal into law.  Garcetti and Englander will introduce a motion asking city staff to draft such an ordinance at tomorrow morning’s City Council meeting.

Garcetti and President Bill Clinton check out the engine in the trunk of a mostly electric car. Photo:CalCars.org

The public relations blitz to attract new car dealers was timed to come in advance of the LA Auto Show which takes place from Nov. 18-27 in the Convention Center.  Unfortunately for anyone looking to score political points off the exemption, it also comes a week after the Los Angeles Times decimated the Buy Here Pay Here used card industry which preys on poor people desperate for a car by trapping them in a cycle of debt and car dependency.  I’ve asked the Mayor’s office if their proposal would include used car dealerships and Buy Here Pay Here dealerships, but have yet to hear back from them.  An unintended consequence of this proposal could be to bring more of these vampire lenders and car dealers to the city further impoverishing those of lesser means and decimating the tax base of those already underemployed.

If the proposal doesn’t include tax exemptions for used car dealerships, then the Mayor and Council face accusations of providing tax breaks for businesses that only benefit top wage earners and not those selling products to the middle class.  And what about the message this sends the transit dependent who have already seen massive service cuts and fare hikes in recent years?  Subsidies for a Porsche dealership but fare cuts for the transit dependent?  And if will subsidize car dealerships, how about bike shops and footwear companies?

“If I had to speculate, I’d guess the Mayor’s economic development team haven’t talked with his transportation team, so one hand has no idea what the other is up to,” Thompson continues.

For their part, Garcetti and Englander pushed the idea that eliminating the tax on car dealerships is really a first step in eliminating the business tax altogether.

“Having owned a small business in Los Angeles, I know how difficult it is for them to get by,” writes Englander. “Every dollar makes a big difference. Eliminating the gross receipts tax is a crucial incentive that can help bring new businesses to Los Angeles and help existing businesses stay and thrive, create jobs and breathe life into our economy. Eliminating the gross receipts tax for new car dealerships is the perfect first step because they generate so much sales tax revenue and jobs.”

“It’s time to stop surrounding cities from using L.A.’s broken tax system to lure businesses and jobs away from us,”writes Garcetti. “Targeting car dealers is a big first step. But we must eliminate the business tax all together. L.A.’s costly and cumbersome tax scheme is one that taxes businesses even when they lose money. If we’re going to get our economy back on track, it’s simply got to go.”

Will an expedited pre-construction process lead to a Leimert Park Station, more lawsuits, or moving up construction by a couple of months? Image: Crenshaw Subway Coalition

Yesterday, the White House announced that the Crenshaw Light Rail Line is one of fourteen projects nationwide selected to be part of an expedited federal review so that construction could proceed more quickly.  This announcement was met with praise from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Senator Barbara Boxer and County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.  Ridley-Thomas even went so far as to ponder whether accelerating construction could lead to enough funds becoming available to construct the Leimert Park Station that has been environmentally cleared but not funded.

Here’s the official announcement:

Crenshaw/LAX, California

The Crenshaw/LAX project will extend the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s (LA Metro) existing Green Line light rail nearer to the Los Angeles International Airport and connect it to the Expo Line light rail.  The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is providing additional targeted technical assistance to shorten the approval time for this project by several months. In addition FTA and LA Metro will pilot FTA’s new streamlined risk assessment approach for major transit projects to ensure risks and associated mitigation measures are identified and addressed promptly.

“I am so pleased that the Obama administration has taken these steps to fast track the Crenshaw/LAX project, so that local communities will have access to improved transit service even sooner than expected,” said Boxer through a press statement.  ”The Crenshaw/LAX Project will provide many much-needed jobs in the construction industry, which has been hard hit in these tough economic times.”

The first question on everyone’s mind is, “how much time can actually be saved by this new process?”  

Metro has claimed it can start construction of the Crenshaw line before the end of 2012 which is already a short timeline.  Unless the FTA’s assistance leads to the line’s construction date being moved up to the start of 2012, i.e. within the next four months, it’s doubtful that there would be the kind of savings that leads to construction of an unfunded transit station.

But in a time of greater than average unemployment, even if the line’s construction begins a couple of months ahead of where it would without the FTA’s assistance, it is good news for Angelenos.

“Accelerating this 8.5-mile light rail line which will connect the Expo Line to the Green Line near LAX is exactly what we need to spur job creation and get the economy back on track,” Villaraigosa gushed.  ”Expediting is really about jobs,” Ridley-Thomas agreed.

There are also reasons to believe that the Crenshaw Line isn’t the best place to pilot, the “FTA’s new streamlined risk assessment approach for major transit projects.”

The Crenshaw Subway Coalition has made no secret of its plans to sue Metro over the environmental impact statement prepared by the agency.  Changing procedure on risk assessment will certainly give Raymond Johnson, the Coalition’s lawyer, another venue to try and derail the project as the risk of running a trade at-grade through the Crenshaw business district is the basis for the Coalition’s lawsuit.  If a judge accepts their argument, or at least is willing to hear the argument, the expedited process could actually cause delays on the line’s construction.

While a new state law limits the time a lawsuit can hold up major construction projects, such as a rail line, the law doesn’t apply to federal lawsuits.

Villaraigosa re-emerges as a leader on bus issues. Photo: Los Angeles Times

This morning, Mayor Villaraigosa’s last term as Chair of the Metro Board of Directors got off to an efficient and relatively controversy-free start as Supervisors passed motions on studying the impacts of Metro’s bus cuts and Bus Rapid Transit expansion, a second study on the costs and benefits of a bike share program, the approval of a green construction program and even a preferred route for California High Speed Rail.  The only real debate among the Board Members came when Director Diane DuBois challenged Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas on the definition of “local” in the local jobs program and on whether or not to give free Metro passes to uniformed Girl Scouts during the group’s 100th birthday party.

Here’s a quick roundup of the major happenings.

Review of bus service and Bus Rapid Transit Opportunities – Nobody can accuse Mayor Villaraigosa of thinking small.  The new Board Chair introduced a motion to examine the impacts of the hundreds of thousands of hours bus service cuts that have occurred since the expiration of the Consent Decree between the agency and Bus Riders Union in 2007.

“We see this as a tremendous opportunity to reverse some of the damage that has been done in South L.A.,” testified the Bus Riders Union’s Sunyoung Yang.

To secure unanimous passage, Mayoral Appointee to the Board Richard Katz clarified that this motion “doesn’t undo anything that this Board has already done.”  When questioned directly, Metro CEO Art Leahy confirmed with this interpretation.

A second part of the motion called on staff to examine the possibilities to expand the agency’s Bus Rapid Transit program.  Yang confirmed the BRU’s support for this strategy, “We should continue building on the victories and the massive breakthrough we had on the Wilshire Bus Only Lanes.”

Also testifying in favor of the motion were other BRU members, the Sierra Club Transportation Committee, and Kymberleigh Richards of the San Fernando Valley Service Council.  The LA Times had more on the Mayor’s bus plans in this morning’s paper.

Green Construction Program – Even critics of Metro have to concede the agency has become a leader in promoting green transportation.  Metro was the first big-city transit agency in the country to have an entirely natural gas bus fleet, and they’re beginning to move towards a zero-emissions fleet.  Today, they finalized a “green construction policy” for Metro projects.

Support for the policy was near universal with the Clean Air Coalition, NRDC, Sierra Club, Bus Riders Union, and East Yard Community Groups for Environmental Policy all voicing support.  No construction or contracting groups expressed opposition.  In fact, the only complaint about the program was that it doesn’t apply to LADOT or Caltrans projects.  The policy passed unanimously.

Basically, the new policy is just what it says it is.  Metro contractors now have to use construction equipment, vehicles, and generators that meet modern clean air standards.  This will improve health for residents and construction crews by requiring equipment that emits significantly less air pollution than older models.  Contractors can meet either retrofit old equipment or purchase new equipment.  The NRDC Switchboard has more details on the program.

Bikes and light rail and high speed rail, all after the jump.

Crenshaw Light Rail - This month’s installment of the battle over the Crenshaw Light Rail was the simple acceptance of the staff report on Metro’s progress in creating a community benefits/protection program.  Last week, his office expressed support for Metro’s work, and their were no fireworks between the agency and his office today.  As mentioned earlier, Director DuBois wanted a definition of what “local” in “local hiring” meant noting the high levels of unemployment in places such as the City of Industry.

While Supervisor Ridley-Thomas expressed hope that “local” for the Crenshaw line would be similar to what it was for the Expo Line (i.e. a five mile radius surrounding the line), there was also discussion of a larger definition based on unemployment levels or the impact line construction has in the local areas.

Bike Share – In 2008 then Council Woman Wendy Greuel attended the Democratic National Convention and fell in love with bike share after utilizing the temporary program instituted by Bikes Belong.  Her enthusiasm led to several studies, but no actual bike share program for Los Angeles.

Three years later, Bike Share has certainly gained traction around the country.  If you need proof, just check out the recent Streetfilms on bike share expansion in Minneapolis and Washington, D.C.  So maybe a proposal by Zev Yarosalvsky, Pam O’Connor and Antonio Villaraigosa might go somewhere besides the creation of a power point presentation.  The three directors propose that Metro study the costs and benefits of a system of bike share hubs at Metro rail and Bus Rapid Transit terminals.

Glendale Councilman Ara Najarian, after voicing support for the proposal, asked for other transit agencies to get involved in the study including Metrolink and local transit agencies.  Staff is due to report back before the end of the year.

High Speed Rail - The Metro Board affirmed its support for a High Speed Rail route that travels through Palmdale.  I was expecting a lot of debate about routing because nothing involving High Speed Rail has been easy, but after brief testimony by a Palmdale staffer and Supervisor Antonovich the motion passed on consent.  The Source already has a story on the Board action on High Speed Rail.

The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program provides Federal credit assistance in the form of direct loans, loan guarantees, and standby lines of credit to finance surface transportation projects of national and regional significance.  Currently, the program stands at $110 million every year.  When transportation chairs Rep. John Mica (R-FL) and his Senate counterpart Barbara Boxer (D-CA) held field hearings on transportation, Villaraigosa reccomended tripling the program.  Both Mica and Boxer tripled Villaraigosa’s suggestion and are reccomending TIFIA be funded at $1 billion a year.

Researchers estimate that  increasing the TIFIA program to $1 billion will create 500,000 jobs over two years and 1.2 million jobs over six years

So, while Democrats piled on Mica, Villaraigosa joined the Congressman on a conference call earlier this month to defend the bill mainly because of the aforementioned increase in the TIFIA program.  While Senator Inhofe (R-OK) has been the poster-boy for bad environmental policy in part because of his denial of global warming, but earned praise from the Mayor for his leadership working with Boxer on a bi-partisan Senate Bill.  On a conference call with reporters, Villaraigosa congratulated Boxer and Inhofe for working together for “showing leadership to create consensus” around a Senate Bill.  Boxer referred to an earlier hearing, at which the Mayor testified in support of her bill, as a “bi-partisan breakthrough.”

But while he offered praise for Mica’s support for TIFIA, the Mayor is backing the proposal from Boxer, precisely because it maintains current funding levels instead of dropping them.  He told L.A. Streetsblog earlier this week that “we all would like to see a larger bill,” but faced with a choice between the status quo and a 30% cut, Villaraigosa backs the status quo.  He told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works earlier this morning:

And on this point we cannot afford to mince words. I support the approach put forward by this Committee because it maintains current funding levels. Any reduction in funding to our nation’s transportation programs will deal a devastating blow to local projects, local jobs and the national recovery.

According to an analysis by the Federal Highway Administration, a 30% cut to transportation funding would result in a half-million Americans losing their jobs in 2012 in the highway program alone. An additional 130,000 would lose their jobs due to cuts in transit programs.

The Mayor’s full testimony to the Environment and Public Works Committee can be found after the jump.  We’ll have more coverage of today’s hearing from Capitol Hill Streetsblog later today.

Thank you Chairman Boxer, Ranking Member Inhofe, and members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works for the opportunity to testify before you today.

I know I speak for my fellow mayors around the country, Democrat and Republican, when I say what a critical moment this is for our nation. With the very future of federal investment in our transportation infrastructure in question, we’re standing at a generational crossroads, and we must think carefully before we choose a path.

It’s important to remember, we’ve faced similar forks in the road. Since 1992, with the Interstate highway system built out, an era of construction that began in 1956 has ended and Congress has been grappling with the question, what next?

And it’s important to remember, the national highway network was one of our nation’s greatest success stories.  It connected our markets to the world and won huge economic gains for the whole country, urban and rural.  It also ensured a continuing, strong national defense network.

Today Congress faces the same question.

What now?

What role does the federal government need to play in the maintenance and development our transportation infrastructure?

More to the point, what improvements do we need to make to our infrastructure to maintain our position as the premier economy in the
globalized competition for jobs?

The economic stakes of this committee’s answer to this question are, to be put it plainly, profound.

In the Los Angeles region, where we unload and transport [41 percent] of the nation’s shipping cargo, we can testify firsthand: Worldwide competition is demanding more than ever of our infrastructure to remain competitive – not less.

And yet in my city we continue to grapple with growing traffic congestion and the impact this has on mobility and jobs.  Take it from an Angeleno, congestion is a job-killer.

When our infrastructure functions effectively, employers, big and small, expand their businesses; when congestion and other constraints choke the movement of people and goods, our employers pull up stakes.

We see this in Southern California every day, where there are many benefits for businesses — an educated and skilled workforce, a substantial highway and rail network and a strong logistics network to support the movement of raw materials and finished products.  But our aging infrastructure network suffers famously from capacity constraints and congestion.

The members of this committee know this well.  Our cities are the heart, lungs and muscle of the nation’s economy.  Our metro areas generate some 90% of our gross domestic product.  Next year, they’ll account for 94% of all new jobs.

The current extension of our surface transportation bill expires on September 30.  The clock is ticking, and we are at a critical fork in the road.

We can put people back to work and make the investment in the infrastructure our nation – and our cities — desperately need to stay competitive, or we can go backward and fall behind.

And on this point we cannot afford to mince words. I support the approach put forward by this Committee because it maintains current funding levels. Any reduction in funding to our nation’s transportation programs will deal a devastating blow to local projects, local jobs and the national recovery.

According to an analysis by the Federal Highway Administration, a 30% cut to transportation funding would result in a half-million Americans losing their jobs in 2012 in the highway program alone. An additional 130,000 would lose their jobs due to cuts in transit programs.

And this says nothing about the glaring need.  We have a crumbling system, with over 70,000 of our nation’s bridges classified as structurally deficient.  The American Society of Civil Engineers study gave our infrastructure a “D” rating, citing $2.2 trillion in unfunded investment needs.

With China investing in infrastructure at over four times the rate we are, we can’t keep building bridges in Kandahar but not Kansas City.

The American people need and deserve a world-class infrastructure. What’s more, the nation’s mayors believe that creating jobs and building transportation infrastructure can and should be a bipartisan issue.

We are pleased that our bipartisan America Fast Forward proposal has been included in both the House and Senate bills.

At its simplest – America Fast Forward is a new way for the federal government to continue to play a critical role in ensuring that we achieve the national goals I have spoken of earlier.  The only difference between the 1950s and now is that rather than relying principally on federal grants, state and local governments will have a larger responsibility to finance and pay for their infrastructure. And the federal government needs to provide the necessary financing tools through a new category of tax-preferred transportation bonds and through low-interest loans.
Madam Chair, your committee has identified the TIFIA program as a structure we can adapt for the future to provide flexible low-interest long-term loans for large capital projects.

According to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, your committee’s proposal to increase TIFIA’s budget authority to $1 billion annually has the power to create 500,000 jobs in just two years, and well over 1 million jobs over a six year period. Today, as we are all keenly aware, we are faced with anemic job growth. In May, our national economy added only 25,000 jobs and last month that figure dipped to an even more unacceptable level – with only 18,000 jobs created nationwide.

Given that the U.S. economy generally needs to add 125,000 jobs every month simply to keep up with population growth and approximately 250,000 jobs per month to actually bring down our national unemployment rate, the TIFIA proposal you are advancing is just what America needs to get our people back to work.

The second piece of the America Fast Forward initiative is just as critical and without it, we will not reach our national goals in this environment of limited federal resources. That is the creation of a new category of qualified tax credit bonds for transportation infrastructure.  These instruments would allow a larger portion of private investors to invest their resources in assets important to our country’s economy, while achieving a reasonable rate of return.

America Fast Forward’s bond proposal is a classic American proposition.  In the same way War Bonds fueled our efforts in World War II, we will enlist all Americans to participate in investing in their infrastructure — and we will pay them to do so.

I am pleased that the bill unveiled by the Environment and Public Works Committee, under the your leadership Chairman Boxer and Ranking Member Inhofe, includes key elements of the America Fast Forward initiative.

America Fast Forward began with 113 bipartisan mayors and has won the support of a wide range of business, labor, and environmental leaders and organizations.  This includes support from national leaders such as Thomas Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO.

It will not only increase the pace of job creation, it will give taxpayers more bang for their investment buck by taking advantage of current construction costs.  The Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona region will be able to fully fund its program to develop 27 miles of light rail in the next few years — as opposed to the next twenty.  In Los Angeles, we can expedite nearly fifteen billion in locally funded transit projects, creating jobs now instead waiting thirty years.

It’s also important to note.  Financing programs are not earmarks.  At a time of limited federal financing, the program creates incentives for local jurisdictions to raise local revenue for local projects. Surely that’s the kind of federalism Democrats and Republican can get excited about.

Finally, I want to stress:  Mayors understand the political and budgetary realities.  In the coming years, the federal role must change from one of being the primary financier and developer of all infrastructure to one where, prudent federal policy will target investments to better connect workers to their jobs and goods to markets.

In the coming years, we must invest in targeted capacity expansions, new technologies and smarter, more efficient upgrading of existing infrastructure to get the most out of what we have.  Working smarter with what we have is the challenge and again the federal role will be critical to achieving this goal.

I understand the calls of those who want to diminish the Federal government’s role in building a strong and sustainable highway and transit system; some even argue for complete devolution of the federal role in transportation.  I understand the need to cut – but we must be sure that we do not cut off our nose to spite our face.

Members of this distinguished committee, we cannot afford to allow our surface transportation system to fall behind the rest of the world.

Our vast, comprehensive transportation network remains one the nation’s chief competitive advantages.  Now is the time to reinvest in our physical plant — to retool America for the competitive global marketplace.

Working with Chairman Boxer and Ranking Member Inhofe over the past year has been a remarkably positive experience, because both of you are so focused on what the American people want – which is more mobility and more private sector jobs for unemployed Americans who have lost their piece of the American Dream.

Thank you again for the opportunity to testify before your committee today.

Villaraigosa speaks at the signing of the L.A. City Bike Plan on March 3, 2011. Photo: LA Streetsblog/Flickr

The weekend before Carmageddon, I had a chance encounter with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa while visiting Councilman Bill Rosendahl’s house as part of an upcoming StreetsFilm that we’re working on.  Villaraigosa was pleasant, and offered to do an interview with Streetsblog sometime soon.  I decided not to bother his staff until after Carmageddon, but on Monday morning his media relations team contacted me to set up an interview with the Mayor to discuss his plans for his year as Metro Board Chair.

Yesterday Carter Rubin and I sat down for a quick phone interview that lasted for ten minutes.  Unfortunately, a police siren obscured one of his answers on the recording but the Mayor still said a lot of interesting things including a rebuttal to one of the central pieces to last week’s L.A. Weekly Article on the Westside Subway, his support for a “green construction” policy for Metro, and that if America Fast Forward doesn’t work out that there is a secret plan to accelerate transit projects anyway.

LASB: Let’s start with something broad.  You’ve just taken over as Metro Board Chair for the third time.  The last time, the signature issue was the passage of Measure R.  Is there any broad plan for the next year?

Villaraigosa: I think we’re in a pivotal time.  We passed Measure R in 2008.  If you remember, we had to go through the legislature to get Measure R on the ballot.  We needed Mike Feuer and Zev just to get it on the ballot.  It took a lot of money to get it passed, with a ⅔ and there was a great deal of opposition.  We worked hard because a lot of the people opposed were the same people opposed to the Long Range Plan which it (Measure R) was going to implement.

So this is a pivotal time.  We passed a long range plan.  We came up with a notion that really helped us get a consensus on the Board that we should really accelerate our public transit from thirty years to ten.  That county-wide consensus has led to 113 mayors getting behind America Fast Forward, which will build on the 166,000 jobs that can be created here if we accelerate and the million jobs that can be created across the country.

We’ve got our work cut out for us.  We’re going to fast track our plans to double our miles of rail, increase our car pool lanes and toll lanes and make L.A. more bike friendly.  By the end of the year we’ll break ground on Expo Phase II, we’ll complete another Measure R project, the Orange Line Extension.

I expect Congress to come back with good news on some of the innovative finance tools and expansion of TIFIA.  John Mica (Republican Chair of the House Committee dealing with transportation funding) and Barbara Boxer (his Democratic Senate counterpart) both have $1 billion for TIFIA in their (reauthorization) bills.

While you and I agree, and I would like to see, a bigger reauthorization but what’s critical is that these innovative financing tools give us and city’s like us that are putting up their own money have a chance to accelerate infrastructure projects.

The main goal is going to be to lock down federal financing like we’ve done with a $546 million dollar loan for Crenshaw.  We also got $636 million dollar loan for the subway.  We’re working to insure that we can deliver our Measure R projects efficiently and effectively.  Of course, we’re looking to put as many people back to work, as many LOCAL people back to work, and help local businesses benefit from that work.

In August we’re going to hopefully approve our green construction policy that we’ve advocated for.  It requires that constrcution contractors use cleaner equipment, including off-road construction equipment.  It will apply to all projects managed and contracted by the MTA,  No other transit agency in the country has adopted a policy like this.  It has a lot of broad support.  Manufacturers  are already retrofitting equipment.  Construction contractors and environmental non-profit organizations have all gotten behind it.
Expo Phase II is $1.5 billion, six miles, seven stations…we expect with Expo done it will generate 60,000 boardings by 2030.  We’ll approve the EIR for the Regional Connector, hopefully this winter…this is a critical project.

Also this winter, either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, we’ll finish the Westside Subway EIR.  So we have a lot of work!

Not to mention the bike program, which as you know we’ve promised to build four times as much bike routes, paths and lanes as we used to.  We got to make the MTA make bikes a much bigger funding priority.  We’re funding bike programs in the Call for Projects, we’re looking at putting bike racks that allow three bikes on our buses, allowing bikes on rail during peak hours.

We’re working to make our streets places where we all share and enjoy them.

LASB: I had a couple questions on specific quality things that we’d like to move on to if that’s ok with you.

Villaraigosa: Quickly yes, absolutely.

LASB: August 4th, the Metro Board Meeting is scheduled to discuss a community benefits package for the area directly impacted by Crenshaw construction.  Have you had a chance to review the proposal and do you have any thoughts?

Villaraigosa: I haven’t had an opportunity to review it, but I’ve always been supportive of community benefits…

From last May's Council

LASB: Pretty much everyone locally is supportive of America Fast Forward, and it looks like we’re going to see at least part of it in the federal reauthorization bill.  But, if they don’t do that, is there a “plan B” to accelerate some of those projects.

Villaraigosa: There’s ALWAYS a “Plan B.”  If you follow at all, whether it’s education reform, public safety, transportation, the environment…there’s always a “Plan B.”

I’m not going to share it with you right now.  We always have a fall back plan….and we have one here as well.

And remember, we’ve already received some of America Fast Forward with the Crenshaw Line and a $636 million up-front loan for the subway.  We’re already seeing acceleration of some of our projects.

LASB: An L.A. Weekly article last week implied that you have a preferred station between the Santa Monica Boulevard Station and the Constellation Avenue Station.  They claim you prefer the Constellation Avenue Station over the Santa Monica one based on something you said at a meeting.  Do you want to clarify?  Do you have a preferred subway stop for that part of the city?

Villaraigosa: I…I haven’t read that article yet, but I got no fixed opinion on where that station should be.  I am waiting for the EIR and staff reccomendations and will make my decision based on that.

I have to get moving, but I wanted to let you know I appreciate your site and what you’re trying to do.

LASB: Thank you.  It was great to meet you last week at the Councilman’s house and congratulations on Carmageddon.

Villaraigosa: Thank you.  You helped get the word out and the people of this town cooperated and because of that it was a great success.

Representative John Mica is at the podium flanked by Villaraigosa and Boxer at last February's "field hearing" on reauthorization held at the V.A. Hospital in West L.A. Photo:Darrell Clarke

Much has been made of the proposal to reauthorize the Federal Transportation Trust Fund that was submitted by Republican Congressman John Mica last week.  The Mica Bill has been criticized by Democrats who feel left out of the proposal, advocates for green transportation options who bristle at the proposed elimination of the bicycle and pedestrian programs and the construction industry shocked by dramatic cuts to an industry that is already seeing higher-than-average unemployment in an era where the unemployment rate is beyond average.

To paint an even uglier picture, SF Streetsblog broke down the bad news for transit agencies and cities throughout California while Capitol Hill Streetsblog just called it a “disaster for transit.”  But there is a surprise winner in the legislation: Los Angeles’ 30/10 plan, aka America Fast Forward.  This plan would allow Los Angeles to build its Measure R transit projects, currently slated to take three decades, to complete their planning, environmental studies and construction in the next decade.  The plan was rebranded because it provides benefits for all areas of the country willing to shoulder a major chunk of the burden of building their own transit.

Back when Mica and California Senator Barbara Boxer held a field hearing on reauthorization back in February, the Congressman was pressed by Mayor Villaraigosa to dramatically expand the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan program up to $350 million a year which would be a dramatic increase from the $110 million a year funding level it is currently at.  While the Mica Bill cuts spending by nearly 33% from the federal government, this loan program would explode to $1 billion a year, nearly triple what Villaraigosa proposed just over four months ago.  It’s no wonder that while Democrats around the country have attacked the bill so much that Mica is publicly complaining about his treatment, Villaraigosa releases a statement praising Mica:

I know that Chairman Mica, who graciously co-hosted a transportation hearing in the City of Los Angeles earlier this year with Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), understands the scale and scope of the transportation and economic challenges facing all Americans.

Politically, it’s a smart move for Villaraigosa to continue to position himself as the champion of transit expansion and stay out of the partisan fight occurring on the Hill.  It’s almost unthinkable that the legislation from Mica’s Senate counterpart, California Senator Barbara Boxer, won’t have at least a robust plan for America Fast Forward as the conservative Republican from Florida’s plan.  This way, regardless of who wins the Capitol Hill staring contest, Villaraigosa and 30/10 wins.

Which is not to say the fight to enshrine America Fast Forward into law is over, back in February Villaraigosa outlined five changes that would help Los Angeles County, and all areas that are proactively pushing transportation through self-taxation, build faster.  The other four prongs are:

• Increasing the maximum percentage of the project allotment that TIFIA can fund.  Currently, TIFIA will fund up to 80% of a project with no “added points” going towards proposal with a higher local match.  Villaraigosa called for at least a 49% local match;
• Permitting the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to approve multiple related projects at the same time. In Los Angeles County, for example, this could mean loans for the entire suite of Measure R transit projects at once, as opposed to a line-by-line piecemeal approach;
• Allowing USDOT to grant up-front credits to projects and;
• Authorizing USDOT to lock-in interest rates for approved projects.

These four proposals were nowhere to be found in the Mica bill, so despite the increase in the TIFIA program, there are still a lot of other things that have to happen before Los Angeles can start breaking ground on the dozen transit projects that are waiting for Measure R dollars.  It also provides an opening for Boxer, who probably wasn’t thrilled that Villaraigosa is offering bi-partisan cover for a bill despised by Democrats on Capitol Hill, to position her bill as the best bill for transit and the best bill for Los Angeles’ transit needs.

Image: LA Weekly

Three years ago, Antonio Villaraigosa took over as Chair of the Metro Board of Directors and used the influence of the Chair to guide the legislation that would lead to the creation of Measure R. The Mayor of Los Angeles chairs the Metro Board once every three years, and Villaraigosa will hold the seat from July 1 until June 30, 2012.  When you consider that the Mayor just took over the presidency of the Conference of Mayors, you can see he certainly has his hands full these days.

Holding the Chairmanship of the Board doesn’t give its holder omnipotence, but a skilled politician can use it to control debate. For example, noted opponent of the 710 Big Dig Project, Ara Najarian held the Chair after Villaraigosa but wasn’t able to get the project de-funded, because he just didn’t have the votes.

So what does the next 12 months hold for Villaraigosa and the Metro Board?  Only time will tell.  If the Mayor has any tricks up his sleeve, he’s keeping them close to the vest.  If you have any thoughts, leave them below.

Looking back, I’m almost embarrassed by the 2008 post announcing his succession.  It sneers at the Mayor and his transportation priorities.  Meanwhile, he’s done such a good job working to create transportation options for Los Angeles that you voted him “politician of the year” last year when I chose Bill Rosendahl.  I also can’t help but notice how much our readership has changed.  That’s a pretty healthy comments section, yet only one of those commenters is still seen regularly on the site these days.

Villaraigosa and other leaders look on as Barbara Boxer announces $543 million in loans for the Crenshaw Line. Because of the loan, the Crenshaw Line was referred to as the "first 30/10 project."

Yesterday, The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released an outline of some its core principles for a federal transportation reauthorization bill.  One of the main planks of their proposed program would be expanding the TIFIA loan program from a $110 million program to a $1 billion program and re-branding the program “America Fast Forward.”  The policy statement was signed by committee leadership from the Republican and Democrat side of the aisle, including California Senator Barbara Boxer.

Capitol Hill Streetsblog Reports:

TIFIA is currently funded at $110 million a year but demand has far outstripped the availability of loans. Boxer’s committee is proposing to increase that funding nine-fold, to $1 billion a year. She says that amount could leverage $30 billion a year in private investment. They also plan to increase the maximum federal share from 33 percent to 49 percent, with even more favorable terms for rural areas. The TIFIA program will keep its name but be folded into a new, larger program called America Fast Forward.

While inclusion in a proposed piece of federal legislation is doesn’t assure anything in Washington, D.C., this news does make one thing official.  The vision of Move L.A. to accelerate transit programs for areas willing to spend their own money to build them, a program that was championed by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has evolved from a local “good idea” to a national policy initiative.  In 2008, L.A. County passed a sales tax to fund transit projects over the next thirty years.  Unhappy with that timeline, a coalition of activists, politicians and labor leaders created the 30/10 initiative to create a federal loan program that would speed up the funding and construction of these programs.  The program was re-branded America Fast Forward earlier this year in an attempt to show the national benefit of changing the way the government funds and loans funds for transit programs.

But the idea and movement started here.  Following the release from the Senate Committee yesterday, Villaraigosa was in the mood to celebrate.

“The legislation now being drafted will create a new section named after our program – America Fast Forward – which will strengthen the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) to leverage billions of federal dollars more effectively so cities and states can access capital and get it out to Main Street America quicker to create jobs now,” the Mayor wrote in a press release.

Always the strategists, Move L.A. noted that the bi-partisan statement was a strong sign that perhaps the logjam on transportation issues was coming to an end.

“At Move LA are we are very pleased that a bi-partisan group of four Senators with very different political views have come together in a difficult political environment to support investment in transportation infrastructure,” said Move LA Executive Director Denny Zane.

For more coverage of yesterday’s news visit Capitol Hill Streetsblog for “Senate Transportation Bill, MAP-21, Freezes Spending at Current Levels” and “Boxer: Transpo Funding Will Rise in Senate Bill, Bike/Ped Will Be Preserved.”

Both of these men gave big speeches yesterday. Villaraigosa's was a little more upbeat. Photo:LAist

In 2009, there was less than one paragraph devoted to transportation related issues.  Last year, it got a little better with a call to action to build the Measure R transit projects in an expediated fashion.  For those people that don’t read Streetsblog or keep up on other transportation issues, this was the first time many people had heard of the 30/10 Initiative.

This year, the focus of the speech, entitled “A New Contract” was reforming Los Angeles’ public school system, but the Mayor took a victory lap on the many improvements that have occurred to Los Angeles’ transportation system and makes clear that the city is truly planning on getting people out of their cars and in to transit, on their bikes or on the sidewalk.  I’m not sure I would go so far as to say that “we are taking a 360-degree approach” to providing alternatives to car culture as the Mayor did, but you can actually see the progress Los Angeles is making by looking at the transportation language in the “States of the City” from yesterday and the three previous years.

There’s a detailed description of America Fast Forward, the city’s large budget for resurfacing, the clean trucks and buses program, and even the value of walking and biking are all a part of the “state of the city” now and moving forward.

I’ve excerpted the transportation language from the State of the City from a copy provided by the Mayor’s press office for this year’s State of the City.  Compare it to the language from past years, and you can see that even though Los Angeles has a long way to go, the City is certainly moving in the right direction.

When I took office in 2005, I also promised to fight for a public transportation system worthy of a world-class city.

Today, we are well on our way.

We’ve synchronized over 90 percent of the city’s intersections.

We secured funding for major projects on the 405, the 5, and the 110.

We are investing billions in the first major modernization at LAX since the ’84 Olympics.

We spearheaded Measure R, the largest local transportation initiative in decades, which will build $40 billion in rail and road projects.

And together with local partners, we assembled a national coalition of over one hundred mayors, the AFL-CIO, and the Chamber of Commerce behind a bipartisan idea we’re calling America Fast Forward.

We are asking Congress for innovative and proven financing tools, so cities and states can access capital quickly.

This effort will create jobs right now using our investments in transportation projects.

It creates the conditions to bring in private sector investment.

It creates incentives for local jurisdictions to raise their own revenue.

And it leverages limited federal dollars in a smart way.

America Fast Forward will create almost one million jobs nationwide.

166,000 jobs right here in LA.

America Fast Forward is leaving LA’s Union Station and gaining steam in cities coast-to-coast and it’s time for Congress to get onboard!

In my first State of the City Address I committed to making LA the cleanest and greenest big city in America.

Doubling the size of our rail system, building bike paths, and providing alternatives to our car culture is part of that solution, and we are taking a 360-degree approach.

Later in the speech, when discussing clean air:

At the Port of Los Angeles, our award-winning Clean Truck Program has reduced emissions from diesel trucks by 80 percent.

Our transportation department became the first in the world to exclusively operate clean-fuel buses.

Over 2,000 clean buses have already logged one billion clean air miles, reducing cancer-causing particulate matter by more than 80 percent, and eliminating nearly 300,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per day.

Even further along, when discussing what the 2011-2012 budget will pay for:

It will lay down 735 miles of street maintenance and resurfacing.

And yes Angelenos, I’ve heard you loud and clear: it will fill 300,000 potholes, a 20 percent increase over last year.

Photo: David Starkopf, Office of the Mayor

Yesterday, over a hundred thousand Los Angeles residents turned out for the second-ever cicLAvia.  Envisioned as a way to get busy Angelenos out of their cars and into the streets together, cicLAvia opens up a 7.5 mile route along our city streets, allowing cyclists, skaters, and pedestrians to enjoy a car-free LA.

Ciclovías originated in Bogotá, Colombia over thirty years ago in response to traffic, congestion, and poor air quality.  Now they are fun, family-friendly recreational events taking place in cities all across the U.S. and Latin America.  I was proud to host the first Los Angeles cicLAvia last year, and our second one has already proven to be an even bigger success.

David Starkopf, Office of the Mayor

I can’t tell you how many happy, smiling faces I encountered on my ride yesterday.  People weren’t just happy to be outside — safely enjoying our streets — they were happy to be interacting with their neighbors and supporting local businesses along the route.  As Angelenos, we spend so much time in our cars we often forget that walking or biking or skating isn’t just a great way to exercise, it’s a great way to get to know and enjoy our many vibrant neighborhoods.

With that in mind, I was thrilled to sign the 2010 Bike Plan into law last month.  This visionary plan will transform Los Angeles with 1,600 miles of open, ride-able surfaces.  The plan will make cycling a more viable transportation option for countless commuters, encourage more healthy habits and recreational opportunities, and build more sustainable communities.  With this plan, we are literally paving the way to a 21st century Los Angeles: a cleaner, greener, more bicycle and pedestrian friendly city that is home to a number of viable transportation options.  In the meantime, I hope to enjoy many more cicLAvias, because we can only build the Los Angeles of the future tomorrow if we come together to envision it today.

“The number one thing I was looking for was vision.  The number two thing was love of Los Angeles.  Everything else will work itself out.” explains Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announcing the appointment of actor, entrepreneur, and environmental advocate Ed Begley Jr. as the new General Manager for the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.  A press conference is scheduled at City Hall at noon.  Coincidentally, the entire City Council will be in Van Nuys at the time.

Begley Jr. cheers on candidate Villaraigosa in 2001. Photo:Life Magazine

Begley seems like an odd choice at first, but consider that NYCDOT Super Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan isn’t a transportation engineer, but is trained as a lawyer.  The appointment of such a noted environmentalist and former Grand Marshall for the Los Angeles Bike Coalition’s River Ride, sends a clear signal what Villaraigosa’s priorities are for the rest of his term as it refers to transportation.

“People call the Caltrans building that houses my new team the ‘Death Star.’” Begley notes in the press release, “But now we’ll call it the Life Star.  The first thing we’re going to do is put some solar panels on that thing and use the energy to power some e-car stations in the parking garage.”

Even as I’m typing this, statements of congratulations are rolling across the wire.  Councilman Bill Rosendahl has just expressed his excitement, “to work with a man who was riding his bike when riding a bike was cool the first time.”  Councilman Tom LaBonge noted that “it’s good that someone who played football in high school is running with the ball for the DOT.”

Interim LADOT General Manager Amir Sedadi, a leading candidate for the job until this morning’s release, seemed almost relieved, “Have fun at those Neighborhood Council meetings on bike lanes and RV’s.  At least I won’t have to explain to Council Members why my boss is calling them “out of touch” and “braindead.”

Begley will also be replacing Councilman Huizar on the Metro Board of Directors, which will certainly come as a surprise to many other members of the Board who were unaware that Huizar served on the Board for the last two years.  “I thought the Mayor appointed the football guy,” supplied Supervisor Gloria Molina.

The press conference is scheduled for noon at City Hall, where Villaraigosa and Begley Jr. won’t have to share the stage with any Council Members who are trapped at Van Nuys City Hall for their monthly meeting in the Valley.  Rosendahl’s Transportation Committee has scheduled a confirmation hearing for April 20.

As 30/10 morphs into the national campaign known as “America Fast Forward,” so does the media campaign to make a federal loan or bonding program a reality that would allow Los Angeles to build the Measure R transit projects in the next ten years.

Yesterday, Time Magazine posted a video featuring Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa discussing the future of transit funding and the bi-partisan coalition backing infrastructure investments.  If you’ve been following the local discussions around 30/10 or America Fast Forward, most of the video won’t be anything new.  The timing of the placement is perfect as the Mayor heads to Washington D.C. today to lobby Congress and speak to the progressive economics organization Move America Forward.

A feature in TIME Magazine, even in the form of a web video, is important national exposure for the Mayor and America Fast Forward.  The Mayor doesn’t waste the opportunity, pointing out that changes in federal law that allow for faster infrastructure investment are good for other major cities, such as New York and Chicago, as well as Los Angeles.

All pictures were taken by Darrell Clarke. Here, the committees and Villaraigosa take questions from the media. Mica is at the podium flanked by Villaraigosa and Boxer.

Goodbye “30/10″ and hello “Fast Forward America.”

Congressman John Mica (R-FL) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) brought their road show to Los Angeles earlier this morning to get feedback and elicit testimony on how to improve the federal transportation bill.  While Boxer was on her “home turf,” it was Mica who sounded like a local finding time to complain about traffic, needle Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa about transit connections to LAX and repeatedly honor Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) who was attending her last public event as a Member of Congress.

While there was some talk of the need to better move freight through the Southland, much of the conversation was dominated by ways to expedite project delivery of all sorts.  There was no talk of America’s obesity epidemic, rebuilding our cities and communities or even a mention of the words “bicycle’ or “pedestrian.”  The focus was almost completely on transit and goods movement.

Back in 2008, as soon as Los Angeles County passed a half cent sales tax dedicated towards expanding it’s transportation network, the question was asked, “when are we going to start seeing projects on the ground.”  Thanks to some innovations from the Move L.A. Coalition and the support of the Los Angeles Mayor’s office, the 30/10 Initiative was born.  The plan was to leverage the funds  that would be collected over the thirty year sales tax to build the transit projects within the next ten years. By borrowing the money from the federal government up front, projects would be delivered sooner, taking advantage of today’s low construction costs and creating 160,000 construction jobs when the industry needs it most.

Because the plan would require some changes to federal law, there had always been some discussion of how these changes would help communities outside of Southern California.  Today, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa re-branded the 30/10 Initiative as a national initiative focused on putting more construction workers to work on more projects through “America Fast Forward.”

Mica and Boxer share a moment. Jane Harman prays.

America Fast Forward is a program that would leverage the funds created through local sales and gas taxes dedicated for transportation with low interest federal loans to jump start projects that already have “49%” of the project paid for at the local level.  The program has received the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AFL-CIO, and over 60 mayors from around the country.  In his testimony, Villaraigosa described the changes in federal transportation financing that would make America Fast Forward possible. In particular, he called for the expansion of the Transportation and Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA).

Villraigosa called for nearly tripling the TIFIA Budget to at least $350 million annually.  Later in the hearing, Boxer commented that even the $350 million number was low, prompting Villaraigosa to say that he would support as high a number as he could get. American Fast Forward also calls for:

• Increasing the maximum percentage of the project allotment that TIFIA can fund.  Currently, TIFIA will fund up to 80% of a project with no “added points” going towards proposal with a higher local match.  Villaraigosa called for at least a 49% local match;
• Permitting the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to approve multiple related projects at the same time. In Los Angeles County, for example, this could mean loans for the entire suite of Measure R transit projects at once, as opposed to a line-by-line piecemeal approach;
• Allowing USDOT to grant up-front credits to projects and;
• Authorizing USDOT to lock-in interest rates for approved projects.

“This is not an earmark, it is a template,” finished Villaraigosa, who noted throughout his presentation that this model would help the communities that have voted to help themselves.

Don Knabe, the Board Chair for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro), made the case that federal investment in communities that invest in themselves is a long-overdue idea.  “Every time we go to Washington, the feds tell us to come back with a funding source.  The voters of this county have voted to tax themselves three times in the last three decades.  Yet, we are not awarded for the leadership that this agency has shown nor the leadership our voters have shown.”

Also backing Villaraigosa and Knabe were key representatives of business and labor, respectively, Mr. Joseph A. Czyzyk, Chair of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, and Mr. Robbie Hunter, Council Representative, Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building & Construction Trades Council.

Across the “Orange Curtain” they have a different program to speed up project delivery.  Will Kempton, now the Director of the Orange County Transit Authority outlined their program for project expedition, the “Breaking Down Barriers Initiative.”  While Kempton promised a written testimony that would cover two dozen suggestions, for today’s hearing he outlined four needs to bring projects to fruition more quickly.

• Extend and expand National Environmental Protection Act delegation to states, allowing those with strong environmental regulation to do their own environmental reviews only once, instead of an additional parallel federal review.
• Streamline the federal funding process.
• Overlap activities that can be overlapped.
• Work with the environmental community to streamline permitting.

Of these, expanding the “NEPA Delegation Pilot Program” seems the most promising.  Because California’s environmental review law, CEQA, is more stringent than NEPA, California can grant both CEQA and NEPA permits at the same time.  Kempton estimated this cuts between 10 and 14 months off the delivery time for a project.

Much of the discussion on freight was about how to move freight more efficiently.  Both Knabe and Congresswoman Laura Richardson represent the areas surrounding the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and both were looking for answers on ways to move freight better.  Kathryn Phillips, from the Environmental Defense Fund, congratulated the Ports on their clean air initiatives. However, no panelists offered specific proposals for how to move freight through Los Angeles better. That said, Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Penn.) noted that 40 percent of goods that arrive through L.A.’s ports end up east of the Mississippi River, so goods movement in Los Angeles should be a national priority.

As touched on earlier, the complete lack of any discussion about urban mobility in the form of creating better communities, creating walkable and bikeable streets and just encouraging options to the automobile was jarring.  Los Angeles is in the early stages of a Livable Streets renaissance, with a progressive bike plan and news of the My Figueroa project dominating the local Streetsblog in 2011.  The only thing that L.A. needs is a true funding commitment to create sustainable urban communities, but today talk of that commitment was nowhere to be found.

One child helping another to smile seems like one of the easier challenges teachers could face on a "free transit field trip." Photo: Tim Adams/Transit People

Earlier this month, Mayor Villaraigosa, who also serves on the Metro Board of Directors, proposed that the transit agency give free Metro passes to classrooms for field trips during off-peak hours.  The proposal appears to be a win-win, as students in the “cash-strapped” LAUSD get a chance to travel to some of the many fun and educational places in Los Angeles and get a chance to do so via public transit.

However, Los Angeles happens to be home to experts in taking students on these types of field trips.  Transit People is a local non-profit that has raised the funds for dozens of these sort of trips every year.  While nobody in government has reached out to Transit People about this proposal; their Board of Directors, Tim Adams, Denisse Castillo, Nelly Caywood and Perias Pillay, is offering some free advice to Villaraigosa and Metro to make sure that any field trips that utilize Metro are safe and fun for the participants.

They write:

Mayor Villaraigosa’s proposal could provide tremendous benefit to Los Angeles’ kids, if implemented properly. You could be heroes — heroes! — to the children of our county, and could set an important precedent for other transit agencies nationwide. But if this proposal isn’t properly implemented, our ten years of experience strongly suggest that this nobly-intended program will not turn out well. No one at TransitPeople has ever proposed a ‘carte blanche’ program of this type.

With promises of a more detailed list of suggestions later,  Transit People write of some of the hard lessons they learned over the past decade and have the following suggestions:

• Not all teachers are ready to lead these trips.  Have some sort of evaluation and training program in place before handing out transit passes.
• Limit the size of the trips, especially for younger classes, to twenty or twenty four students.  Larger groups are harder to handle and will (innocently) harass the other transit users.  If you’re using rail, you can split larger groups up to ride in multiple cars.
• Teachers should not take these trips without other adults present to help out.
• Reaching out to the Sheriff’s (LASD) who police Metro stations, buses and trains before hand can be helpful.

Speaking of Transit People, in 2008 I recommended that making a donation to this group in lieu of a Holiday Gift would be a great way to help a local group and show a special someone how much you care about giving great experiences to our local students.  Even though there’s now a mechanism to give to Streetsblog, I see no reason not to make that same recommendation again.  You can donate to the group directly through PayPal, at this link.

After the initial launch of the “Give Me 3″ Public Service Announcement campaign, the poster portion of the campaign has come under some fire because many of the posters that have been placed at transit stops around the city are facing away from traffic.  Proponents of the campaign have argued that the posters are just phase one of the campaign and P.S.A.’s for radio and television are on the way.

Two months later, the Mayor’s office has released the first of the broadcast P.S.A.’s not via press conference, but via YouTube.  After opening with cyclists of various ages, races and genders applauding the goal of safer streets for cyclists, much of the rest of the advertisement has the Mayor sitting at his desk opining about why the city needs to be a safer place for people to ride a bike.

Honestly?  I found the advertisement kind of boring.  So much of it is just Villaraigosa talking.  Maybe I’ve just been watching the CicLAvia Streetfilm too much, but he sounded a lot more convincing on Sunday than he does behind a desk in the Mayor’s Office.

Of course my relative boredom is a sign of the new times we live in. If a year ago there was video of Villaraigosa arguing that Los Angeles is an ideal place to ride a bike and drivers need to pay more attention I would be ecstatic.  But now that we’ve heard him position himself as a champion of cycling, a matter-of-fact positioning seems sort of old hat.

Of course, I’m not exactly his target audience.

As with the posters, the placement of the advertisement will determine the level of its success.  There’s no budget to place this video as a paid advertisement, but television stations are under obligation to hand over a percentage of their advertising to P.S.A.’s.

Everyone huddles for a group shot. From left to right: Aurisha Smolarski, Heidi Zeller (kneeling),Ed Reyes, Tom LaBonge, Rita Robinson, Antonio Villaraigosa, unknown cyclist, Eric Garcetti Photo: Ariel Aboody

This morning, mayor Antonio Villaraigosa held a press conference to invite the city to participate in CicLAvia, L.A.’s first open streets festival, on October 10th 2010. The mayor spoke fondly of his trips to Copenhagen and Mexico City and contrasted their bike-populated streets to those of Los Angeles. The mayor related the story that he had returned from Mexico City, where he had seen their ciclovía event on the Via Reforma. He asked his staff ”why don’t we do this here?” and they connected him with the nascent CicLAvia efforts… and the result will play out on seven miles of Los Angeles streets next month.

Villaraigosa hasn't turned his back on cyclists following his big promises from this summer. Photo: Ted Rogers at Biking In L.A.

Nobody is going to get Los Angeles mixed up with Portland or Copenhagen anytime soon, but a new motion that will be heard and voted on at this Thursday’s Metro Board Meeting by Los Angeles’ newly-minted bike-friendly Mayor would move Los Angeles’ transit agency several steps closer.  While some activists have worried that the Mayor’s office isn’t reaching out on bicycle policy, that he’s taking a “look before you leap” approach, the Mayor’s Office has worked closely with the staff at Metro and has taken input from Metro’s bicycle roundtable meetings before moving this motion.

The “bike-unfriendliness” of Los Angeles County’s transit agency has long been a point of consternation among cyclists.  From angry confrontations to bus riders, to just a general feeling of disrespect because of announcements such as this one; Metro and the cycling community haven’t always had the closest of relationships.

But Villaraigosa is seeking to change that.  The Mayor has introduced a motion that if passed and enacted would change the way the agency treats cyclists.  You can read the text of the motion on the Board Agenda or just read on after the jump.  In short it would increase Metro funds available through the Call for Projects, require bicycle design be included in all Capital projects, upgrade bicycle racks on buses so that they can fit three bicycles instead of two and retrofit existing rail stations with signage directing cyclists and other people with large cargo to the part of the rail car that has appropriate space.

While the motion is a big step forward for Metro, in baseball terms it’s a solid double not a home run.  Metro has some “catch-up” to do with the most progressive rail and bus carriers in the world who have clear policies regarding bicycles being allowed on buses and have either “bike cars” or hooks in regular commuter rail cars to increase bicycle capacity.

Because the motion was approved in committee by a unanimous vote, it appears on the “Consent Agenda” on Thursday.  That means that it could be approved by voice vote without discussion by the Board.  However, the public will be given a chance to testify before passage.

EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT AND AUDIT COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED (4-0) approving:
VILLARAIGOSA MOTION that the MTA Board direct the CEO to do the following and report back no later than the December 2010 Board cycle:
Funding
1.    Recommend increased bicycle funding in the 2011 Call for Projects (tentative goal increasing modal category from 7% to 15%, subject to future MTA Board approval)
Current Transit System
2.    Develop a phased plan for the installation of triple bicycle racks on all MTA buses (estimated cost $1.6 million)
3.    Develop a cost estimate, implementation schedule, and possible funding sources for retrofitting MTA trains for bikes
4.    Propose a Revised Customer Code of Conduct and develop a “How to Ride Metro” document that helps customers with bicycles and other large belongings, including luggage, strollers and rolling briefcases, safely board and ride MTA’s system during peak hours
5.    Identify the feasibility and cost of adding bicycle racks to the back or top of MTA vanpool vehicles
EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT AND AUDIT COMMITTEE – Continued
(Continued from previous page)
6.    Provide an estimated cost and potential funding source to install improved bicycle/stroller/luggage wayfinding signage at all rail and bus stations
7.    Incorporate bicycle mode messages in all marketing materials and campaigns and provide an update on the status of MTA’s Bicycle Safety Advertising Campaign on buses
8.    Work with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department Transit Security Bureau to summarize crimes on MTA property affecting bicycles and bike facilities and recommend appropriate measures to improve bicycle security
Future Transit Projects
9.    Include in all future transit station designs stair channels or ramps so that bicyclists can wheel their bikes safely up and down staircases
10.    Incorporate robust bicycle facilities in all transit project designs (e.g. increase bicycle parking at high demand stations, adjacent bike lanes or bike paths, i.e. Expo and Orange Line) to facilitate first mile/last mile transit access by bike
FINANCE AND BUDGET COMMITTEE
10.
FINANCE AND BUDGET COMMITTEE RECOMMENDED (4-0) adopting:
A.    a resolution approving extension of the term of the Proposition A Sales Tax Revenue Commercial Paper Program to June 30, 2017, and providing for automatic one-year extensions to maintain the seven-year term of the program and authorizing Seventh Supplemental Subordinate Trust Agreement; and
FINANCE AND BUDGET COMMITTEE
B.    a resolution approving extension of the term of the Proposition C Sales Tax Revenue Commercial Paper Program to June 30, 2017, and providing for automatic one-year extensions to maintain the seven-year term of the program and authorizing Amendment No. 6 to First Supplemental Subordinate Trust Agreement.