Streetsblog Los Angeles

Another massive highway expansion project, brought to you by Measure R

As Streetsblog has been documenting, there has been a heavy cost to Measure R beyond a half cent increase to the county sales tax.

One of those costs that 20% of the collected funds will go towards massive highway expansion projects that will induce even greater car dependence, worsen air quality and promote sprawling development patterns.

Thanks to a recent article in the Santa Clarita Signal, we’ve been given a look at another one of those projects: The planned $500 million six lane widening of the I-5 from the Highway 14 interchange to Parker Road.  Construction could start within the next year.  The project will be completed in three phases and will add two truck-only lanes and a carpool lane in each direction.

Lest anyone wonder about the motivations for the project, Victor Lindenheim, executive director of the Golden State Gateway Coalition, makes it pretty clear.

“This is about adding capacity,” Lindenheim said. “When capacity is needed, in certain situations, it will be a godsend.” Read more…

Senator Boxer offers strong support for a transportation bill that supports 30/10.

On an atypically dreary day for October, Los Angeles County’s elected representatives from every level of government gathered with community members at Leimert Park to celebrate the receipt of a $546 million loan for the Crenshaw Light Rail project.

The news had already broken on Friday. So above all, this was an opportunity for elected officials to congratulate each other, Metro, and civic leaders for securing the low interest TIFIA loan from the US Department of Transportation.

Several speakers, especially LA County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas and Congresswoman Maxine Waters, highlighted the economic and environmental benefits that this project will bring to the South Los Angeles.

But for those following the Mayor’s 30/10 plan closely, the biggest news of the day came embedded amidst the promise of thousands of good paying union jobs and the (somewhat dubious) hope for traffic reduction.

Rather, the key points came from three figures at the federal level, whose work will help determine if the Crenshaw LRT loan is a one-off deal or a veritable down payment on a grander 30/10 scheme. Read more…

We don’t often discuss issues effecting the Northern parts of L.A. County.  But as a freeway expansion project moves through the environmental study phases towards construction; it’s worthwhile to check in on one of the few new highway projects in Southern California, the High Desert Corridor project.  With $33 million in Measure R funds to pay for the environmental studies already secured  for the $6 billion highway project, Caltrans is moving forward with a series of public hearings in the North County this month.  A copy of Caltrans’ postcard announcing the meetings is available at the end of the article.

So what is the High Desert Corridor?  Caltrans refers to the project as “multi-modal” because it will help move cars and trucks.  Metro, gives a more honest assesment in the project’s homepage.

The High Desert Corridor (HDC) will accommodate an expected three to six fold increase in tra;c between the Antelope and Victor Valleys…

…The HDC will construct a new 50-mile east-west freeway/expressway and possible truck toll facility between Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The east-west segment would be an eight-lane freeway [including a High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lane in each direction] from SR-14 past the Palmdale Airport to 50th St East along an alignment paralleling P-8 in Palmdale; a six-lane freeway/expressway from 50th St East to 240th St East past the planned Southern California Logistics Airport to I-15.

In an era where new freeway projects are greenwashed with claims the project will help clean the air by reducing congestion or reduce the number of cars by encouraging carpooling, it’s both refreshing and horrifying to see a new highway proposed solely because it will create hundreds of new travel lane miles between two sprawled out places on a map. Read more…

Move L.A., the first organization to push for a sales tax to fund transit in 2008 and the group that invented the 30/10 plan, is now asking for your help to get that plan through Congress.  The petition, which you can sign on behalf of yourself or on behalf of an organization, isn't just a lobbying tool; it's perhaps the best summary of the benefits of leveraging the half cent sales tax revenues to build all twelve Measure R transit projects in the next ten years.

Denny Zane, Move L.A.'s founder and executive director, has preached that a big tent would be needed to get the sales tax passed and to get 30/10 through Congress and the White House.  Thus, it's no surprise that this petition lists everything from environmental reasons to job creation as reasons to pass 30/10.  And for good government advocates, it also points out that by paying for projects now, instead of decades from now, L.A. County voters would save $4 billion in the long run.

In other 30/10 news, L.A. Observed writer Bill Boyarsky, who once covered the transportation beat for the L.A. Times, recently penned a column in praise of Measure R:

With city hall news full of minor malfeasance, it is surprising to report that something positive is actually happening. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s 30/10 transit plan is moving toward Congressional approval even though progress is about as slow as a Wilshire bus during rush hour.

Locally, it seems just about everyone is in favor of 30/10.  Move L.A. is just giving people an easy way to show it.

From the groundbreaking's pamphlet, which can be found here. h/t I Will Ride

This weekend wasn't just a good one for cyclists.  On Saturday, while I was still sleeping off Critical Mass, groundbreaking occurred for the Gold Line Foothill Extension in the San Gabriel Valley.  The rail line was always a popular project with Valley residents, but until Measure R was passed, a measure opposed by several prominent politicians in the area, funding for the project was not approved.  Now, with cash in hand and shovels in the ground, officials are predicting the extension will open in 2014, before the Expo Line will be completed all the way in to Santa Monica. 

Anyone who wants to know more about the specifics of the project should read this excellent "Q and A" written for The Source by Steve Hymon.

Reports on the ground breaking describe an event that was equal part celebration and pep rally.  The Source quotes Metro Board Chair Ara Najarian proclaiming that, "This whole county is going to change."  Later, Congressman Adam Schiff put in a plug for the a third extension (as in the one after the next one,) promising, "None of us will rest until this line goes to Ontario Airport."

But of course, it's not just transit hungry residents that are the winners.  While it's great that residents of Azusa can take a train to Mariachi Plaza if they want to; the creation and construction of this line will also determine how the San Gabriel Valley will grow.  On Saturday, The Times wrote an article all about the T.O.D. plans for line, including details of an ambitious project already on the "drawing board" in Azusa:

Monrovia's proposed Station Square project would rise next to the future site of its Gold Line station, just south of the 210 Freeway. Monrovia has already invested $30 million into the project and is negotiating public-private partnerships with multiple commercial real estate developers, Monrovia Mayor Mary Ann Lutz said...

...The project's first phase will include approximately 700 apartment units, 450,000 square feet of office space, and 30,000 square feet of retail space, according to Blaine Fetter, the Principal/Organizer at Samuelson & Fetter. Some of those apartments and offices will be completed by the time the train begins operation in 2014, he said.

Read more...

Image: Metro.net

You’ll remember in April, while discussing the obscure Independent Citizens’ Advisory and Oversight Committee (ICAOC), I mentioned the start-up of the Measure R Independent Taxpayers Oversight Committee was impending.

The hold up was the appointment of the three Committee members. Measure R dictates the panel shall be made up of retired judges, with one appointment each by the Mayor of Los Angeles, the County Supervisors and the "other cities" of the county (similar to the way Board seats are divided).

The Committee members are:

• Justice Candace Cooper (appointed by L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa)
• Judge Richard Kolostian (appointed by the "other cities")
• Judge Robert W. Parkin (appointed by the L.A. County Supervisors)

June 3rd the Committee has its first meeting in the Metro Board Conference Room, starting at 1:30 p.m.

Read more…

Gov. Ed Rendell (D-PA) and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D), two of the nation's best-known advocates for greater investment in the built environment, today joined several House Democrats in calling for federal action on a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) -- even as questions about how the bank's scope, and Congress' resistance to raising sustained new transport funding, continued to dog the debate.

Villaraigosa (r.) with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, another co-chief of Building America's Future. (Photo: Getty)

Rendell and Villaraigosa came to the Capitol for a visit to the House Ways and Means Committee's revenue panel, which faces the challenging task of finding a workable financing mechanism for long-term federal transportation legislation.

Villaraigosa used his high-profile push for federal assistance with his city's "30/10" transit plan, which would expedite construction of 13 rail and rapid bus projects using proceeds from a voter-approved sales tax, to urge lawmakers' support for an NIB.

"We're not only arguing for infrastructure investment on the federal level," he said. "We're saying ... at a time of spiraling deficits, we've got to encourage local governments to put up their own money. We have done that [in L.A.]."

Rendell, who has used his role as co-chairman of the advocacy group Building America's Future to amass support for an NIB, quoted GOP Sen. Jim Inhofe's (OK) support for federal transport spending in a bid to depict infrastructure as a uniquely bipartisan issue.

"The American people are way ahead of us," Rendell told Ways and Means members. "Infrastructure is something they can touch, they can see, they can experience ... This is easier, in terms of public perception, than anybody thinks."

But even as the duo focused on the NIB -- which Rendell and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) agreed should be placed outside the U.S. DOT, counter to the White House's proposal -- the specter of the federal gas tax hung over the room. One day after conservatives began using anti-gas tax arguments in a bid to derail the new Senate climate bill, lawmakers prodded Rendell and Villaraigosa to share their views on the subject.

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These were the place mats awaiting guests at yesterday's conference.  Nice work Transit Coalition - DN

(Since leaving the LA Weekly, where she did everything from review bands to serve as transportation writer, Gloria Ohland has been heavily involved in the transit reform scene.  Most recently she worked with the T.O.D. advocacy group Reconnecting America.  You'll be seeing more of her writing here in the very near future...DN)

Let’s be clear: The “30-10” transit plan to build nine new rail and three new bus rapid transit lines over a decade is a really big deal. That infusion of investment ($18 billion for transit capital out of a total $30 billion for capital and operations) and jobs (166,000) could jolt LA County at least part-way out of the recession. But even more importantly, the coalition that has come together in support of 30-10 – business, labor, enviros, elected officials, Metro board members – is also a big deal. Some say it’s the first time the L.A. County Congressional delegation has ever united in support of something.

And if the Move LA coalition can mobilize this “30-10” transportation and economic development game-changer what’s to stop the coalition from going even further?

I refer you to this map that was passed out at Denny Zane’s Move LA confab on Thursday at the downtown Cathedral, which was attended by some 300 people including everyone from Mayor Villaraigosa to California Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Bonnie Lowenthal. Not all the new lines on this map are funded by Measure R. But those that aren’t are either under construction or under serious consideration. Add to that the bike lanes and pedestrian infrastructure that could be funded by the $6 billion of Measure R funding that’s allocated for Local Return to cities. This represents a massive investment in non-auto infrastructure. Suddenly LA looks a lot like a transit metropolis.

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After a lengthy debate over what would be the best way to insure that an appropriate amount of Measure R Local Return funds are spent on bicycle and pedestrian projects; the City Council ultimately voted, by an 11-3 vote, to support a 10% set-aside for "people powered transportation" from the city's Measure R funds for the 2011 fiscal year.  After that, they'll evaluate whether the city was able to spend those funds on good projects.  I can't say enough about all the people that worked hard to secure these funds, so let's hope that future Council's don't tread over the work that's been done the nearly two years since LA Walks and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition petitioned the Metro Board for a set-aside in Measure R.

But at the same time the Council debated, a sideshow developed in the witness chairs as LADOT and the Chief Legislative Analyst's office were unable to give a clear answer as to whether or not the city could spend $3.2 million on bicycle and pedestrian projects.  Doubly confusing because the Mayor's FY2011 Budget puts that number at $5.35 million because some of the funds for the 2011 Budget were collected in the current fiscal year, the tax started in August, but wasn't spent  If you don't want to scroll through the proposed budget, here's what's being proposed:

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The Measure R map. For a full sized version, check out The Transport Politic

Today, the Metro Board of Directors voted to endorse the 30/10 proposal, but for a long-time it didn’t look good.  All of the signs were there for a disaster…a highway sellout of "30/10," the proposal to use federal loans to front-load construction of twelve transit projects funded in Measure R.

The forces of the status quo, AAA, a pair of CoG’s and various chambers of commerce, were speaking of the needs of including highway projects in Measure R.  Heck, even some transit advocates were willing to compromise some highway projects on the list in the name of the "greater good."  Meanwhile, the Metro Board wasn’t talking about pushing the best list of projects it could to get federal funds flowing quickly to L.A.  And while the Mayor was trying to frame 30/10 debate in environmental terms on twitter, the idea that highways cause pollution was completely absent from the debate put forth by our elected leadership.

Sure, there were plenty of pro-30/10 comments, most notably from other transit advocates and the environmental movement.  NRDC and the Clean Air Coalition published a pair of blog posts and letter to the Metro Board arguing that wasting time and focus on highways undermines the spirit of Measure R.  Even the Bus Rider’s Union spoke up against the amendments, noting that it was "unfortunate the Board was aligning with highways to build more trains."

A pair of pro-highway amendments were added to the proposal to formally endorse "30 in 10."  One by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas required Metro to also be pushing funds for "public-private partnership" projects in Washington, D.C.  Another, by Supervisors Diane DuBois and Pam O’Connor, just flatly requires that highway project acceleration be made equally important to transit project acceleration in Washington, D.C.

Finally, Director Richard Katz, holding one of the Board positions appointed by Mayor Villaraigosa and the author of the resolution calling on Metro to back 30/10 spoke.  After accepting these amendments as "friendly," he took the turn to speak about the proposal.  First, he made clear that he considered these motions to be in addition to 30/10 not part of it.  In other words, the project list being touted by the Mayor and other 30/10 supporters would remain in-tact, and not be polluted by those favored by the highway lobby.  Second, he noted that if they were to be added to 30/10 list, it would make everything much more difficult and could delay the whole thing.

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