Expo Opponents Go to Court. Expo Proponents Go to the Times

For transit supporters, all eyes are going to be set on a court room in Norwalk today for the hearing that will determine the short-term future of light rail in West L.A., but as they're traveling to the Courthouse the Times has given them some reading material.

An op/ed by Karen Leonard and Sarah Hays, the pair of Cheviot Hills residents who have been pushing back at the image of Cheviot Hills as an enclave opposed to transit, makes the case that a silent majority of their neighbors support light rail transit, at-grade or otherwise.   The duo base their claim on an exhaustive history of going door-to-door to promote Phase II of the Expo Line.  They write:

Politicians have already caught on that the bark of Westside Expo opponents is not representative of their numbers.  How else could you explain Zev Yaroslavsky, who's wearing a pair of black hats with transit advocates for his views on the Westside Subway and Wilshire Bus-Only Lanes, being such a strong supporter of the project?  But for Westsiders, who see a sea of those orange and black lawn signs blasting "the train," it could appear that their neighbors are fighting against the train.