It is official: Measure M passed. Los Angeles County has voted, again, to tax itself to pay for a suite of projects to facilitate transit, driving, walking and bicycling. Measure M will double Metro's 100 mile rail system over the next 40 years. As of this morning, Measure M achieved its needed two-thirds and is currently passing by 69.82 percent.
The ballot measure was too close to call definitively on election night, so yesterday a coalition of Measure M proponents gathered at Union Station to commemorate the historic victory. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti opened the event, suggesting that passage with 70 percent represents a broad mandate to get going on projects right away. Garcetti and others stressed that Measure M's victory was the result of a broad coalition, extending to all parts of the county, and across young and old, Republicans and Democrats, labor and business, faith communities, environmentalist, bicyclists, pedestrians, and many others.
Numerous speakers acknowledged that Garcetti really stepped up to ensure Measure M's passage. Garcetti reached out to electeds and other leaders in and beyond the borders of the city of Los Angeles, again affirming Garcetti's professed role of working to make the broader region successful. Garcetti often remarks that issues such as traffic, jobs, and homelessness do not end at city boundaries. In his leadership role in bringing interests and resources together for Measure M, he again demonstrated his broader regional focus.
Several speakers also expressed interest in reaching "across the aisle" to the new Trump administration. Some emphasized Trump's pledge to rebuild America's infrastructure.
L.A. City Councilmember and Metro boardmember Mike Bonin perhaps had the most emphatic moment of the otherwise repetitively celebratory occasion. Searching for moments of hope among unexpectedly bleak election results and taking solace in the passage of parks, homeless, and transportation measures, Bonin exclaimed that "L.A. got a lot of good shit done last night!"
