Beverly Hills

Opponents of a Metro proposal to build a Subway Station at the intersection of Avenue of the Stars and Constellation Avenue in Century City are taking their argument to the Internet.  A recently opened website and Facebook Page are pushing the idea that an alternative subway stop on Santa Monica Boulevard.  Honestly, the information on the website and Facebook Page, taken on their own without hearing the other side of the debate, make a compelling case that the it makes sense to scrap the "Constellation Avenue Station" and stick with an earlier proposal for the Santa Monica Station.

Yesterday, Metro announced that in addition to the two stations already being studied for a Westside Subway stop in Century City near Beverly Hills.  The reaction from readers, both at Curbed and The Source was pretty overwhelmingly negative with accusations that Metro was selling out and a heaping of venom for the Beverly Hills NUMBY's.  Of course, it's not the Metro staff who's in charge of selling out, that's the realm of the Board of Directors.  They won't have their chance for another couple of months.

Earlier this week, in an article about the ongoing investigation of the death of a Hollywood publicist, a Beverly Hills Police Department spokesperson made a comment defending his department's position that the murder was perpetuated by a man riding a bicycle.  The Times quotes Lt. Tony Lee as saying:

It's official, many Westside neighborhood leaders really don't want bus-only lanes.

Here's a quick rundown of the major votes by today's Metro Board. Each of these five motions were discussed at Streetsblog over the last couple of weeks, and links to those stories can be found at the end of each summary.  Streetsblog will have links to all news reports on today's meeting tomorrow.

Earlier this week, Metro staff released its recommendations for the Locally Preferred Alternatives for the Westside Subway.  While a proposed spur of the Purple Line through Wests Hollywood and the idea of extending the subway "To the Sea" were shelved for now; the final route for the last leg of the extension, i.e. whether it will have a stop at Constellation Avenue or Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica, was left unresolved for further study.

There is one thing that is clear about the position of the residents of Beverly Hills when it comes to the future Westside Subway.  No matter how many guarantees they receive about the negligible impacts of tunneling ninety to one hundred fifty feet below the ground, they don't want it to run underneath their residential area nor their schools of their city.