People

At first, it looked like a pretty innocuous motion on a Metro Board Planning and Programming Committee Agenda.  Item #19, passed quickly and unanimously by the committee, shuffles $170 million in funds dedicated towards Red Line expansion, partially from Measure R, to cover the "unmet costs" to complete the rail yards for Expo Phase II light rail cars.  (Note: As was pointed out in the comments section, the staff report says that the Southwest yard is for Green/Crenshaw Line cars, not Expo cars.)

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was in Washington, D.C. today to support the dramatic increase in the TIFIA loan program to $1  billion that is proposed in both the House and Senate draft reauthorization bills and is the center plank of the America Fast Forward plan to accelerate transit construction.  By the time he flew out of town, he also through his hat in the ring to be the most popular man about town.  This is Villaraigosa's 7th trip to the Capital to lobby for and promote portions of the America Fast Forward program.

When Streetsblog first began publishing in Los Angeles, there would be Transportation Committee hearings where I was literally the only-person in the room that wasn't either city staff or a lobbyist.  The scene at City Hall couldn't be more different these days as advocates for cyclists rights and infrastructure are a common site in the halls (and steps) of City Hall.  Yesterday's victory for cyclists, the final passage of Councilman Bill Rosendahl's "Bicyclist Anti-Harassment Ordinance" would have been similarly unthinkable.

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.

 

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.

If there's one politician we've given a hard time to here at Streetsblog, it's County Supervisor and Metro Board Member Zev Yaroslavsky. Yesterday while we were IM'ing on Facebook (really!) I asked if he would join LADOT General Manager LADOT General Manager Jaime De La Vega and LAPD Sgt. David Krumer in answering a Streetsblog reader questionnaire.

In November of 2007, the Expo Construction Authority and Culver City agreed that instead of building a "temporary" station at the terminus of Phase I of the Expo Project, that the Authority would build the permanent aerial station in time for the grand opening of Phase I.  As part of that agreement, Culver City agreed to pay the Authority $7 million to cover some of the construction costs.

When Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas' motions to make the Crenshaw Light Rail project run entirely below-grade and to construct a station at Leimert Park both failed, the Board Member promised he would be back with a new motion to improve the project in a different way. At last week's Metro Board Meeting, Ridley-Thomas introduced a motion calling for community benefits during construction of the Expo Line.