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During today's debate over whether or not to approve a "life of the project" budget for Phase II of the Expo Line, County Supervisor Gloria Molina used the occasion to quiz Metro staff on new projections for Measure R revenue.  Originally, the half-cent county-wide sales tax was projected to produce $40 billion in revenue over thirty years.  However, in large part due to the Great Recession and high local unemployment rates, that projection has dropped 10% in two and a half years to $36 billion.

In a cover story I penned for this week Jewish Journal entitled, “All Aboard the Case for an All-Pervasive Metro,” I argue that mass transit in LA has finally arrived at the door of the Jewish community.  Thanks to the region’s population growth, as well as Metro’s considerable expansion over the past twenty years and plans for future expansion, the view that many Angelenos now hold is that transit has a critical role to play in the future of Los Angeles, even when it goes through, or under, our backyards.  While my aim with the Journal piece is to encourage the paper's traditional readership to embrace the importance of Metro’s expansion throughout Los Angeles County, the article might in fact find an audience in any of LA’s ethnic, religious and cultural communities.  In other words, if my Spanish, Tagalog, Farsi, Korean, Chinese, Armenian and Russian were better, I would be amortizing my investment by writing similar articles in community newspapers in those tongues as well.

Goodbye "30/10" and hello "Fast Forward America."

(Note: We're taking the rest of the day off to honor President's Day.  See you tomorrow with an update on Wilbur Avenue and more!)

(ed. note - I know a lot of you already know Jessica Meaney with the Safe Routes to Schools National Partnership. But did you also know she's also on our local Board of Directors for Streetsblog? This editorial will be the first of many you'll see from our Board Members going forward. - DN)

Link to the Streetsblog t-shirt online order form : https://livablestreets.wufoo.com/forms/order-your-very-own-streetsblog-la-tshirt/

On Friday night, I received an agitated email from Ray Klein, a Board Member for the Brentwood Neighborhood Council who requested a retraction for my claim that he has continually misquoted LADOT Senior Traffic Engineer Kang Hu while making the case that Brentwood should be excluded from the Wilshire Bus Only Lane (BOL) project.

Last week, you probably noticed that we added a new advertisement to our sidebar, so allow me a moment to welcome the law firm of Gordon, Edelstein, Krepack, Grant, Felton and Goldstein as our second regular advertising sponsor.  You may remember Howard Krepack from an interview we did with him last month and you may recognize "GEK-Law" from their years of bike advocacy.

Monday - It's on!  The Westside Subway community meetings roll on with their meeting at Beverly Hills.  It doesn't seem that Metro has made a final decision on whether to propose a drilling route underneath the city or somewhere else.  Anyone want to take odds on whether or not that will matter when it comes to public comment?  Get the details on the meeting, here.