ALPERN ON LA TRANSPO - Leadership isn't easy, and it's not always fun.
It means being open to public critiques and attacks, it means having to work with people you don't always agree with, and it means leading by example. While opinions and conclusions should always remain cautious and tentative, it does appear that we've got the opportunity for leadership that is as meritorious as it is effective, and part of that leadership resides in Mike Bonin.
I've known and respected Mike Bonin for many years, and to this day wonder whether his "element" is a behind-the-scenes leadership role as a chief-of-staff kind of guy, or if it's in the limelight as a political leader who chooses to do what he says and says what he does. Either way, Mike has always been the Real Deal, and appears to be so in a manner that the rest of City Hall would do very, very well to emulate.
I'm certainly biased towards Mike's New England no-nonsense, results-oriented approach that combines open-mindedness, work ethic and "telling it like it is"--after all, my wife (like Mike) is from Massachusetts. Showboating goes over very well in our city and in our nation, but focusing on the rights and needs and lifestyles of ordinary Angelenos and Americans is something we don't do enough around here.
And I'm certainly biased towards establishing credibility in the manner that Mike has vigorously pursued during and after his electoral run for CD11--as a physician, as a family man, and in everything I do, I've striven for the respect from my patients, colleagues, nurses, family and friends as someone who just doesn't have a problem getting my hands dirty. And I recommend we all do the same.
Hence I was both extremely pleased but hardly surprised when--as Mike Bonin was making the rounds of his new constituents at the Mar Vista Community Council--he made it clear that he did NOT support Transit-Adjacent Development, and did NOT support any exploitation of what "Transit-Oriented Development" was, and wanted only Transit-USING Development.
And he made a point of saying that--referencing recent travesties in Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) while standing right next to me. Mike knows what I felt about the Casden Project
Mike Bonin and his fellow Westside Councilmember, Paul Koretz, lead the Transportation Committee--which is as appropriate a move by the City Council as any, because it's public knowledge that traffic really is a huge issue to Westsiders (as it is to most Angelenos, but particularly out here).
And if our traffic efforts and other City initiatives are to improve, a review of City leadership and policy is critical. No need to grandstand about past screw-ups and lack of leadership from City Hall, but the decision of new Mayor Eric Garcetti to have every department chair interview for their own job offers Downtown the opportunity to show Angelenos that we're about to have some real "Hope and Change" here at home.
But with the City's budget and credibility in a shambles, the need to develop initiatives to help the Economy, restore the Middle Class, establish Affordable Housing, enhance the Environment, etc. all will require shared sacrifice--because while we all want the economy and our dreams to move forward, everything from our stock market to our housing market is rather precarious in its "recovery".
And "shared sacrifice" means from the very highest echelons of power to the ordinary taxpayer and resident of Los Angeles. The recent sweetheart deals to the Casden, Westfield and Hollywood Millennium developers should strike fear into the heart of any rationale citizen that a dreadful double-standard has been perpetrated on the citizenry of Los Angeles...which speaks to a series of operating paradigms Downtown that must change.
So with the understanding that the Era of Bonin and the Era of Garcetti are just beginning, and that the Era of Koretz, Wesson and the rest of the incumbent City Councilmembers are potentially in store for a series of changes, here are a few key thoughts with respect to Transportation and related City initiatives:
1) This is the big one with respect to the Westside: Mike Bonin and Paul Koretz are in a critical position to restore the credibility and effectiveness of the City's efforts to enhance the Mobility, Economy, Environment and Quality of life because of their roles in the City's Transportation Committee and the Expo Line Construction Authority.
Mike Bonin and Paul Koretz just asked Metro to present what opportunities exist in pursuing the Sepulveda Pass Transit Line (Valley to Westside) project approved by the voters with Measure R.
That project, which is a north-south mobility initiative that for decades has been often talked about but never really started in concrete terms, will certainly cost more than the $1 billion allotted to it in Measure R, but the voters WILL favor more revenue-raising if a coherent plan can be created and promoted that is both transparent and spent well.
With respect to east-west mobility, the work of the Expo Line Construction Authority is NOT done, and the leadership of its Board to create betterments is not done, either. We just had tens of millions of dollars reallocated by Metro from Phase 2 of the Expo Line to cost-overruns of the 405 Freeway widening project, and that money needs to be backfilled in future years from Metro for rail station facilities to enhance ridership.
A critical betterment would be a Westside Regional Transit Center at Exposition/Sepulveda, where two freeways, three major surface streets, the Expo Line and the future Valley-Westside transit line will all come together. Buses, bicycles, automobiles, vans and all sorts of commuting modes will come together, and an intermodal link is fundamental at this site.
Ditto for Exposition/Crenshaw, where two light rail lines will be built, and where (hopefully!) a northern extension of the Crenshaw/LAX light rail line will extend to the Wilshire Subway to create an explosion in ridership that fulfills the promise of this line.
As for private-sector funding, Bonin and Koretz would do well to find out who the heck gave Alan Casden, a developer who is as connected as he is ruthless, who is as brazen as he is noncaring about transit, the ability to increase the size of his development based on land existing on the publicly-owned right of way. That's like letting a homeowner increase his/her home based on the square footage of his driveway and sidewalk.
Casden's project is still too ridiculously overdense (denser than anything in the region, and it might be what he wanted all along) after the "deal" that was agreed to at the eleventh hour, and he owes the region lots of mitigation money for the aforementioned Transit Center, the adjacent Expo Greenway between Sepulveda and Overland, and to nearby Palms Park (to mention a few items).
2) Mayor Garcetti needs to work with County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas to focus on moving forward and confronting as diplomatically and effectively as possible with any ongoing issues related to the Park Mesa Tunnel that is NOT going to move forward any time soon.
Lawsuits are forthcoming, and the tragic element of race has been injected into the tunnel issue, but it should be reminded that the rest of the county is paying for a $120 million underground Leimert Park station and only $15-20 million for a surface-level Westchester station (which would serve the Westside and Inglewood). That should mean something.
Wealthy and connected neighbors in the Valley, Westside and South Pasadena did not, and will not, get their way in their own desired tunnels for the Orange, Expo and Pasadena Gold Lines. That should mean something, too.
As with expanded funding for a north-south rail line that is tunneled between the Westside and Valley, I'm all for a Crenshaw Line tunnel to the Wilshire Subway (and even the Red Line) that requires tunneling where the laws of Metro and the laws of physics demand it. And THOSE tunnels are ones which we should be focusing on.
MetroRail and Metrolink to LAX and Ontario Airports, the Foothill Gold Line and other issues exist for us to direct our attention and outreach, and it will take a newer, better, more credible leadership to get those done.
And they will be done if our new Mayor, our new and returning City Council, and our County leadership all focus on fixing what was damaged over the past decade and by showing that--yes, indeed--new leadership can show the City and County that Downtown "gets it" with respect to restoring faith and credibility to the citizenry.
And, as always with credibility and effectiveness, actions will always speak louder than words.
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 56
Pub: July 12, 2013