GETTING THERE FROM HERE - The Expo Line exists, and the jobs exist that were and are created for the planning, construction and operations of the Expo Line, because of grassroots individuals of all economic and educational backgrounds who demanded that a first-rate passenger rail line connect the Westside, Mid-City and Downtown regions of LA City and County. I’ve no doubt that the Expo Line will end up be a shining example of what the grassroots can do…but our collective job isn’t yet over.
I am certainly no transit “expert”, being a physician and without a PhD in transportation, but while I am no apologist for Metro or the Expo Construction Authority, I do believe their efforts are sincere, overall effective, and have been done amidst a stormy sea of legal, political and engineering challenges. However, Friends4Expo Transit and The Transit Coalition must both support and cajole our transit building agencies when it serves the interests of commuters.
Now is no exception, when we must define what the Expo Line IS and what it is NOT as passenger rail reaches new regions of L.A. County:
The Expo Line IS an opportunity travel to and from major passenger locations in Downtown L.A., USC, the Crenshaw and Mid-City Regions, Culver City, West LA and Santa Monica (although the latter three portions of the line aren’t yet built)
This means that the when the I-10 freeway is choked with congestion (which it almost always is, but particularly at morning rush hour, lunch time and evenings), this line parallels and provides an alternative to this freeway…and effectively widens the I-10 corridor without the inconvenience or limiting factors associated with carpool lanes or freeway widening like we now see on the I-405 freeway.
You don’t need to form a carpool to travel whenever the line is open, provided we have enough rail cars for passengers to ride the line when it is in full operation and capacity to Culver City and beyond. The Metro decision to award Japanese-based Kinkisharyo International a contract to construct and replace new and old rail cars for the countywide MetroRail system has angered some labor leaders , but the LA Times has it right when it notes that it has the right balance of providing American jobs while preserving quality and cost-effectiveness. (Link)
à The Expo Line is NOT a backlash or war against the automobile (as some have proclaimed it is) as much as it is another option when the automobile isn’t convenient or feasible, or as much as it is an acknowledgment that the I-10 freeway is really insufficient to meet our east-west commuting needs.
The Expo Line is the closest thing that the Westside will ever have that comes close to the commuter rail system of Southern California (Metrolink), which has plenty of park-and-ride parking lots. We therefore DO need parking for those who live too far enough away to use buses, bicycles or walking to realistically access the Expo Line.
The CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee is hardly alone when it opposes Metro’s free parking arrangement, which discourages construction of sufficient parking and of private/public parking projects that we need for more commuters to access MetroRail. Insufficient parking is as bad as insufficient bus access, bicycle lanes or sidewalks to access the line, and it creates a public relations “black eye” for the line that need not, and should not, exist.
àThe Expo Line IS an opportunity to create and provide access to both new and existing jobs adjacent to the I-10 corridor and to Downtown, as well as provide transportation options previously not available.
However, such an opportunity will be made passenger by passenger, family by family, and not ordained by some higher government power. As with our freeway/road system, we’ll make our own choices, and employers will choose whether or not to set up shop next to rail stations that invariably will be hot commercial and residential property for decades to come.
àThe Expo Line is NOT merely a jobs creation program or a welfare/workfare program funded by the taxpayers, but an opportunity to create thousands (if not tens of thousands) of private sector jobs to beef up a 21st Century L.A. economy.
This is very important for those who are employed in the public sector to remember—PARTICULARLY those employed by the Department of Water and Power. There were several reasons, some understandable and/or forgivable, why the first phase of the Expo Line was built over budget and two years later than originally planned. However, DWP laziness, ineptitude and unresponsiveness with utility relocation efforts were and are neither understandable nor forgivable.
DWP lines are all over key intersections of Phase 2, which are particularly problematic and pose delays for necessary rail bridges/overpasses. There is no need to tolerate any delay on the part of the DWP for Phase 2 like that which occurred before/during the rail bridge construction at La Brea and La Cienega, and our current City Council and mayoral wannabes would do well to make sure the DWP does its job if they want to best represent LA—particularly West LA.
àThe Expo Line IS a project that is meant to increase the quality of life for those who use it, and should therefore be both aesthetically pleasing and have station amenities that include shelter from the sun, wind and occasional rain.
Hence the article by Christopher Hawthorne of the LA Times, while not to be taken as “fact”, raises numerous and appropriate questions as to the passenger amenities and design elements of the stations for which the taxpayers have paid dearly. Signage, shelter, and aesthetics are all in need of improvement.
In Phase 1, the grassroots was shut out of the station design by an Authority (and particularly by some on the Authority Board) which ran the Expo Line as a top-down project. In Phase 2, the grassroots needs to come back and take the lead in demanding a passenger-friendly project—and the catch-phrase we heard (and almost certainly will hear again) of how “it’s lousy for the Mid-City, so it’s gotta be lousy for the Westside” had and has no merit.
If the stations for the entire line needs fixing, including retroactive fixing for Phase 1, then so be it!
The Expo Line is NOT a gift to developers and their political enablers as an excuse to overdensify and destroy the life of those residing through the regions the Expo Line runs.
Of great concern is the monstrous Casden Sepulveda project that is planned adjacent to the future Exposition/Sepulveda rail station, which is of such a large size, density and impact to traffic/infrastructure that the requested land tract/zoning changes should be disallowed immediately by the City of LA.
Neither Expo Line proponents nor opponents favor the Casden Sepulveda project in its current Draft EIR form, which is NOT “transit-oriented” and is as bad an example of “spot-zoning” as was the Bundy Village project at Olympic/Bundy. The latter was not allowed to proceed after both grassroots and political opposition, and the same should happen for the currently-designed Casden Sepulveda project.
It bears repeating that the work of the grassroots is not over. Both the egos and agendas of political, developer and other special interests threaten this project from being the first-rate project it was envisioned to be by both Metro, Friends4Expo Transit, and the average taxpaying commuter who wanted a better economy, environment and quality of life from this decades-overdue light rail line.
We owe it to ourselves and our children to keep things transparent, appropriate, and reasoned while proving to ourselves and to the nation what the once-and-future Expo Line can be to help transform 21st Century Los Angeles for the better.
(Ken Alpern is a former Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), is a past co-chair of the MVCC Planning and Outreach Committees, and is current Vice Chair of the MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and also chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition. He also is a member of the Friends4Expo Transit (www.friends4expo.org) Steering Committee, and co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.) -cw
Tags: Ken Alpern, transportation, Expo Line, Los Angeles, Westside, carpool, Crenshaw, Mid City, Culver City, LA County, MTA, Metro
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 37
Pub: May 8, 2012
