CommentsALPERN AT LARGE--While not giving anyone a "pass", it's safe to say that Metro still enjoys the reputation of a reformed agency that is trying to do its best by the taxpayers and commuters of LA County. Compared to other public agencies, it's responsive and responsible and tries to do what it's told ... including the construction of infrastructure projects that should have been built decades ago.
Certainly, Metro can't be blamed for the brain-dead decisions of the politicians they report to, but they have done a pretty good job of exploring and recommending the right projects to their political bosses, and based on the community feedback for which they've become known for pursuing.
Enter the 2028 Olympics fight. Los Angeles won, and is probably one of the few locations in the world that can accommodate such games ... and with that bid the race to build out a 21st Century Los Angeles transportation infrastructure is on!
More will be discussed about the list of projects, but the aggressive effort to build out LA County's Metro projects--within our lifetimes! is listed here.
The spirit of Measures R and M are embodied in this list, and the push to get this all build out over the next decade or so is a working paradigm for which the taxpayers will certainly respect (DO something about traffic, right?).
How this plays out is a work in progress, but at least this is something to be happy about as the City and County of Los Angeles goes through its other tumultuous debates and struggles.
(Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D. is a dermatologist who has served in clinics in Los Angeles, Orange, and Riverside Counties, and is a proud father and husband to two cherished children and a wonderful wife. He is also a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member 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 was co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chaired 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 Dr. Alpern.)
-cw
