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MY THOTS - I have not written for a few weeks because of the difficult issues our City has been facing---and to be clear while we all respect peaceful protest, violence and looting is totally and completely unacceptable--which needs to come with serious consequences. There is more to say, but this is not the right forum for that.
Back to Metro---you may recall Sosa (he's not entitled to a pronoun as I will explain in what follows) was the person Metro served up for the Deposition--another one of Metro's morons who are incapable of telling the truth. You may recall that he stated that he did not talk to people in Bel Air because we were only a neighborhood--merely lowly residents. Buried in the DEIR [Draft Environmental Impact Report] from STCP 11 DEIR Chapter 11, Noise and Vibration, Page 125. "Impact Area 8a/8b (This relates to Alternative 4) --"In the mountain segment between Sunset Boulevard and Stone Canyon Road 23 single family Category 2 residential receptors and the Bel Air Hotel would be exposed to GBN levels that would exceed the FTA Category 2 criteria--and 6 of those homes would be subject to higher levels". So, solutions would be required to reduce vibrations and noise by rail operations. Further in the paragraph, it's written that vibration of rail operations would be reduced below applicable criteria for both vibration and noise--which leads to one observation and a few questions. The observation is that it will clearly impact the quality of life in the community where there has been NO community outreach and no underground noise and vibrations--which is totally unacceptable--and the questions to be asked---is that after 25 years of futility and ineptitude, why would anyone believe anything Metro publishes--and why would you tunnel under a residential community when you could tunnel under public thoroughfares---clearly viable alternatives. All it proves is the malignancy of the agency.
In earlier emails, I've written that Peter Carter--Senior Planning Manager at Metro---is a blithering idiot--something Sosa--Chief Planning Officer--aspires to. Sosa was asked in his deposition what facts that I wrote in my emails (which included cost, time to build, where funds would come from, ridership numbers) were not accurate. His initial answer--"there is no manure pile"--maybe he should take a hard look in the mirror and find that what I wrote might actually be true. Who testifies that there is no need to talk to a community, who are merely residents, when the agency you work for can impact its quality of life and you admit you talk to lobbyists whose interests are averse to ours. When you ignore the voices of the community you intend to impact, you open yourself up to ridicule, derision, mockery, contempt and embarrassment--not to mention litigation--which is definitely deserved. You are not a bureaucratic officer---you're a bureaucratic rodent--who deserves all the opprobrium he gets--and spare me that I'm being mean--I am, and he deserves it--and this is an instance where humiliation is not only appropriate but absolutely required.
Another untruth/lie Sosa told at his deposition is that Metro does not screen questions in at its public meetings--which it clearly does. At yesterday's sessions, questions were asked and deliberately ignored--which I know for a fact. Moderator at end said that they had covered all the questions that were asked---which was unequivocally untrue and was a lie.
In the next week, I'm going to circulate an accurate review of Metro's DEIR--highlighting their misrepresentations and furtive manner in which they deal with the public. The reason Metro is working so hard to keep us from obtaining the information and emails is because they show their absolute disdain for our community and could care less what the public thinks. Many of the outcomes in this and other project are predetermined which causes the need for such secrecy. If I'm wrong produce what we're asking for--silence and deception only proves my thesis is correct.
One last point, at yesterday’s public meeting, Anthony Clump/Crum(p) stated that the funding for the project would be considered later--which is a form of idiocy even I cannot understand. The DEIR published 2023 numbers--and considering inflation of about 10% a year--it means their numbers are clearly worthless--not worth the paper they are written on and wrong by at least 25%--not to mention--for the zillionth time---that all underground solutions will cost more than $30B (and that's without the litigation which will delay the project by more than 4 years--and who knows what the cost will be then). Simply put they don't have the money to complete any underground solution--so all this project is --is full employment for Metro's tunnel digging buffoons...The City is broke---the County just spent $4B to settle claims------and the state and the Feds are not receptive. Metro is asking for more money to operate in the next fiscal year and putting a bond issue on the ballot in next year's election--and requesting $3B for the Olympics. Simply put this is the definition of derangement--which our spineless Mayor and her cohorts allow to continue. No accountability which the frustrated taxpaying majority of this city must endure.
(Fredric D. Rosen is a retired Businessman who has served on multiple corporate (both public and private) and charitable boards. He was Ticketmaster's CEO for 16 years and was responsible for making it the leading ticket company in the world.)
