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NICK’S PERSPECTIVE - The opening of the Wilshire subway’s important extension, blandly named the D-Line, was notable not only for what it achieved but also for how it came about.
Official accounts often make it seem as though elected leaders and professionals accomplished everything important, offering insignificant attention to so many others. As a result, history can overlook key people whose efforts were crucial to one of our most important accomplishments.
Fully involved in the development and realization of this essential transportation expansion, I provide here for the record the background on this vital completion, along with its leading players.
Certainly, it was Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who clearly led the effort to present the vision of a “subway to the sea” to the community at a time when traffic was nearing gridlock.
Historian Kevin Starr, celebrated as California's state librarian and best known for his multi-volume series on the history of California, collectively called "Americans and the California Dream," wrote in his 2004 Coast of Dreams: “Like a half-built medieval cathedral interrupted by plague, famine, or war, the fixed rail system in operation by 2002 only fragmentarily expressed the vision that had so exhilarated Nick Patsaouras and an entire generation of advocates. Yet medieval cathedrals, even when interrupted, had a way of getting finished. For those who still kept the faith, fixed rail remained a certainty for some future time in the drawing millennium".
Indeed, Villaraigosa "kept the faith" and led the efforts to jump-start the stalled fixed rail system when he campaigned for mayor of Los Angeles in 2005. His clarion slogan, "subway to the sea" distinguished him as a bold, visionary leader. The slogan became the metaphor for the whole transportation system.
Villaraigosa had asked me to prepare a map showing in color an extension of the subway to Santa Monica and light rail lines throughout Los Angeles County. Dan Turner, Los Angeles Times editor covering transportation, called me to discuss the map, saying, "The map looks like a Vincent van Gogh drawing".
Once elected, Villaraigosa worked tirelessly to overcome the substantial obstacles placed in the way of the “subway to the sea” by the federal government. He made it one of his top priorities once he was seated as member of the Metro Board of Directors. Arduously, he mastered seven votes to start planning and environmental work for the subway in July 2005. But rivalries within the board prevented getting the eighth vote—even from board members whose constituencies would benefit from a subway along Wilshire Boulevard, thus delaying the extension of the subway by two years.
In 2006, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sponsored Proposition 1B for the November ballot, but absent were both a transit category and transit money in the bill until Villaraigosa convinced him to include seed money for the Wilshire subway.
Astonishingly, the mayor succeeded in getting one billion dollars from the state in 2006, but overruns on the Expo and Orange transit lines caused diversion in the funds and none went to the Wilshire subway.
Steve Hymon, Metro blogger and former Los Angeles Times reporter, observed that Villaraigosa had to fight for Measure R twice: in 2008 to get it adopted, and then again to make sure that the Long-Range Transportation Plan conformed with the measure that would fund transportation projects and programs.
Again, it was Villaraigosa who inspired the efforts of others to support his vision and who navigated the political minefields of the Metro Board and the various Councils of Government throughout Los Angeles County to fashion a winnable ballot measure. Measure R would fund the extension of the Wilshire subway. He steadfastly led the efforts and was significantly supported by others who conducted an effective campaign. This became known as the “inside campaign,” the intra- and inter-governmental effort essential in guiding Measure R to its success.
But equally essential to the success of Measure R was creation of an effective “outside campaign.” Organizer was Denny Zane, former Mayor of Santa Monica, and founder of Move LA. Unfortunately, he and Move LA were not acknowledged at the May 8 opening of the D-Line.
Zane’s part of the campaign involved creation of a coalition of business, labor, environmental, transit, and social justice advocates throughout the county, forming a solid backbone for success. It was this coalition building that gave the Metro Board the confidence it needed to proceed, to provide a key source of campaign funds, and to convince more than two-thirds of voters to increase the sales tax.
The successful two-year effort by Zane’s coalition building was most fully on display at a January 10, 2008, conference entitled “It’s Time to Move LA.” The conference was organized by Zane, civic leader Dan Rosenfeld, and environmentalist Terry O`Day. Held at the Los Angeles Cathedral, the strength, and vigor of the business-labor-environmental coalition became evident in the presence of many Los Angeles and Metro leaders. This was a crucial time, and it created the opportunity for Measure R to catch the thrust it needed.
From this meeting, Assemblymember Mike Feuer returned to Sacramento and submitted the authorizing legislation required for any Metro sales tax measure. To our good fortune, the legislature and the governor affirmed the effort.
Also from this meeting, Santa Monica Mayor Pam O’Connor went to the next Metro meeting where she would become the new Metro Chair and offered the motion to direct staff to begin the process of developing what became Measure R. A majority of Metro Board members concurred.
It was from this fabled conference at the Cathedral that consensus and momentum sprouted wings and led to the success of Measure R, developing the "subway to the sea" extension that we celebrated on May 8.
Looking back, unquestionably, much of the success of Measure R belongs to Mayor Villaraigosa, the Metro Board members of 2008, and the “outside campaign” by Move LA and its founder Denny Zane.
Villaraigosa fulfilled Historian Starr`s prophesy that the fixed rail in LA would be finished. He accomplished this with help from deputy mayor for transportation Jaime de la Vega, his appointee to the Metro Board Richard Katz, County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, and most importantly, from Zane and his Move LA Coalition.
This was a critical, inimitable step that led to the creation of a unique transportation system for the people of Los Angeles.
(Nick Patsaouras is former Metro Board member and parts of this article are drawn from his book "The Making of Modern Los Angeles.” Nick is a featured writer for CityWatchLA.com.)
