Fixing LA’s Transportation and Infrastructure: More about Will Than Money

LA TRANSPORTATION-If we're done talking about Donald Sterling's latest stupid rant, can we go back to fixing the problems that are really affecting Los Angeles (and, to an extent, the rest of the state and nation)? 

After all, it's not as if we've got a lack of problems to address--too many conservative leaders fail to raise the issue of middle-class suffering, and too many liberal leaders cause and even exacerbate this suffering for their own political and economic ends.  

Conservatives appear cruel and clueless, and liberals appear to be either naïve or cunningly calculative ... and it's darned hard to find a leader who speaks for the average Angeleno, Californian, or American.  Conservatives are quick to decry lousy spending while failing to enunciate their answers to big problems, and liberals are happy to defend lousy spending because it "creates jobs". 

But, as always, it's about money ... but it's much MORE about political will.  And the will of the people to find time in their busy, sleep-deprived, thankless and tireless lives to get things done. 

This is the DIY generation, after all, right? 

So when we learn that tens of thousands of power poles require replacing, and that the LADWP is--as usual--addressing that problem in an unnecessarily costly manner, we can either blindly give them yet even more money, or we can push for an open, transparent process that compares how they replace those poles with how other cities do it for much less. 

Ditto with the high cost--and high inefficiency--of 3-1-1 calls that was recently concluded in an audit done by City Controller Ron Galperin.  Compared with other cities, the cost, quality and effectiveness shows that 3-1-1 is just NOT where it ought to be compared to other American cities. 

Which, of course, raises several issues, not the least of which is why these audits and transparency weren't a standard operating protocol of former Controller Wendy Greuel, who with former City Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa operated the City of the Angels more like a political fiefdom than a civil service-oriented meritocracy. 

And while it's easy to blame the incestuous and nefarious relationships between past (and some present) political leaders and past public sector union leadership, it's more complicated than that--if we get the LA City civil service to become more of a meritocracy (as it once was) and less of a politically-appointed circus (as it too-often now is), then we can fully restore the partnership between the people and civil servants of our City. 

Because while some of our City and LADWP employees have earned a pay cut or even a pink slip, some are frightfully overdue for a raise!  Unfortunately, the latter are being forced to carry the former ... but I digress... 

As George Skelton noted and quoted of Governor Brown in his Capitol Journal column May 15th, he might be able to keep a fiscal lid on the budget compared to other Sacramento spend-like-crazy liberals, but his dogged insistence on the California High Speed Rail (which is underfunded and not consistent with its legal requirements) is hurting Sacramento's credibility. 

Governor Brown and Sacramento did not finish the job of the 405 widening, as Caltrans is supposed to do, but had to give leadership (and much of the funding) to Metro.  In other words, the most congested freeway segment in our nation had to be done by LA County, not Metro. 

Do we hear a promise or declaration of support from Sacramento to create and help fund a LAX/Metro Rail linkage if a final plan is put in place?  Certainly, Sacramento can't commit to supporting anything that's a work in progress, but with consensus building for the LAX Connect plan, even a prodding from the Governor to "get it done, and we'll help fund it" would show that Sacramento means business. 

Of course, the difficult and painful (and NECESSARY) question of whether the funding of a third of the state on Medi-Cal is getting in the way of state spending on transportation/infrastructure isn't being asked--and, of course, if folks like me (a physician who treats Medi-Cal patients every day) raise the question, I'm called all sorts of hateful names and epithets. 

Ditto for Washington, D.C.--President Obama chides the Republicans for not spending more on transportation, but then he won't answer for the AWFUL stimulus spending that was NOT spent well, and NOT spent on transportation/infrastructure projects that local cities and counties were screaming for.  And the issue of health/welfare costs preventing transportation spending is not "allowed" to be raised, either. 

Too bad that the Republicans are still falling into the caricature of ridiculous and cruel tightwads, and too bad that the Democrats are still falling into the caricature of ridiculous spend-others'-money freaks...because we've got work to do. 

But while the problems exist, the people can help fix things--we elected Garcetti over Greuel because she appeared too cozy with the wrong public sector unions, and out of touch with ordinary Angelenos, and we elected Galperin over Zine because we wanted a controller, and not another politician like Greuel wasting our time and money at the Controller's office. 

And if Santa Monica residents just raised hell to kill a rather over-dense, overdevelopment at Bergamot Station--which is the sort of project that is hurting the credibility and perception of the Exposition Light Rail Line--we can do the same in Los Angeles.  

Having been part of the anti-Casden/Sepulveda fight, I can tell you it was a living nightmare...but if it changes the way things are done in Los Angeles, then it's worth it.  It's of note that many of the same people who fought for the existence of the Expo Line are now fighting the overdeveloping pols and lobbyists who are popping up out of nowhere and exploiting it ... 

... and we're also fighting for more parking/access to the line we're paying for, to boot. 

Volunteerism is something that LA is known for, and it's time we showed our so-called leaders who really runs this City.  Whether it's the obnoxious and illegal JMB project in Century City, or the inappropriate and unsafe Hollywood Millennium project, we don't have to put up with bad Planning based on corruption and lobbying when there are so many appropriate projects we can throw our private and public funds into. 

There are so many fiscal issues to raise, but they all come down to the same thing:  it's not the amount of money we spend, but how it's spent, that gets the job done right. 

And while money is always an issue, when it comes to getting that job done right is much more a matter of political and public will than money can ever be.

  

(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] This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, 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 12 Issue 40

Pub: May 16, 2014