29
Fri, Mar

Want LA Taxpayers to Support Measure R-2: Stop Ignoring Them!

ARCHIVE

TRANSPORTATION POLITICS--Many of my "pro-transportation" articles for CityWatch strive to be upbeat and optimistic in their tempo, hoping and urging our City and County leaders to do the right thing, represent the voters and taxpayers, and lead from behind.  This isn't one of those articles. 

By and large, transportation/infrastructure advocates tend to be politically and fiscally more moderate than either the megaliberal "let's build everything, regardless of the lack of money" extremists, or the megaconservative "let's build nothing, no way and no how" extremists.  So there are two ways to promote a Measure R-2, which is the fourth countywide sales tax to be promoted over the past 30 years: 

1) Come up with a vision to fight for, to dream about, and to offer for future generations who (hopefully) will thank us as much as we thank the 1950's generation for funding and building the Interstate freeway system. 

2) Acknowledge that a "Come-to-Jesus" talk is long overdue to all the creepy politicians and developers and special interests who've hurt our Economy, Environment, and Quality of life with past transportation initiatives gone awry...while making us, the taxpayers, pay for it all. 

My last CityWatch article offered quite a few rail and road initiatives that would truly help bring L.A. City and County into the 21st Century. 

And now it's time to remind our new Metro CEO, Philip Washington (who, in all sincerity and enthusiasm, strikes me as a kind, honorable, visionary and exemplary individual), and the Metro Board of Directors (some who are just great, some so-so, and some who are rather despicable), of a few painful but (regrettably) truthful realities: 

1) We're in a drought and with insufficient water for those already living here, we've got overdevelopment and overpopulation, and we're supposed to use transportation as a way to import more people than these proposed new transportation projects could ever carry?   

Seriously, think about that...and perhaps we can focus any transit-oriented development to improving the jobs and salaries of those already living here, and who are being asked to payg for R-2. 

2) You want an Olympics?  Heck, I want an Olympics!  But if the City of L.A. is going to sell another transportation tax, then perhaps its leaders ought to "cool their jets" and use Measure R-2 as the perfect way to come up with the lion's share of paying for our broken roads and sidewalks...and to pay for first-rate bus shelters, bike racks, and rail/bus/transit amenities. 

So while speeding up the Crenshaw/LAX and Wilshire/Purple Subway lines makes good sense, so does fixing and creating the smaller infrastructure/public works which are not going to be done for years, and which vex local residents throughout the County. 

3) Stop telling Expo Line advocates (using the Expo Line as an example) that "the line is done" so time to move on.  I can't speak for Culver City or Santa Monica residents, but we've got lousy and insufficient parking--particularly at both the Exposition/Sepulveda and Venice/Robertson train stations, which are the key freeway/rail intersections.  

Perhaps the Metro Board of Directors ought to be required to write a hundred times (perhaps a thousand times, if necessary) that "there is no Westside and Mid-City Metrolink" in order to figure out that the Expo Line, which really is the alternative to the I-10 freeway, needs more parking for Valley, South Bay and Orange County (and local!) commuters to access mass transit. 

The Casden project at Exposition/Sepulveda was a horrible acknowledgement of the true dirty politics behind the otherwise-overdue Expo Light Rail Line:  we've got first-rate, freeway-adjacent real estate next to the 405 freeway that's really good for industrial use only.   

I'll be blunt, since I've nothing to lose at this point:  if local leaders cannot come up the vision and leadership to promote a parking lot, multimodal transit center, or Silicon Beach use, then ask Councilmember Bonin and the Metro Board of Directors to figure out the proper land use.  Measure R-2 can and should pay for public-benefit land use at that site (parking, transit center, industrial jobs/employment)...or Measure R-2 should be rejected by Westside voters. 

And stop coming up with excuses:  fix and finish the doggone Expo Bikeway, and stop telling bicyclists and local taxpayers the myriad excuses as to why we can't do it .  It's bad enough that the Expo Bikeway and Greenway, which were supposed to lead and be part of the Expo Line project, got shunted off to the side altogether, but enough is enough...presuming our "leaders" expect us to vote for Measure R-2. 

4) And Mid-City residents should be granted parking, better transit amenities, and better public-benefit projects for their own stations.  No race-baiting, no "us versus them" politics, or anything else like that, because the Crenshaw, Green and Blue Lines need their own betterments and improved housing/transit-oriented development.  Black and Latino and Asian voters and taxpayers deserve respect as much as anyone else. 

5) Tell developers that they must abide by the law, and not the other way around.  If the developers cry about not making ENOUGH money for their "transit-oriented" and "affordable housing" developments, then come up with a private/public partnership to keep these developments right-sized and benefiting primarily those residents who already live here. 

After all, what's the point of asking us to pay for more transportation/infrastructure if we're going to suffer because of it?  Why shouldn't we get something back on our investment? 

And giving voters and taxpayers the cold shoulder isn't the same as saying "We Need to Lean Forward!" 

And giving voters and taxpayers the finger isn't the same as saying "We're Number One!"

 

(Ken Alpern is 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 is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at  [email protected]   He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and 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 13 Issue 84

Pub: Oct 16, 2015

Get The News In Your Email Inbox Mondays & Thursdays