FIRST THINGS FIRST - The Los Angeles 2020 Commission suggests in its initial report that there should be more regional cooperation to fix the city. Absolutely. LA faces between $3 billion and $5 billion of street and sidewalk repairs. This isn’t just a local problem … it’s a regional one.
Think of the thousands of people who don’t live in the city of LA but drive through it every day to get to work in Santa Monica, Burbank, Thousand Oaks, and the other employment centers around the region. Their traffic helps wear out the streets of Los Angeles!
Will the 2020 Commission recommend a regional approach to transportation infrastructure improvements that recognizes the urgency of fixing streets and sidewalks shared by residents and commuters alike? We will know soon enough.
And what about the Spunnel (the proposed Sepulveda Pass underground tunnel)? It’s a fantastic dream, but the same bucket of money would fix all of LA’s streets and sidewalks in relatively short order … making the city more livable and attractive to residents and businesses. Where does the Spunnel fit in the grand scheme of things?
Funding to address transportation priorities is finite. Let’s hope the LA 2020 Commission advocates a regional approach to fixing the city, and calls for putting first things first.
(Cary Brazeman, a CityWatch contributor, owns a marketing agency in Los Angeles. He serves as a neighborhood council board member and is a former executive with CBRE. A transit advocate, Cary campaigned for Measure J and supports expanding bus and other circulator service in Los Angeles.)
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 12 Issue 8
Pub: Jan 28, 2014
