Majority Rule and Other Challenging Concepts for Transportation Reform

TRANSPO LA-It should be remembered again and again and again that the Expo Line, the Wilshire Subway, connecting Metro Rail to LAX and a host of freeway projects were passed by the voters by a 2/3 majority when they voted in Measure R in 2008.  So when the majority asks to be heard, it's probably a good idea to talk to them, debate with them, and--ultimately--listen to them. 

And the majority, contrary to the opinion of a few elitists, aren't cruel, stupid, naive, or close-minded--although that attitude might just be held by those transferring their own beliefs to the majority who oppose them. 

So after a decade-plus of fighting to convince the Westside, and the greater region as a whole, that the Expo Line was a great alternative to the I-10 freeway and a way to enhance mobility, I cannot (and nor should my fellow Friends4Expo Transit alumni) ignore all the friends and neighbors who want more parking and access to the Expo Line stations, and to Metro Rail as a whole. 

Perhaps it's a lack of faith in the city/county bus system, perhaps it's a snobbery against buses, and perhaps it's because the City and County are so spread out that the Expo Line--an effective widening of capacity (albeit not the structure) of the I-10 freeway corridor--is as close to car/parking-oriented Metrolink as anything the Westside will ever get, but parking IS a fair issue that we should not just blow off. 

Ditto for those--otherwise very liberal, very progressive, very pro-transit/bicycling citizens--who are concerned that we've jumped the shark on bicycle lanes and are helping too few while telling car commuters (who quite often would love NOT to need their car to get to work) to go straight to gridlock Hell. 

Not a very nice sentiment, and one that's as cruel as those elitists who thought that money and influence could stop the Expo Line that the Westside, Mid-City and Downtown all wanted for years, if not decades. 

My CityWatch contributing colleague Paul Hatfield described this rather well in a recent article that promoted bicycle lanes to be developed through local input and based on local conditions rather than a one-size fits all approach that overly demonized and disempowers car commuters...and potentially hurts bicyclists as well. 

The fact remains that the same Angeleno electorate which loves CicLAvia and demands more respect and safety for bicyclists aren't about to give car commuters the collective middle finger--particularly those with small children, in contrast to those mega-bicycling extremists who have NO children or GROWN children and who give little or no thought to the transportation needs of families with children. 

And please, folks--this is not Amsterdam, this is Los Angeles.  Some analogies fit, but some do NOT.  

Hence we've moved from a Citywide Bicycle Backbone Network--a great idea of having a north-south/east-west grid of bicycle lanes--to an overblown ideology, if not a theocracy of having road diets here, there and everywhere and threatening the safety and sanity of both car commuters and bicyclists alike. 

Ditto for those who've enabled developers by weaseling out of their transportation/parking mitigation obligations under the aegis of being "transit friendly" by paying a token amount for transit that does little to help mobility for all concerned.  The Casden Sepulveda development was the most blatant example, but both the JMB and Hollywood Millennium projects are now taking the heat, in part, for hurting and not helping mobility. 

And when the majority DID weigh in, as Santa Monica did when the people shot down the elitist, top-down, ram-it-down-the-electorate's throat Bergamot Village project (which everyone knew was too darned car-oriented and had NOTHING to do with what the majority wanted when they fought and paid for the Expo Line), the "experts" and "smart guys" had to back off and stand down. 

Perhaps those all too happy at LA City Planning and on the LA City Council can take notice of Santa Monica, because while the Los Angeles Parking Freedom Initiative appears to be gaining ground, those advocating for either a City roads/sidewalk tax, or advocating for another Countywide transit/transportation tax, have a credibility problem that is growing and NOT going away. 

So while it's exciting that China is considering a trans-Siberian train from China to Russia, Alaska, Canada and the continental U.S., our California High-Speed Rail Initiative is anything from open, legal and proper.  

China is NOT the United States, nor do most Americans wish their otherwise-generous and courageous transportation ideas to be run in the same manner as the Chinese. 

The California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) Initiative has some good things going for it, but it was only passed by 51% of the electorate and could never pass now (in contrast to L.A. County Measure R, which is still quite popular for the majority of voters).  

The fact that the CAHSR has proven to be a bait and switch, with questionable legal efforts to move it forward at this point, should make the CAHSR's leaders reconsider its future lest it be killed entirely. 

As stated in my last CityWatch article, political will is the cornerstone of getting things done in this country, and even in this state, county and city. 

Because, in the end, the need for governmental leadership and oversight has not supplanted the all-American paradigm of Majority Rule--even in the City of the Angels.

 

(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, 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 12 Issue 41

Pub: May 20, 2014