All Aboard, City Council
Who says L.A. City Councilmembers are too good to take public transportation?
Ed Reyes
District 1
Residence: Mt. Washington
Mass-transit habits: Just about never because nothing comes close enough to his home.
What would increase his use? Says Press Deputy Monica Valencia: More accessible, more extensive, and more reliable.
Wendy Gruel
District 2
Residence: Studio City
Mass-transit habits: The chair of the Transportation Committee wants to be a good role model, so she takes the Orange Line or Red Line to and from her home once a week.
What would increase her use? Says Communications Director Ben Golombek: "The councilwoman's been advocating for a seamless and comprehensive public transit system. Right now, depending on the location, it takes longer to get there on public transit. That's why she's been lobbying for transportation funds for Subway to the Sea and a variety of big public transit projects."
Dennis Zine
District 3
Residence: Southwest San
Fernando Valley
Mass-transit habits: "Occasionally," says Zine.
What would increase your use? A "more convenient [transit system] would make it appropriate for me."
Tom LaBonge
District 4
Residence: Silver Lake
Mass-transit habits: Says LaBonge: "I take the No. 4 bus down Sunset, I take the 92 sometimes down Glendale Boulevard., but I haven't [taken the bus from home to work] this year ... I've jumped on a Dash bus here and there." He adds: "I do Bike to Work Week every year."
What would increase your use? "I have not been as good as I'd like to be this year. I have children that go to school at two different schools is one thing. That's a little bit of an obligation ... but I'm guilty."
Jack Weiss
District 5
Residence: Near UCLA
Mass-transit habits: "He rarely uses public transportation because his daily schedule typically extends from breakfast meetings to evening events and involves multiple trips to his City Hall office, the Valley, the Westside, and to other locations in the city for events and meetings," says Deputy Chief of Staff Lisa Hansen.
What would increase his use? "To use transit more frequently, Councilmember Weiss would need an efficient extension of the subway to the Westside to connect to downtown," Hansen says. "Even if the subway could transport him to his City Hall office, he still would need use of an automobile to attend meetings at locations throughout the City that are not well served by public transit."
Richard Alarcon
District 7
Residence: Panorama City
Mass-transit habits: "He doesn't regularly," says Press Deputy David Fink. "The problem is, coming down to City Hall, he would have to take a bus to the Red Line, and then the Red Line to get here, and that would take him two-and-a-half hours. Time-wise, it just doesn't make sense for him. But when he can, when it's more on leisure time, he has taken the Red Line and the bus."
What would increase his use? "It's not really feasible with his schedule. He has to be able to respond to emergencies and he never knows where he's going to have to be ... During the Northridge earthquake in 1994, he was the first councilmember to get to central command ... While he encourages the staff and everyone else to take mass transit when they can, based on his schedule, he's expected to be in two, three, four, sometimes five places per day. It just doesn't work for him. There's basically no metropolitan city anywhere in the U.S. with a mass-transit system that could feasibly do that."
Bernard Parks
District 8
Residence: Baldwin Hills
Mass-transit habits: Does not take transit.
What would increase his use? "With his schedule the way that it is, it's virtually impossible for him to take mass transit and be at his meetings on time," says aide Shawn Parker. The councilmember says he wants to continue to evaluate the system to find possibilities for making it more useful on a daily basis.
Jan Perry
District 9
Residence: Downtown
Mass-transit habits: Occasionally uses DASH, train, and Metro.
What would increase her use? "Her schedule is constantly changing and it makes it difficult to use public transportation without a lot of advance notice," says Communications Director Eva Kandarpa.
Herb Wesson
District 10
Residence: Longwood Highlands
Mass-transit habits: He uses the DASH occasionally, but "rarely, because of the nature of his work," says Deputy Ed Johnson.
What would increase his use? "A mass-transit system that will move you quickly," says Johnson. "More development of our regional transit would mean more options."
Eric Garcetti
District 13
Residence: Echo Park
Mass-transit habits: "He uses the bus or train fairly regularly. He'll use the Dash lines or the MTA lines," says Communications Director Josh Kamensky.
What would increase his use? "He would need a better neighborhood circulator system," says Kamensky. "He would like a system that somebody as peripatetic as he could use on a regular basis. To that end, we are working on neighborhood connectors and circulators like the Silver Lake Dash that will further connect our neighborhoods and help more Angelenos use mass transit."
Jose Huizar
District 14
Residence: Boyle Heights, close to Cesar Chavez Avenue and State Street.
Mass-transit habits: "I take the DASH for short trips around downtown, and occasionally the MTA bus for trips around Boyle Heights," Councilmember Huizar says via e-mail.
What would increase your use? "For Boyle Heights, the construction of the Gold Line Extension is crucial to assist more residents and myself to utilize mass transit. The Gold Line Extension will serve as a vital link between Boyle Heights and the social, cultural, and economic centers in the greater Los Angeles region. The Gold Line will also allow me to be more mobile during days in which my schedule and commitments permit me to ride it to City Hall and other areas of Los Angeles. Having better connections between rail lines and key destinations throughout the City would help me use mass transit daily. I am a huge supporter of the DASH, and extending the distances and routes that it currently services will help me and other Angelenos travel throughout the City more easily."
Janice Hahn
District 15
Residence: San Pedro
Mass-transit habits: "She does not use public transit because there is no passenger rail service connecting the Harbor Area to downtown Los Angeles," says Deputy Courtney Chesla. "She does drive a hybrid though."
What would increase her use? "The councilwoman is currently pushing for the creation of a light-rail 'Harbor Line.' She
recently lobbied the L.A. Harbor Commission to fund a feasibility study of creating a rail line to connect downtown to other parts of Los Angeles."
Published: 09/27/2007
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