January 10-16, 2008
Riding Politicians
[Re: “L.A. Sniper: The Transit Boss,” Jan. 3] Just wanted to thank you for the good reporting, and holding the politicians’ feet to the fire, when it comes to mass transit. Contrary to popular belief (and misreporting on the part of the “mainstream” newspapers), there’s something called a Metro Long Range Transportation Plan that’s updated every few years which results in a prioritization of rail and freeway projects that is divided into a Constrained and Strategic Plan in order to determine what gets built first, then second, then third, etc. I’m only going to refer to the transit projects in the Plan.
The Constrained Plan means it’s “guaranteed” and within Metro’s budget for the next 20 years, and that somehow, someway, someday it’ll be a reality. The Expo Light Rail Line to Santa Monica, divided into two phases (the first has a western terminus at Venice/Robertson in 2010, the second makes it all the way to the Sears Automotive Building in 2013-2015), is in the Constrained Plan. Total cost: $1.9 billion, the way things are going.
A Crenshaw Corridor Transit Project (either a Busway or a light rail, with growing political support for the latter) is also in the Constrained Plan, and will connect LAX with the Expo Line at Crenshaw/Expo. Estimated cost for this project, if it’s a light rail line: $1.2 billion.
A Green Line/LAX Extension is also in the Constrained Plan, but how that’s interpreted in the priority list is up for some debate. It’s a long story, but if it weren’t for Supervisor Yvonne Burke, who seems to mess up everything she touches and oppose/ignore what’s good for the Mid-City/South L.A. Community, we’d already be on our way to getting a Green Line Construction Authority to fast track the work of the Green Line Interagency Task Force and fund this long-overdue rail link. Total estimated cost for this extension: $300 million.
The Foothill Gold Line is a political tug-of-war between San Gabriel Valley politicians and Los Angeles politicians, and is likely to get extended to the Azusa/Irwindale area for a rough cost of $400 million.
Metro staffmembers recommend for the next updated Metro Long Range Transportation Plan to first include and prioritize the Downtown Light Rail Connector, which will connect (probably via a multi-tracked subway) the four existing and future light rail lines converging on Downtown that, in 2010, will be recognized as the biggest transit disconnect since the aforementioned Green Line/LAX gap. Total estimated cost for this project, which, if built right, will be mostly a subway: $800 million.
Metro staff then recommends including a Wilshire Subway at least to Century City. Total estimated cost: $2-3 billion.
Hence we’ve likely got a series of light rail projects to create a countywide rail network for a cost of $4-5 billion, then a subway to the sea for another $4-5 billion, with the money coming from local, state, federal and other sources. Whether it’s an awful conspiracy or a prudent avoidance of unproven technology, there are no monorail or Maglev projects planned for our county any time soon.
That’s our reality, and that’s our immediate challenge if we want to create the 21st century rail transit network to complement the road network built in the first half of the 20th century and the freeway network built in the second half of the 20th century.
I’ve no doubt we’ve got the ability to do all this, provided we’ve got the voter and political will to do this in order to support our economy, our environment and our quality of life for ourselves and for future generations.
Kenneth S. Alpern, M.D. Co-Chair, CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee President, The Transit Coalition Co-Chair, Friends of the Green Line
Precious Paper
Thank you for the excellent editorial “Precious Moments” [Jan.3]. The Central Intelligence Agency has been keeping videotapes as trophies of their “aggressive interrogations” of Middle East detainees at the United States Naval Base and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The CIA’s officials now admit to destroying those tapes of extremely harsh interrogations it order to cover their backsides from an investigation that has begun on Capitol Hill and the 9/11 Committee.
The U.S Justice Department has ordered the FBI to investigate the tapes’ destruction, and to bring “obstruction of justice” charges to those directly involved. President George W. Bush and former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can’t be happy. The former AG exercised his power to pick and choose which laws best suited to Guantanamo Bay.
Whatever you call these interrogations, these methods are not allow by the Geneva Conventions. We are bound by these international rules and agreements too.
Gerald Steven Tlapa
Los Angeles
Published: 01/09/2008
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