Derailing L.A.
Damien Goodmon and his plan to halt the Expo Line
By Greg Katz
The political challenge
One of the leading advocates of the Expo Line is Presley Burroughs, who grew up a mile or so from Dorsey High and still lives in the area. An urban planner, he served on a commission in the early 1980s that drew up a specific plan for Leimert Park, West Adams and Baldwin Hills.“Light rail is what we considered the backbone of that community plan,” says Burroughs, who views the train as a means of upward mobility. “You will be able to go to nursery school, elementary school, middle school, high school, college, and get an advanced degree all in schools along this line and never have to buy a car. That’s a savings of close to $6,000 a year tax-free.”
Two decades ago, Burroughs and about 15 others got together to champion the idea of the Expo Line. It wasn’t a popular cause. “We were fighting elected leaders at the time – a lot of them received resources from neighborhoods that were very much against this proposal. But that’s changing. There’s a group in Cheviot Hills that is in favor of light rail on the existing right-of-way.”
Burroughs remembers an evil side to the early opposition. “The project staff early on received death threats, and they didn’t receive them from the mid-city folks. They received them from folks west. They were reported, but not prosecuted.”
The gist of the threats to the civil servants: “Next time I see you in my neighborhood doing an assessment, you will die,” says Burroughs, who feels that racism continues to be a factor. “Now the element has grown up. The element is still there, but they are reduced in importance.”
Like his coalition, and the merging of forces with Darrell Clarke of Santa Monica and Friends for Expo, the critics of the Expo Line also found each other in different parts of the city. “People who don’t want it in Cheviot Hills and people who don’t want in South L.A., these groups who generally don’t have anything to do with each other in normal circumstances, came together. The same thing with Friends for Expo. Darrell Clarke was working on this issue on the Westside and I was working on this issue in the mid-city area, and all of a sudden, we hook up. And the Internet comes on line and we have a coalition. We have some 2,500 people watching this project worldwide.”
And what those people are hearing could be troubling them right now, as they await the next move by the PUC, L.A. Unified, and the Expo board. Particularly, if they are in Sacramento or Washington, D.C., and wondering if this major project with three decades of history will fulfill its promise.
“What elected official wants to be in office when this project is withdrawn during construction?” wonders Burroughs. “That would be a stain on the political landscape of Southern California that would be very hard to remove for a long time.” The word would go out that, “You had a beautiful project parallel to the Santa Monica Freeway, and you blew it. We’re not going to give you any more money. Take a hike.”
Emma Gallegos contributed to this story.
Published: 02/13/2008
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I haven't really decided how I stand on this issue. In a perfect world the community activists get their way and the subway is sunken (not underground like a subway, but in a trench), and the line gets built. It would actually make a better system that way. So more power to them for fighting the good fight.
However my only point to raise about the post above and about the emotional tactics both sides use, is that we are talking about High School students, not "children". I don't want to see any accidents happen, but we are talking about a group of people many of whom are elegible to drive, so they should be qualified to navigate a rail crossing.
Oh yeah, and the "Sheaf of papers that Damien Goodmon carries around does contain a lot of relevant data about past actions that back up a charge of environmental racism (intentional or otherwise). However his demeanor "You're either with us or against us" doesn't exactly win over friends either.
Light rail lines currently traverse hundreds of miles in many cities across the country. Pedestrian safety statistics show that at-grade rail crossings are no more dangerous than your average intra urban crosswalk. Why doesn
Light rail lines currently traverse hundreds of miles in many cities across the country. Pedestrian safety statistics show that at-grade rail crossings are no more dangerous than your average intra urban crosswalk. Why doesn
n
Goodman puff up and voice his discontent with every road expansion near a school in the south side. I mean some of these roads are massive (8+ lane giving you about 2.3 seconds to reach the other side)
If these High School
Why wont this damn thing post my FULL COMMENT!!
If these High School "Children" who can themselves have children, vote, and drive a 5 ton vehicle are not capable of seeing and moving when a lumbering train moving @ 15-20 MPH approaches, then i say GOOD!... we need to thin out the herd anyway. kidding aside, the expo line is a good thing not just for the immediate residents, but for the region, roads and environment as a whole.
No matter how many numerous times I have encountered them, I find comments like from CityMe very disturbing. She/he is the typical racist/classist Cheviot Hills NIMBY who thinks she/he can still derail the Expo Line.
The Westside (by which I am referring to the region from Downtown to Santa Monica) desperately needs rail transportation. Modern rail transportation is very safe and exists everywhere in the country and world except the Westside.
Light-rail is the form of modern transportation that, unlike the subway (heavy-rail), integrates perfectly with the environment, without creating a safety hazard.
The Expo corridor has been built as a rail-transportation corridor in 1875, and with its mix of suburban and urban elements, it probably offers the best opportunity for a modern light-rail line in the entire world.
There is no good reason to bury this beautiful light-rail line underground. The whole concept here is the "transit parkway," a light-rail line that runs along pedestrian and bicycle paths and encourages alternative forms of transportation. Who would like to commute in a dark subway, given the alternative choice of surface rail in Southern California?
Clint Simmons doesn't want to see this line built because he has a house adjacent to the line west of La Brea. Damien Goodmon wants this line to be buried underground because he is paranoid that the second, western phase of the line will be built to higher standards. He is the guy who started playing the race card, but in my opinion, he is one of the most racist people around in this game. He can
(continued)
Clint Simmons doesn't want to see this line built because he has a house adjacent to the line west of La Brea. Damien Goodmon wants this line to be buried underground because he is paranoid that the second, western phase of the line will be built to higher standards. He is the guy who started playing the race card, but in my opinion, he is one of the most racist people around in this game. He can
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Damien can
We so desperately need the Expo line to be built ASAP, no matter what color you are, no matter where you live along the line. Mid-City and Westside areas are in total gridlock in morning and evening rush-hours. We finally have a project that will give us needed relief and now some weird group is trying to sabotage it. Just what we need!
Is there
Is there
Is there environmental racism along the alignment? NO! Why is it that the Eastside extension of the Gold Line is currently being constructed at-grade within 50 feet of Ramona High School and is applauded by the community? But in the mid-city area, it
But in the mid-city area, its tagged as environmental racism being built next to Dorsey High. I just don not get it.
Funny how Goodman doesn't say a word that once the kids cross those big evil tracks they face a much more dangerous problem: the road with drivers that don't pay attention and trucks flying by. Why isn't Goodman demanding the highway be eliminated or put in a subway?
Damien, you gave away the whole game.
"I'm not concerned about who supports this outside my community."
Well, I have news for you. You don't live only that one community. You live in the city and the county of Los Angeles. And so I do. And I won't have you destroying mass transit (again) for the county of Los Angeles, which, in case you didn't know is made up of more than one neighborhood.
Mass transit has to be planned on a large scale. You, of all people, the originator of getlamoving.com, should take that to heart, rather than parochial concerns, which have already been addressed.
You're no better than those crabby old people in Cheviot Hills.
Hands off my transit system, and L.A. County's transit system.
I agree. Those children who are stupid enough to get in front of a train when it's crossing need to get weeded out of the gene pool. (And there are many stupid children who will purposely do this. We have posters admonishing this type of behavior on the NYC subway to prove this.) Look at Friedberg, Germany whose rail lines run above ground. Does anyone jump in front of them? No, probably not because they don't care for the injury, even though they have national health care! So, first, Damien, you and your constituents need to be selfless. Before blaming and complaining, why don't you come up with viable answers for the City, perhaps raise the money first before proposing an underground project? It's easy to point the finger when you're not doing the work.
Here is a good example of a solution looking for a problem. Daimin Goodmon a neighborhood activist that is looking for a cause to gain political recognition and is making a big deal out of nothing. He has cost us $250,000.00 to start.
The grade separations at USC, La Brea, LA Cenega and Culver City have many thousands of cars passing an hour with complicated intersections. If not separated there would be traffic delays even with only a 30 second period with the gates down as the cars passed. This is not the case at the Dorsey crossing.
Is Daimin trying to tell us that the students are not smart enough to stay out of the way of an approaching train even with gates blocking their way? Somehow the students have figured out how to stay out of the street when cars are coming. Theses are bright High School students, give them some credit and not use them as pawns to gain political power.
There are many other surface LRT lines that pass schools and somehow the line does not put at risk the students anymore than crossing a street.
The MTA, the construction authority and the PUC had it right the first time with allowing an at grade crossing. Even if the money were there a grade separation should not be built
Given the clear and outrageous slant presented by the author, it makes me wonder if he is on the Expo payroll.
Not only does the author try to play the race card when it doesn't exist (except in his mind), he ignores the horrible safety record of streetlevel light rail in L.A.
On Racism: The author has chosen to dredge up one comment by one person... 20 years ago. The FACT is that communities up and down the expo line are concerned for the safety of their children and the horrible impacts on traffic that an at-grade expo line would have. If the author had actually done ANY research, he would have found that racism just doesn't play a part. He would have found that we are all working together. Even though that wouldn't have made the article quite as "interesting," it would have been the truth.
On Solutions: $1,600,000,000. That's one hell of a lot of money to pay for a project that will put kids at risk and act as a roadblock on our streets. That's one hell of a lot of money to spend when we are told we don't have any money to spend. Why not dedicate that money to a maglev system that runs ON the 10, will cost about the same, not harm neighborhoods and not put kids at risk? Why not dedicate those scarce resources to the Wilshire subway?
The author has clearly been wooed by the elected officials who want to look like they are doing SOMETHING about traffic. Unfortunately, those elected officials will be long gone by the time the Expo line starts hurting kids and blocking traffic.
The slant the author has missed is WHY the Expo line is being pushed so hard. The answer: Property owners and develoeprs along the line are looking to make millions once the line goes past their property. Given our elected official's fondness for developer contributions, it all starts to become clear.
Citybeat: Why not try to find a reporter who can report the facts and not make up his or her own to fit a pre-conceived and poorly supported case for the expo line.
Congratulations to Mr. Goodmon for going out to build alliances throughout the city to protect our neighborhoods and to protect our kids from an ill-conceived project.
The author owes him an apology and owes the public the real story.