[Editor’s Note: Mr. Goodmon is Chair of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition and the Fix Expo Campaign.]
South L.A. Community stakeholders and allies:
I've received reports that supporters of the November ballot initiative Measure J, which is led by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and others who have ignored the requests of our community with respect to transportation, have reached out to some of you requesting your support.
They are in search of black faces to support their unjust, unfair, and unacceptable proposed sales tax increase that provides not a penny for our community to address the outstanding issues on the soon-to-begin construction Crenshaw-LAX Rail Line.
The proposed Countywide sales tax increase Measure J will tax South L.A. communities until 2069. It is projected to generate an additional $90 billion for MTA, on top of the $40 billion already dedicated to transit expansion through Measure R, which was passed in 2008.
There are many arguments for opposing Measure J, including the insufficiency of the projects to meet our region's transportation needs for the next 57 years, the inability of the MTA to manage so many projects simultaneously, the lack of sufficient funding to operate the projects and accompanying bus service that is constantly being cut.
The simple truth that you cannot trust Mayor Villaraigosa and this MTA board.
For me, a left-of-center voter, who almost always votes for infrastructure improvements, I simply can't get past the inequity of taxing black people, brown people and poor people in our community to give MTA a $90 billion check, and not receiving a single penny in return to address the issues on the Crenshaw-LAX Line.
Check This Comparison
The highest estimate of the additional cost to add a rail station at Leimert Park Village and underground the Crenshaw-LAX Rail Line for just 11 blocks on Crenshaw Boulevard is less than 1/2 of 1 percent of $90 billion.
Let that sink in: The MTA/Villaraigosa want us and our great-grandchildren to sacrifice, and they don't even want to return less than 1/2 of 1 percent of the proceeds to address the Crenshaw Line issues.
Where I grew up, the kids have a phrase for this type of action: “STRAIGHT GANGSTA!”
Said simply, Villaraigosa is trying to Jack us with Measure J.
This Is Who They Are
For years I have witnessed this level of arrogance and disrespect of our community by the Villaraigosa-controlled MTA. Many of you witnessed it personally just a little over a year ago when 600 of us packed that board room.
We asked MTA to appropriate the money for a station at our African-American cultural center and to underground the line for 11 blocks on Crenshaw Boulevard to preserve our community, defend our children's lives and position us for an economic revival that we have awaited for generations.
It is instructive to remember the response by Villaraigosa and the MTA's board to that level of unity unseen in our community in my young lifetime. It's a familiar cry whenever we attempt to demand adequate return for our investments: “We don't have the money!”
Even though South L.A. voters helped pass the first sales tax increase for MTA that generated $40 billion (Measure R), with a straight face and a crooked smile Villaraigosa said to us they didn't have the money. As Mayor Villaraigosa with his close friend in Sacramento, Assemblymember Mike Feurer (who will be on the L.A. City ballot for City Attorney in March), composed Measure J, they still “couldn't find the money” for Crenshaw.
Too Smart to be Played for Fools
Before we consider sacrificing $90 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars to MTA, there must be a change in the manner that the MTA and this Mayor consider our community.
That change will not occur before Election Day. Accordingly, we do not want, and we cannot trust, this crop to make decisions about how to spend $90 billion of transportation funds for the next 57 years. They have promised to leave us out. Should the measure pass, we should expect them to keep their word.
(Soon to be uploaded at www.CrenshawSubway.org)
Additional commentaries opposing Measure J from a diverse group of individuals:
Dr. Anthony Samad (link):
“Most feel that the community’s support of Measure R wasn’t adequately rewarded, that Measure R funds shortchanged the Southside and the Eastside in favor of projects on the Westside. There is no incentive for the community to tax itself if it will not receive benefits from Measure J transportation projects. If there was a fourth thing the community came away with, it was that it was tired of being taken for granted. It was tired of being punked.”
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas:
“Metro’s staff says it needs the [sales tax] extension to build 30 years’ worth of transportation projects in 10 years, but I have serious reservations. Clearly, more projects can be built if Metro has more money — but even when it has funds, Metro has struggled to execute its projects.”
L.A. Council member Bernard Parks (via CityWatch):
“This new [sales tax] extension…goes contrary to the original plan by not giving a specific timeline for the projects. No new transportation projects are being added. The extra tax is simply to accelerate the speed of the current projects. To tax people until the year 2069 merely to speed up projects that have already been approved and funded is not in the community’s best interest.”
