Re “Now Whole Country Knows About Mayor’s Deliberate Snub of Crenshaw”
Greetings, Mr. Mayor,
I read the article in The New York Times today about the Crenshaw Line and I was initially surprised by the arrogance of your statement.
Despite your $2.5 million “Yes on Measure J” team losing to a $20,000 grassroots campaign of communities disrespected by you and the MTA, you apparently still have not learned.
In explaining why you oppose returning our tax dollars to the Crenshaw Line, you continue to ignore that the Los Angeles rail system would not exist if not for the overwhelming support of South L.A. voters for multiple sales tax increases for transportation. You continue to forget that you never would have become mayor if not for the black community.
No, Mr. Mayor, you did not upgrade the Crenshaw line from a busway to a light rail. It was the black community that did that by voting overwhelmingly for Measure R in 2008.
When just enough black people voted against the 2012 Measure J transportation tax to help defeat it, we did so not because we oppose mass transit expansion, but because we oppose your attempt to pimp us.
Over a hundred billion dollars at MTA's disposal and you can't underground the Crenshaw Line for 11 blocks and add a station at the region's black cultural center?
First, Measure J is defeated, then The New York Times highlights your effort to destroy the last black business corridor in Los Angeles. Your campaign to become Transportation Secretary in Obama's second term is becoming unnecessarily more difficult.
The clock is ticking on your time to cede to the demands of the Crenshaw community…
Rail Plan Stirs Distrust Among Black Angelenos
Dr. King taught us: “At the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
Success is planned.
Ms. Fowler may be contacted at cjfowler@att.net
