[img]1979|right|Mark Ridley-Thomas||no_popup[/img]In the view of one of his sternest critics, County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas tumbled off the spoon into the sizzling, slightly stale, odious onion soup at yesterday’s Metro Board meeting.
Crenshaw Subway Coalition Executive Director Damien Goodmon issued a blistering rebuke of Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s performance yesterday when the topic was how to shlep riders on the so-called Crenshaw to LAX light rail line the last mile and a half to the airport. The rail tracks are scheduled to end at that point, supposedly because Metro is short of funds, not an unusual explanation when the black community of Los Angeles is involved.
“The question yesterday,” Mr. Goodmon told the newspaper, “was whether MRT's unnecessary and wasteful $3.5 billion realignment of the Crenshaw Line to put a station under Bradley Terminal would continue to be considered as part of the environmental review process.
“It was astonishing to see him advocating for it when he hasn't said a word about undergrounding the Crenshaw Line.”
For background, it should be known that for years, Mr. Goodmon has been pleading with Mr. Ridley-Thomas to champion taking the Crenshaw line underground for 11 blocks through a historic black commercial district in Park Mesa Heights. The motivations: safety and to preserve the businesses.
Mr. Ridley-Thomas has declined.
[img]1929|right|Damien Goodmon||no_popup[/img]Here is what Mr. Goodmon said told the Metro Board, including Mr. Ridley-Thomas:
“I cannot express how pleased I am to hear Mark Ridley-Thomas advocate for a tunnel.
“The Crenshaw community hasn’t heard a peep from the Supervisor on a tunnel in 2½ year.
“Not a single motion to add the Park Mesa Heights tunnel as an option during the environmental phase as requested by all of his local black political colleagues.
“Not a peep during the Board’s discussion of Measure J.
“Not a word when it became clear that bidders said the cost was just $60 million.
“Thank goodness now he speaks.
“Oh, wait. It is not for the $60 million tunnel for Park Mesa Heights. It is for a $4.5 billion tunnel under LAX.
“There is nothing wrong – nothing second class about a people mover such as the one at San Francisco Airport. A people mover that would get passengers much closer to their gates – it could have multiple terminal stations – would be much safer from a homeland security standpoint – and much easier to modify to configure with future airport configurations.
“Advocacy for this type of wasteful $4.5 billion LAX tunnel while remaining opposed to actually investing in the Crenshaw Project to preserve and enhance our community is why members of the Second Supervisorial District now question the Supervisor’s judgment and who he is actually serving.”
