Officially, the most compelling question anyone thought up at last night’s City Council meeting went unanswered.
However, the Interim President of West Los Angeles College fearlessly waded in when asked by the newspaper:
Is it ever reasonably possible that the college will independently provide cross-campus transportation for students?
“No, absolutely not,” said Dr. Rose Marie Joyce, the best-coiffed college president north of San Diego and south of Portland.
“It is not financially feasible. We literally would have to go out and buy busses so we could go to Denny’s restaurant (across the street from campus) and pick them up.
“Not only that, these are the same students who support businesses in Culver City. They are patrons here,” she said while seated in the front row of Council Chambers.
“Many students are Culver City residents. They have reason to expect the same service other people expect. Not only that, in the Environmental Impact Report (last year) we tried to meet interests. That is what the whole thing was about. That is why it took us so long.
“Remember the night of the Final Environmental Impact Report last year, and all at once the residents of Lakeside Villa spoke up (about intolerable bus noises)?
“So this modification of the (Culver City) bus routes on campus is an attempt to accommodate a few people.”
Seeming to catch herself, Dr. Joyce quickly added, “Everybody counts, and we appreciate that.”
The second most compelling question of the night was:
If Culver City busses — guaranteed to be loud as they pound across the grounds — have been renting the air of the moderately hilly campus for a quarter-century, why are close-by homeowners just thundering now about how offensive and unrelieved the grunting noises are?
“I don’t doubt the sounds they are talking about are real,” says Dr. Joyce.
“But those same sounds were there 15 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago. They are complaining now because they see a wedge because of (last year’s) Environmental Impact Report.
“We are saying, ‘That’s done. We have settled that.’”
