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In a total reversal of their 2009 judicial decision that ruled MTA’s application to build tracks at street-level across the Farmdale Avenue intersection unsafe, the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s rail safety regulatory agency, last Thursday rubber stamped approval of a street-level crossing directly adjacent to Dorsey High School.

See video of yesterday’s approval at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxRL0AucTeU

Hundreds are expected to cram into Dorsey High School cafeteria at 6 o’clock tonight to discuss what has become ground zero for South L.A. safety activists opposed to the MTA's Expo Line street-level rail crossings next to community schools:

[Editor’s Note: Mr. Goodmon leads the Citizens' Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line, fixexpo.org]

In the lead-up to Thursday's important MTA Board vote on the $1.7 billion Crenshaw-LAX Transit Corridor study, County Supervisor/MTA Board Member Mark Ridley-Thomas has...

[Editor’s Note: The day after County Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Mike Antonovich introduced a joint resolution to aggressively pursue federal funds to cover budget gaps on the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor, journalist/activist Damien Goodmon responded to a widely perceived victory for the South L.A. community. Mr. Goodmon represents two groups, the Citizens’ Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line and the South Los Angeles Neighborhood Council’s Joint Committee on Rail Transit. He salutes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s recommendation for light rail as the mass transit system of choice for the Corridor.]

To MTA and Expo Light Rail Board members

As a follow-up to our request for a Congressional investigation into the safety of the Blue Line and MTA's discriminatory planning practices (fixexpo.org) I am enclosing an article from the Arizona Republic, “Bad train crashes expose spotty federal safety program.”

Dear Honorable Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky,

As you are well aware, on Tuesday the Expo Line Construction Authority, of which you are a board member, submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission a request for authorization to construct one of four options at the Farmdale Avenue crossing next to Dorsey High School:

After delaying a final verdict three times, the California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled tomorrow to adopt a decision on the remaining proposed Expo Line crossings at Dorsey High School and Foshay Learning Center.

An open letter to Bernard C. Parks, candidate for the County Board of Supervisors, on Nov. 4:

At the Cherrywood/Leimert Block Club meeting on Saturday, you spoke about the history of the Expo Line. This email should address the inaccuracies that I can recall you stated. There were so many distortions and misrepresentations, it was difficult to keep count.

1) A history of public comments on the Expo Line Corridor:

It's 100 percent wrong to suggest that the South L.A. community did not express concerns about the safety hazards of the street-level crossings until recently.