Second in a series
Re “Weissman Steps Onto the Shuttle: ‘You Have to Try’”
[img]1792|right|Jim Clarke||no_popup[/img]When a normally united City Council cast a three-way vote Monday evening on the presumed non-controversial tri-cornered shuttle experiment, Jim Clarke entered the most surprising call. He abstained, and his colleagues were split 2-2, leaving the pilot program supine on an icy slab in the coroner’s office.
If it isn’t dead, it is giving an excellent corpse imitation.
Mr. Clarke’s step-back from the fray was unexpected because he sounded like backer in his opening sally. “If this fails,” he said, “it will be 20 years before anyone tries it again.”
That may be correct.
As Councilman Andy Weissman reminded listeners, nearly two decades have slipped by since Culver City’s last failed attempt at shuttle service.
Does the shuttle have a future?
“One would hope it would,” Mr. Clarke said.
“In a different way. But I hope it does, yes.”
Then why did he abstain from voting?
“I pretty much read the tea leaves,” Mr. Clarke said. “It looked like there were going to be two for and two against it. And so, my abstention was saying ‘I don’t want to defeat the measure.’ I was interested in referring it back (to city staff) for further study to take into consideration comments my colleagues made.
“While the motion technically failed, it was not an outright rejection of the proposal.”
Mr. Clarke found several objections. The first one he publicly mentioned on Monday was the failure to verify with the Hayden Tract business community to determine whether there was any meaningful interest in traveling by shuttle to eagerly awaiting Downtown restaurants.
“We know the supply side is there,” he said of the eateries. The demand side, we are not sure about.”
Mr. Clarke’s second strike against the shuttle:
“When we talked about it on the campaign, we talked about it more as a way of getting people from the Expo (light rail station just off Downtown) to work and to Downtown restaurants, that sort of thing. It then worked into a lunch-time service (11 o’clock to 3) for the Hayden Tract.
“I think it needs to be much different than that. This is why I also proposed that they reverse it and have a shuttle that takes food orders to the Hayden Tract, which would satisfy the employers who seem to want to keep their employees in the building. This also would satisfy the Downtown restaurants looking for more business.”
(To be continued)
