First in a series
[img]2094|right|Damien Goodmon||no_popup[/img]With a possibly pivotal court decision for the protesting Crenshaw Subway Coalition due in two weeks, and with the eyes of the Los Angeles political universe trained on an historic groundbreaking – of the Crenshaw Light rail line – mere feet away, Damien Goodmon, ace public relations entrepreneur of the black community, boldly called a media conference this morning to billboard the Crenshaw light rail’s unresolved grievances.
The boys and girls of the media turned out, too, at the crucial intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Exposition Boulevard to record for re- and re- and re-broadcast, the declarations two of the blue-ribbon complaints of the long-suffering Crenshaw Subway Coalition by Mr. Goodmon and hard hat-wearing, mightily outspoken Drexel Johnson, Executive Director of the Young Black Contractors Assn., backed by a phalanx of banner-carrying, hard-hat construction workers:
“Today's action is an invitation to new leadership in D.C. and at Mayor Garcetti's office to address the Crenshaw community's rightful request for an 11-block tunnel so that Southern California's last black business corridor isn't irreparably harmed, and black workers have a fair shot at working on the project,” said Mr. Goodmon, Executive Director of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition.
“Contractors have said the cost of putting the 11 blocks underground is just $60 million. Our hope is that Secretary Foxx and Mayor Garcetti will see the project with new eyes and celebrate not what it is currently, but what it could become with their leadership.”
Meanwhile, a mere baseball throw down Exposition Boulevard, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx and ubiquitous U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Ca) huddled beneath a yawning yellow and white awning with the finest ladies and gents Metro and City Hall can produce to officially cleave ground on the Crenshaw line whose exact design and path have not yet been finalized.
Mr. Goodmon, no jokester, could not be ignored. The well-chosen location of his gathering took care of that. Metaphorically, he tickled the bigwigs under their chinny chin chins as they blushingly sauntered by.
High-profile pols and spit-shined City Hall-types noiselessly glided past Mr. Goodmon’s enclave of important Crenshaw community leaders and complaining members of the Young Black Contractors Assn., Inc., group as if they were remaking “Gone with the Wind” and Mr. Goodmon merely was shooting a low-grade B-film.
(To be continued)
