First in a series
Vince Motyl, a long-running community activist, tries to communicate in language that will be understood in all parts of the room.
Such as when he observed the other day:
“The East Side got screwed on the light rail project.
“We got hit with the same thing South Pasadena did. Metro promised us a rose garden, and they gave us nothing but rocks” – in the form of…
Since the light rail route from downtown Los Angeles to Culver City was opened two months and eight days ago, “the noise levels are not what they told us they were going to be.
Scores Are Affected
“Where the train does the crossover,” Mr. Motyl said, “it sounds like a ’57 Chevy with a blown rod in it. People who are 200 feet away from the light rail are affected by it. That’s the whole four or five blocks over there.
“The city is very well informed about this, and they have sound engineers working on it.
“I had a meeting at my house the other day with (City Councilman) Jim Clarke, who really has taken up the banner for us. He has all of our complaints, and the city has all of our information.”
Mr. Motyl paused to lavish special credit on Mr. Clarke.
“When it came to the fourth vote in last April’s City Council election,” he said, “I met with Jim. Very impressed with him. And I am a card-carrying Republican. I worked for him. I put up lawn signs for him. I really appreciate him. He really has the best interests of the community at heart.
“So now we are in a waiting game to see exactly what Metro is going to do with this.”
Does Mr. Motyl believe that City Hall will step in front of the downtown government bureaucracy and act unilaterally to mute the noise that dozens of neighbors have complained about since test runs began last April?
“Yes, no and maybe,” he says. “We have an environmental impact report that they have violated, that we think they have violated.
“The trouble is, each time they do a sound study, everybody comes up with a different figure. We have got to determine the truth.”
(To be continued)
