To accent an impressive breadth of citywide opposition to the transportation-based tax known as Measure J, Crenshaw community organizer Damien Goodmon, this morning in a vacant lot near the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Slauson Avenue, assembled what politicians call a rainbow of cultures.
To close the circle on the rainbow, by the end, Mr. Goodmon, who is black, was perspiring beneath the mid-morning Indian summer sun.
Surveying his people, he said that “we are here today because we are opposed to crony capitalism. We are opposed to the MTA becoming an ATM for the 1 percent, the developers and the contractors.
“We stand across the street from View Park Prep School where a proposed (controversially above ground) light rail line will be endangering the safety will be endangering children. This is a common thread throughout the region, in Beverly Hills, in East L.A., in South L.A., in northeast L.A.
“The MTA,” he said, “simply cannot be trusted with our tax dollars.”
Dapper and elegant as ever, Mr. Goodmon is unchallenged across Los Angeles as the most eloquent organizer in town. He always has his people speak succinctly, unerringly focused on message.
An Unvarnished Objective
The goal of the newly formed Coalition to Defeat Measure J: To set off eclectic electricity and draw attention to their unified conviction that Measure J would fail to aid mass transit in places where most needed.
From the Bus Riders Union to denizens of Beverly Hills – the first time those five words have appeared in the same sentence – a hardy group, from dressed up to dressed down, collected for an hour to rant against the MTA and select corporate entities whom they gauge will profit if 2008’s Measure R sales tax is extended 1o 2069, 30 years beyond the present expiration date.
Measure R and Measure J were and are billed as speeding up the pace of the city’s partially developed mass transit system. The protestors’ central beef seems top be that the MTA, the decision-making body, cannot be trusted to spend where transportation is most desperately needed.
Down Middle of the Street
First up was Melina Abdullah, professor of Pan-African studies at Cal State L.A., mother of three, whose children are enrolled across the street at View Park Prep Elementary.
She pleaded for the MTA to build a mile-long tunnel at a critical stretch of Crenshaw instead of insisting, as they have to this point, with no sign of flexibility, at ground level.
“If there is anything we need to protect, it is the safety of our children,” Prof. Abdullah said. “I am concerned about the (light rail) coming down Crenshaw. I know how children behave. I know the record of MTA on safety. I know when we see a train coming down the middle of the street, we are inviting them to murder our children.”
Janet Dodson, representing the communities of Highland Park and surrounding area, spoke against a tunnel on the 710 Freeway, which she called a boondoggle.
Bus Riders ‘Mistreated’
Rosa Miranda of the Bus Riders Union, another mother of three, was the first of two Spanish speakers, although there wasn’t a linguistically liquid Hispanic-interpreting listener among the assembled journalists.
Ms. Miranda said that “the Bus Riders Union and thousands of bus riders across the County oppose Measure J because it a tax to fatten the big multi-national corporations and developers, not to increase service for a half-million (bus) passengers.
“The MTA has a record of violating riders’ civil rights for the last 15 years. The promise to give better service to the voters of Measure R was a pure lie. Only four years after the passage of Measure R, the MTA cut about a million hours of additional bus service, leaving many passengers and bus drivers with less mobility, especially workers in the low-wage sector, domestic workers, security officers, janitors and students. The MTA is abusive and has no accountability.”
Ken Goldman, from the Southwest Beverly Hills Homeowners Assn., remarked about “this incredible cross-section of residents from across Los Angeles.
“Vote no on Measure J,” he said. “Vote no on Metro’s disregard for the safety of residents, for the safety of students.
“We heard this morning about their disregard for the safety of those children across the street. I can tell you that in Beverly Hills total disregard for the safety of children, students, teachers at Beverly Hills High School. For years, for years, Metro planned a station on a route down Santa Monica Boulevard. At the urging of developers in Century City, they changed it one block, one block, so that it would now go under Beverly Hills High School, endangering 2500 students and teachers.
“We say no to Metro’s disregard for the wishes of residents across Los Angeles County.”
