[img]1872|right|The Rev. Eric Lee||no_popup[/img]Tearing a page from the still-glowing success stories of the civil rights movement in the Deep South a half-century ago, the Rev. Eric P. Lee, pacing a groove in the church floor before a capacity Crenshaw-to-LAX light rail crowd last evening, told them how they can attain their elusive goals in three weeks:
“Organize, organize,” lectured the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Southern California chapter.
Without a script, the Rev. Lee was preaching to hungry members of community organizer Damien Goodmon’s Crenshaw Subway Coalition on how they can sweeten their chances to win a long-sought train station at Leimert Park Village and convince resistant politicians to approve a subway through the mile-long densely packed business/residential district between 48th and 59th streets.
Politicians who rarely visit in South Los Angeles have been insisting for years to Crenshaw leaders that they only have the money to build underground rails everywhere else in the city, except for South Los Angeles.
“If you really want the station and the underground rail built,” said the Rev. Lee at least a dozen times during his forceful 10-minute oration, show up in large, united numbers on Thursday morning, May 23, for the MTA board meeting at Metro headquarters, adjacent to Union Station,
“Numbers scare the board,” he assured his strongly engaged listeners at the spacious 54th Street Christ Temple Cathedral.
[img]1823|left|Mr. Damien Goodmon||no_popup[/img]On this night, the casually dressed, public-minded minister was speaking as leader of the Black Community, Clergy and Labor Alliance, an umbrella meant to fit over every head young, old and otherwise, in South L.A.
The May 21 mayoral runoff between Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel also was very much on the minds of everyone in the auditorium.
The dynamic 30-year-old Mr. Goodmon – who rallies his hometown neighbors in trademark classy, immaculately formed, yet understated (rather than cheerleader-style) rhetoric – wonders, like the rest of South L.A., whether or how committed either candidate in the close race is to supporting their station and subway objectives.
Two Reasons
The underground light rail is being sought for two dominant reasons, it is deemed far safer, away from the crowds, and it would avoid five or six years of constant construction-style disruptions to Crenshaw businesses and pedestrians.
Employing flowery, some would say slippery, lexicon, Ms. Greuel and Mr. Garcetti dispatched full-page letters to Mr. Goodmon, kind of swearing their fealty to both.
Ms. Greuel and Mr. Garcetti, however, left the exits wide open for an escape in case they change their minds.
“I have always supported undergrounding the line from 48th Street to 59th Street,” Mr. Garcetti wrote in a letter dated the day before the community meeting. “I have advocated for this throughout my campaign.”
Ms. Greuel’s letter, dated Feb.27, spoke of her commitment to “implementation of a first-class rail system.” She said she would “champion the effort to ensure that the Crenshaw-LAX Line project includes a station and Leimert Park Village and an underground tunnel along Crenshaw Boulevard, from 48th Street to 59th Street.”
“In sum,” said Mr. Goodmon, “we feel that the South L.A. electorate has made clear that undergrounding the Crenshaw-LAX Line from 48th to 59th streets and adding a station at Leimert Park Village is a required policy position for the next Mayor. Both candidates have responded that they are supportive, and we at the Crenshaw Subway Coalition look forward to working with either one of them to make that happen when they take office.”
See CrenshawSubway.org or email info@crenshawsubway.org
