[Editor’s Note: For months, Mr. Goodmon, a 26-year-old activist/journalist, has been conducting an aggressive but seemingly lonely campaign against certain Expo Line leaders who are bringing light rail from downtown to Culver City. Because of the proximity of two schools, Mr. Goodmon’s faction insists that the light rail be elevated, for safety purposes, at the Farmdale crossing just east of Culver City. Expo construction manager Rick Thorpe and others say the funding is not available. Here is the email he sent to authorities this morning.]
Mr. Thorpe & Expo Authority Board Members and staff:
As Mr. Thorpe knows well, the Expo Line CPUC proceedings are currently limited to the Harvard Pedestrian Tunnel at Foshay (school) and the street-level Farmdale crossing at Dorsey High School, which the Expo Line Construction Authority is aggressively pushing through the CPUC.
The Expo Authority's tenacious pursuit for approval to go across the Farmdale crossing at Dorsey High at 55 mph is completely contrary to the commitment of the Expo Authority Board Members, which include Bernard Parks, Yvonne Burke, Herb Wesson and Jan Perry who passed a motion to begin an environmental assessment of an underpass, overpass and pedestrian bridge at the crossing at the February board meeting.
Given these conflicting actions, community members are concerned that the motion was simply a public relations tactic and not an actual commitment to address the community and the school district's well expressed concern at the Farmdale crossing, where nearly 2000 students walk across every day in upwards of 108 students per minute.
Nonetheless, as Mr. Thorpe knows, since he was made personally aware of the problems around Foshay by the Foshay Principal last Thursday, the issues that are currently being experienced by the residential and school community and have not been addressed by the Expo Authority despite repeated requests (such as construction mitigation, soil contamination, project budget allocation) are not within the scope of the CPUC proceedings, and thus that is not the relevant venue.
Additionally, the CPUC “public process” Mr. Thorpe mentions is simply a public participation hearing, where public comments — which again will be limited to the two crossings— will be transcribed. It is not a question-and answer-session, where the Expo Authority would have to answer the concerns of the community in an open forum.
Given that the Expo Authority has refused to allow such open public forums at their community meetings since the fall of 2006, we are disappointed, but not at all surprised by the Expo Authority's decision to not attend the community's forums on the Expo Line. The community recently walked out of a public meeting where your staff refused to answer questions with a public forum held in our own backyard.
But it is clear, the May 22 and the May 29 forums are being conducted in coordination with the neighborhood councils who are recognized city agencies, and are intended to facilitate community understanding and discussion of important city and regional issues.
The agenda for the forums is balanced and provides 40 minutes for the Expo Authority (20 minutes for Expo Authority staff and 20 minutes for Expo Authority board members), 40 minutes for the groups with concerns about the project, followed by a 40 minutes public forum for audience questions and answers. The Expo Authority was also given the distinct advantage of opening and closing the presentation/statement period.
The neighborhood councils have requested such forums from the Expo Authority for well over a year.
The North Area Neighborhood Council in the summer of 2007 attempted to facilitate a one-on-one debate between Mr. Thorpe and myself with public questions, and the Authority refused.
The Foshay Principal has said her request for a forum at her school of 3400 students, which is within 50 feet of the Expo Line tracks, goes back 4 years.
I find it unfortunate that the Expo Authority staff and board members feel they have no obligation to address the community about the largest public works project in the region, in a manner that is respectful of the South L.A. community.
This public relations strategy is does nothing to heal the gulf that currently exists between the the South L.A. community and the Expo Authority, of whom none of the project managers live in the South L.A. community.
Alas, the May 22 and May 29 forums will be conducted with or without you, and the elected representatives of the area who have been sent invitations and who the community expects to attend can report back to staff.
Perhaps after the Dorsey High forum on the 22nd, Parks, Burke, Wesson and Perry will actually use the power they have as the board members of the Expo Authority to direct you to present at the Foshay forum on the 29 to answer the questions of the people who they were elected to represent. Although, given past actions, we would be disappointed but not at all surprised if they chose not to.
By the way, these are the same people, the South L.A. community that is, who pay all of your salaries, are footing the bill for the $862 million public works project, are currently absorbing the construction impacts that the Expo Authority has failed to appropriately mitigate, and are being expected to absorb the safety hazards, traffic impacts and other environmental impacts of the Expo Line. Members of the community seem to feel that that is too easily forgotten.
I respectfully suggest, the Expo Authority and board members do a much better job of remembering these facts and begin to act with them in mind.
The Other Side
At 6:40 last evening, Mr. Thorpe sent the following email to Mr. Goodmon:
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is the responsible party for determining the safety of all proposed rail crossings in the State of California. The CPUC has a very extensive public process that is currently underway for the two remaining crossings that have yet to be approved near Dorsey High School and The Foshay Learning Center. The Construction Authority has and will continue to be an active participant in that process.
The CPUC has set a schedule and an open public process for addressing any outstanding grade crossing issues at Dorsey High School (Farmdale crossing) and the Foshay Learning Center (Harvard Blvd. crossing). We believe that this is the appropriate venue for all interested parties to discuss the remaining grade crossing issues on the Expo light rail project. Therefore, upon advice of our legal counsel, the Expo Construction Authority will not be participating in the upcoming forums organized by parties that are actively opposing the Authority's pending applications before the CPUC.
Damien Goodmon may be contacted at
dg@getlamoving.com
