Damien Goodmon, the ace young community organizer who leads the Crenshaw Subway Coalition, came up with a terrific way to publicize his latest campaign, No on Measure J.
He says the Countywide transportation-based tax initiative on the Nov. 6 ballot would further detour badly needed rail funding and narrow bus services in needy communities as well as injuring well-off neighborhoods like Beverly Hills.
With the pro-J side being well-funded, Mr. Goodmon needs every spokesperson he can find.
Here was his plan:
At 10 o’clock this morning, downtown at the headquarters of the perceived bad guy, MTA, just behind Union Station, he would bring the Chairman of the Metro Board, County Supervisor Michael Antonovich, before the television cameras and assorted microphones.
What a backdrop.
The longtime Supe – 32 years – not only is the lone conservative within a hundred miles of downtown, he and his Supe colleague Don Knabe have been outspoken about this autumn about the perils of J.
Both staunchly opposed having J – which extends the $90 billion tax to 2069 – placed on the ballot.
Tall, stately and (in earlier years) handsome in a light brown suit, Mr. Antonovich, freshly turned 73 years old, was slightly stooped as he gingerly approached the outdoors podium.
“It is a pleasure to join with a coalition representing all points of view in the County of Los Angeles to expose the measure that will be on the ballot in November, Measure R(sic), that ought to be defeated.”
(Mr. Antonovich was confused. Measure R was J’s predecessor that barely won four years ago.)
He went on. “You have a shakedown taking place here with a shakeup taking place downstairs, relative to an earthquake preparedness program from the transit system.
“But this is really a shakedown. What we have here is a proposition that is going to lock in the population at a 2004 figure until 2069. Ridiculous. It also is going to limit funding for Metrolink at 3 percent until 2069. This is where 900,000 passengers ride Metrolink in the six counties it serves. It will hurt bus service, and buses are an intricate part of our system.
“Finally, it has no connections to our airports. The funding is not adequate for the green line to go to LAX, for the gold line to go to Ontario Airport, or for the blue line to go to the Long Beach Airport.
“This does not meet the bus needs, the rail needs, the taxpayers’ needs, and it locks in funding until 2069 when all of us here today will be at our local cemeteries.
“That is what I have joined my colleagues in voting no on Measure R.”
Mr. Antonovich erroneously mentioned Measure R three times instead of Measure J.
Fellow anti-J’ers around him called out “J, J,” but he must not have heard them.
Oh, well.
Maybe he will sit right down and write himself a letter.
See NoonMeasureJ.net
