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Unless you can scope out the well-curtained truth from inside the hearts of the most influential persons downtown at the Metropolitan Transit Authority, there is no way to determine which side is right in a smokin’ debate about the Expo light rail.
One of the gifted young persons I have met in Los Angeles journalism is Damien Goodmon, whose clear-thinking work has appeared in this newspaper for a number of months.
He is one of the chosen among young journalists. He has a thundering cause, and he has it surrounded. The cause splashes onto everyone in his neighborhood.
Although few people have certified expertise about the almost 9-mile light rail that will start in downtown Los Angeles and culminate in Culver City, every Angeleno from the undereducated boxboy to Eli Broad holds a strong opinion about it.
Never Backing Off
Mr. Goodmon henceforth should be known, complimentarily, as Bulldog because of the precise and heroic tenacity he has shown in fiercely advocating for safety measures on the portion of the light rail that curves into South Los Angeles neighborhoods.
He wrote a typically provocative essay for our Wednesday edition (“Culver City Was Taken Care of, Why Not South Los Angeles?”).
Although he did not frame his argument in such stark terms, Mr. Goodmon questioned why the MTA was able to find funding for an overpass for mainly white Culver City but mysteriously short of revenue to do the same for South L.A. in a student-heavy neighborhood.
Logical Explanation?
Former Mayor Alan Corlin, who stepped down less than 72 hours ago from the City Council, heated up as he read the Goodmon essay.
“In my opinion,” Mr. Corlin told the newspaper, “Damien is trying to make a race issue out of the Expo line.
“The real reason we now have an overpass in Culver City is two-fold:
“1) Because of the configuration of Washington Boulevard and National as an ‘X’ rather than as a ‘T’ intersection, an overhead crossing was needed.
“2) Not having to build the temporary station saves millions of dollars. Having the overhead crossing moved into the first phase of construction instead of having to wait who knows how long for the second phase, was the correct thing to do for a number of reasons.
Problems Remain
“It is closer to most of the parking. It certainly will be less expensive to construct now than in 5 or 10 years.
“There are certainly issues that have to be sorted out all along the line. The MTA and the Joint Powers Authority members are not only aware of them. They are actively addressing them.
“To inject race into the equation is, in my opinion, counter-productive and just plain wrong.”
Well, Give It a Name
In answering Mr. Corlin, Mr. Goodmon told us:
“The facts are clear. Expo phase one places safety hazards and much higher adverse environmental impacts on the majority-minority South L.A. community. If it’s not environmental racism, then just what would Mayor Corlin have us call it?”
I do not know the truth.
But I do know that I never have heard of a white neighborhood complaining that government funding was unfairly poured into a largely black neighborhood while there wasn’t enough money to do the same for them.
