[Editor’s Note: The day after County Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Mike Antonovich introduced a joint resolution to aggressively pursue federal funds to cover budget gaps on the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor, journalist/activist Damien Goodmon responded to a widely perceived victory for the South L.A. community. Mr. Goodmon represents two groups, the Citizens’ Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line and the South Los Angeles Neighborhood Council’s Joint Committee on Rail Transit. He salutes the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s recommendation for light rail as the mass transit system of choice for the Corridor.]
We agree with the MTA staff’s recommendation of light rail over bus rapid transit for the Crenshaw Corridor, the inclusion of the below- grade (underground) sections along some parts of Crenshaw, and the recommendation to continue study of underground options and stations elsewhere along the route.
However, the portion on Crenshaw Boulevard between 48th and 60th streets in Park Mesa Heights, will be a rallying point for our community.
Staff is recommending that the section, which abuts View Park Prep School and is just one block away from Crenshaw High School, only be studied as street-level with no option for underground.
We disagree.
And we want to avoid the problems articulated by County Supervisor Gloria Molina regarding Eastside Extension safety issues, and the tragic record of MTA's Blue Line, America's deadliest light rail line.
Staff's recommendation for street level crossings in the Park Mesa Heights community will increase safety hazards to school-aged children and the public at large.
It will result in the removal of hundreds of parking spaces important to the area’s commerce, the removal of tall median trees that are crucial to Crenshaw Boulevard’s scenic highway status, increase congestion at heavily traveled cross streets, such as of Slauson Avenue and 54th Street, slow down the overall speed of the line and impair otherwise good economic development opportunities.
From perspectives of traffic, parking, safety, economic development and procedure, it is a mistake.
As requested by the community, by the neighborhood councils and bythe Los Angeles City Council, an underground option from 48th Street to 60th Street must be included among the other options under study, so when funding becomes available it can seamlessly integrated into the Crenshaw Line project without delay.
MTA should avoid the mistakes of Expo while building Crenshaw.
Additionally, we disagree with staff’s recommendation for the design and preliminary engineering contract. It appears Metro staff wants the board to throw aside a perfectly capable and eminently qualified team that included businesses owned by people who live in the Crenshaw Corridor in favor a team led out of Orange County.
The largest public works project in the history of South L.A. should not be designed from Orange County.
Staff is recommending the Hatch Mott McDonnell’s team over the PB Americas team, which included, among others, Terry Hayes of Terry Hayes Associates and Roland Wiley of RAW International. These local African-American business leaders have done all the preliminary work to date for this project going back to the early ‘90s. They have deep roots in the Crenshaw area. They have volunteered their expertise on numerous community projects.
Most importantly, they have a strong understanding of the pulse of the Crenshaw community because they live here.
I don’t yet know why the PB Americas team was not selected, but the MTA Board should overrule the staff recommendation to ensure that the promises made by elected officials to generate more jobs and a leadership role for the community are kept.
We will be working in the coming weeks to persuade the MTA Board to address these issues promptly so that our region and the Crenshaw corridor communities can receive what is necessary and what we are due:
A fast, safe and reliable alternative to the traffic that is clogging our streets and polluting our air.
Mr. Goodmon may be contacted at damienwg@gmail.com
