Crenshaw Subway Coalition Community Meeting
Tonight at 6:30
3018 W. 48th St., three blocks east of Crenshaw
Last week MTA and the Federal Transit Administration released for public review the Final Environmental Impact Report/Statement (“FEIR/S”) for the Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line. The next step is for the Metro board to vote to certify the document at their Thursday, Sept. 22 meeting downtown at MTA headquarters.
Our team of experts already has started identifying major deficiencies in the FEIR/S, including outright omissions and violations of environmental and civil rights laws, which have led to the current design of the project. The current design lacks a station at historic Leimert Park Village and has no tunnel for the middle mile (between 48th to 60th) in Park Mesa Heights. Neither the station nor tunnel is currently funded in the project's projected budget.
To be clear, right now the Leimert Park Village subway station is in limbo, and the Park Mesa Heights tunnel is not in the project, solely because of one politician: L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa.
The Mayor is the only elected representative of South L.A. who is opposed to MTA funding both necessary design changes. Comparatively, on the Subway to the Sea, under the affluent and far more costly Wilshire corridor, the Mayor has taken a blank check approach.
If the Mayor put his four votes on the MTA board (himself and his three appointees: Councilmember Jose Huizar, Mel Wilson and former Assemblymember Richard Katz) behind the Mark Ridley-Thomas motion on May 26, the FEIR/S would include both the tunnel and station. But the Mayor voted against South L.A. and the Crenshaw community.
We fully expect the Metro board, which the Mayor now chairs, to rubberstamp the project's faulty environmental document at the Sept. 22 MTA Board meeting. Thus, we have begun preparing to sue Metro in court.
After the Sept. 22 vote, we will have just 30 days to file a legal challenge in Superior Court to argue for the project to be built with an underground station at Leimert Park Village and with a tunnel from 48th to 60th in Park Mesa Heights. (For more about this issue, view our powerpoint presentation on the Crenshaw Subway Coalition website: www.CrenshawSubway.org).
This is not something we welcome. It was forced onto the Crenshaw community. Mayor Villaraigosa has forced us to seek justice in the courts like civil rights and environmental groups before us.
Join us at this evening's community meeting of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition as we prepare for this monumental vote and the steps that must quickly follow.
Mr. Goodmon, journalist-advocate, may be contacted at damienwg@gmail.com
