[Editor’s Note: Mr. Goodmon is Executive Director of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition.]
[img]1823|right|Mr. Goodmon ||no_popup[/img]Despite winning the mayor’s race last night by a comfortable margin, Eric Garcetti lost the black vote 71 percent to 29 percent with Crenshaw Line decisions affecting the black community coming up in the first days of his administration.
Unofficial results of the exit poll conducted by Loyola Marymount University’s Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles show that Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti won or tied every political constituency group, except African-Americans.
Black voters selected Controller Wendy Greuel over Mr. Garcetti by a large margin, more than 7 voters in 10.
With the Crenshaw light rail line contract award and Leimert Park Village station decision scheduled for June 27, four days before Mr. Garcetti takes office, and closing briefs in the Crenshaw Subway Coalition’s lawsuit against MTA due his second day in office, July 2, one of the new mayor’s first big decisions directly affects the group his campaign had the most trouble earning support – the black community.
The Crenshaw Subway Coalition has led the advocacy efforts for a Leimert Park Village station and an 11-block Crenshaw Boulevard tunnel on the Crenshaw-LAX light rail line. In May 2011, in an amazing show of unity, all local black elected officials joined with more than 600 black community leaders to support a motion to fund a Leimert Park Village station and 11-block tunnel on Crenshaw Boulevard on the rail project.
They were palpably infuriated when Mayor Villaraigosa, who, because of his office, controls 4 of the 13 seats on the MTA board, used his 4 votes to kill the motion.
The motion lost by exactly 4 votes.
It is a decision that forever tarnished Mr. Villaraigosa’s legacy in the black community.
Mr. Garcetti needs to say, ‘My 4 votes are for funding the 11-block tunnel and station’ so that the Villaraigosa Plan does not become the Garcetti Plan.
It is far less bold and expensive than many of the other items on his transportation agenda, such as building the I-405 rail tunnel 15 years sooner than projected or another $90 billion-plus transportation ballot measure.
For the past 8 months, questions about the 11-block tunnel were asked of candidates in nearly every mayoral debate in South L.A. The group privately met with both mayoral finalists. Last week, the Crenshaw Subway Coalition issued a scorecard that rated Mr. Garcetti and Wendy Greuel on the station and tunnel.
Both received an “A-” on the Leimert Park station.
Since the MTA is scheduled to decide the fate of the station at their June 27 Board meeting, before the next mayor takes office, the Coalition suggested the candidates’ positions on the tunnel were more reflective of their willingness to put their political capital on the line for the Crenshaw community. On that front Mr. Garcetti only received a “C,” for making written commitments not as strong his verbal statements.
Mr. Garcetti pledged to add a South L.A. representative and transit rider to the MTA Board as his appointees, and that is good,” said Goodmon.
But if he continues the Villaraigosa street-level plan – which would destroy L.A.’s last black business corridor – even strong appointments will be quickly forgotten.”
The current MTA/Villaraigosa street-level plan would remove 308 parking spaces, turn Crenshaw Boulevard into a four- or five-year year construction zone, chop down all the mature median trees, erect prison-like fences along the corridor, close several streets and left turns, and impose a severe safety hazard with 225-ton trains operating at 35 mph down the boulevard right in front of community schools.
The Coalition asserts that the street-level plan would irreparably harm this surviving business corridor, jeopardize community economic revitalization plans that are decades in the making and imperil the lives of schoolchildren.
This morning, the black community is wondering:
Will Eric Garcetti live up to his campaign promises of change?
Or will it be more of the same that we received from Mayor Villaraigosa?
His early decisions on the Crenshaw Line will help answer those questions.
Mr. Goodmon may be contacted at dg@crenshawsubway.org or www.crenshawsubway.org
