Dodgers to city: you pay for the bus!

Let's start with a baseball analogy: two of the five Los Angeles City Council members who sit on the council's transportation committee actually showed up for this afternoon's meeting to discuss restoring bus service to Dodger Stadium.

In baseball, if you go two-for-five you're batting .400. Hey, that's pretty good! Kudos to council members Wendy Greuel and Bill Rosendahl for being there. On the other hand, Richard Alarcon, Bernard C. Parks and Tom LaBonge were all scratched from the lineup.

So what happened at the big meeting? The two members of the committee present agreed to recommend that the full City Council restore DASH bus service to Dodger games for the rest of the season beginning with the July 25 game. That will cost the city $70,000. If it goes well and there are a lot of riders, the city and the Dodgers will try to come up with a plan for next season.

"I don't understand," said Rosendahl, his mouth agape, when told by the city's transportation staff that the Dodgers would not agree to pay even one cent of that amount. Are the Dodgers "not a profit-making company?"

Rosendahl later added that he thought it was a "real cheap shot" that the Dodgers wouldn't cough up some of the money. He's especially cheesed because he's been trying to get DASH service in his Westside district.

But Howard Sunkin, a Dodgers vice president, said that while the team is very committed to promoting the bus service, it's the role of government to provide public transit. "The public is suffering right now from incredible gas prices ... and our fans are asking for public transit," Sunkin said.

Sunkin added that the Dodgers pay more than $4 million in taxes to the city each year. He later told me, too, that the team doesn't believe it should pay for mass transit to its games when other area teams don't have to pay for the benefit of being near rail stations.

True, but other area teams aren't surrounded by a parking lot with 16,000 spaces that go for $15 a pop.

Ultimately, Greuel and Rosendahl decided it was worth trying and spending the money, which was sitting unused in a city bus account. Sunkin said the hope is that if bus service works, the team will be able to persuade the MTA -- the transit provider for L.A. County -- to restore service next year.

The matter now must be scheduled for a vote in the full City Council.  As for the route, the buses will travel between Union Station and the stadium, using Cesar Chavez and Sunset boulevards, with a couple of stops along the way.

--Steve Hymon

photo: Don Kelson / LAT

Comments

[Wally]

One reason the previous Dodger shuttle was a "ghastly failure" was that it only ran on Friday nights, or about one game every two weeks. That's poor service even by MTA standards.

Serving every game will help the current effort. BUT...one bus line running 90 minutes before the game will probably have a total capacity of around 500 people. So even if it's packed...which I hope it will be...we'll need a lot more service before a significant number of fans will be able to consider public transit as a viable option for reaching Dodger Stadium.

[Kymberleigh Richards]

Sez Who:

Yes, the Brown Act was applicable, but this was the regular, agendized meeting of the City Council Transportation Committee and properly noticed, so the rest of your presumption is incorrect.

All that said, I don't mind LADOT using charter bus funds to operate a pilot project for a couple of months, but if Frank McCourt expects this next season, he had best open his checkbook and help pay for it.

[Dana Gabbard]

The subtext to all this song and dance in re bus service to Dodger Stadium is the Dodgers did fund a shuttle a few years ago for Friday home games. It was a ghastly failure, which raises suspicions that the actual need for such a bus is rather low.

Recently Metro Board members Antonovich and Fasana made noises about a shutte from the Chinatown Gold Line station to Dodger Stadium. Once the cost and projected ridership was analyzed the whole thing died in Committee. So I wouldn't hold my breathe that Metro will do anything next year or any time thereafter.

If Rosendahl wants a DASH how about supporting discontinuing the Commuter Express 430 line that has very low ridership? That could fund a DASH line.

[Phil Aker]

Enjoyed your coverage ot the Council's Transportation Committee discussion re providing public transit access to Dodger Stadium. I was concerned, however, about your statement that the Committee "agreed to recommend that the full City Council restore DASH bus service to Dodger games....."

DASH is a service of the City of Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT). It has never operated DASH service to Dodger Stadium. (Public transit service was operated between Downtown LA and Dodger Stadium by SCRTD, which became Metro, from 1962 through 1994. The service was discontinued by Metro due to declining ridership and funding limitations.) The Committee action was to recommend that LADOT use its charter bus account to pay a private charter operator to connect Union Station and public transit lines on Cesar Chavez Ave./Sunset Blvd. with Dodger Stadium before and after Dodger home games beginning on July 25, 2008 and ending after the last regular Dodger home game. Because charter buses are not equipped with fareboxes, LADOT recommended that this pilot service not charge a fare.

[jrw24]

Hmm, first the Dodgers turn the shuttle service to the Coliseum for the March exhibition game into a complete disaster, and now this? Either the organization is completely inept or they're out to sabotage any alternative means of getting to the game so as to preserve their precious parking revenue. I realize that angle wasn't in play for the Coliseum game, but their performance that day certainly went a long way towards souring any first-time or infrequent riders on the idea of public transit. I'm only an occasional vistor to the area, but I never realized the Dodgers were such bad neighbors.

[Skeptical in Westwood]

My concern is that the onus is supposedly on the Dodgers to market the transit service. What's to say that the Dodgers won't drop the ball on this, unintentionally sabotaging this so that they can justify building MORE parking?

I'd like to point out to the Dodgers that some baseball teams in other cities DO pitch in to support the cost of transit to their events. The Nationals in DC, for example, pay for extra Metro trains above and beyond the regular schedule.

The Dodgers need to realize that they are committing a MAJOR p.r. goof here by asserting that the financial responsibility is on the City. The responsibility is on both entities. They make SO MUCH MONEY on parking and they've made it virtually impossible to access their facility using transit or on bike.

[jojo]

Greedy, myopic Dodger management can"t muster a rivalry with the San Francisco Giants' model access to its stadium -- by ferry, bus, surface and commuter rail. The Dodgers' car-centric status quo ignores the real concerns of neighbors over choking fumes and traffic and makes them complicit in unleashing drunk drivers onto our streets all summer. It's bad citizenship, and in the end, bad business.

[jojo]

While the crowds inside Dodger Stadium may shout "Beat SF" on game day, this greedy, visionless Dodger management hasn't extended the rivalry to its stadium access. The Giant's efficient public transportation to and from the stadium -- ferry, bus, light rail, commuter rail -- is a model to emulate. The social ills of their car-centric status quo go beyond the choking fumes and traffic that overwhelm this neighborhood I call home. They are also complicit in unleashing drunk drivers onto our streets all summer.

[SezWho]

If there were only two member of the Council present, it's probably because of the Brown Act: if there's a majority, it's a public meeting, and must be noticed accordingly.

http://www.foley.com/files/tbl_s31Publications/FileUpload137/1948/brown.act.PDF Section 54952.2.

"As used in this chapter, “meeting” includes any
congregation of a majority of the members of a legislative
body at the same time and place to hear, discuss, or
deliberate upon any item that is within the subject matter
jurisdiction of the legislative body or the local agency to
which it pertains."

On a separate note, how about getting some trees in planters, or solar panels out there, a la Staples Center?

[SoapBoxLA]

Dear City Leadership,

Dodger Stadium is nestled in the middle of an asphalt heat island which is then nestled in the middle of a residential neighborhood. This is not good for nature, it is not good for people, it is simply not good.

Please figure out some form of mitigation fee and insist that the Dodger Organization pay for the negative impact on our community.

In addition, please investigate LAMC 12.21 and determine if it applies to Dodger Stadium. If it does, please fine them for not having the appropriate bicycle parking (2% of required automobile parking) and insist that they bring the facility up to code. (bike parking no farther from the entrance than the nearest automobile space!)

See you on the Streets!

p.s. City Hall is also out of compliance, as are most of the City facilities. This might be a good time to show some leadership. Just sayin'...

[SoapBoxLA]

The Dodgers should pay a penalty for the damage that is caused by that eyesore of an asphalt heat island surrounding the stadium.

The City of Los Angeles should decide if LAMC 12.21 applies to Dodger Stadium and if it does, then fine them for noncompliance. $70,000 for mass transit will look good by then.

(Bicycle parking at the rate of two percent of the number of automobiles parking spaces required...Woot!)

Of course City Hall is out of compliance so how can we expect the City of LA to enforce LAMC 12.21

[Alexander]

They don't mention what it will cost to ride DASH to Dodger Stadium. Will your Metro pass get you on? Will there be a free transfer from the Red and Gold Lines, and all the buses that go to Union Station?

If it's just 25 cents like the other downtown DASH lines, the fare may not be a barrier to success. But if they charge several dollars to ride like they did the last time there was a Dodger shutle....plus the minimum $2.50 fare to get back and forth to Union Station in the first place...times three or four if you're a family....the $15 stadium parking fee may not look so bad.

And ultimately, that's what the Dodgers really want. They're giving lip service to supporting public transit to the stadium, but they're really using this as an early opportunity to convince the fans that it will be much less of a hassle in a year or two to come early and/or stay late, shop at the new mall in the outfield, eat at the restaurants, and pay the parking fee, while the chumps at the City foot the bill for an empty bus just so the Dodgers can claim there's an alternative.

[Tony Fernandez]

Wow, it is the responsibility of the government to provide public transportation? With quotes like that, it's no wonder that many people see transit as welfare. And it's a shame.

Well I hope this works, and it would be great for everyone. I just hope that the Dodgers hold up their end of the deal and advertise it well.