India's freeways stink, Expo Line smackdown and McCain gets his shot: Ramping up, August 20

Lane markings? They mean something?

This photo was taken Tuesday in New Delhi on the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway/parking lot. I like how the middle lane is actually accommodating two lanes of traffic.

Betty Pleasant doesn't like Expo Line

Pleasant, the longtime and plain-spoken columnist for the Wave in South L.A., recently penned a column about the controversy over the Expo Line running at-grade through South L.A. Here's an excerpt from the first graph, when Pleasant is still warming up:

"The fight is against racism so blatant, so pervasive, so institutionalized that the old constitutionally outlawed bigotry concept of 'separate but equal' pales in comparison. MTA’s plans for South L.A. smacks of Jim Crow, and its tactics are reminiscent of those used by Southern segregationists to divide and conquer blacks during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and ’70s."

On the same subject, the Expo Line Construction Authority's board met Monday and declined to take action on the proposal discussed in mediation with community groups last week. That means it's full speed ahead to Public Utilities Commission hearings tentatively scheduled for early September over the two remaining crossings still not approved by the state.

McCain visits oil rig, Obama doesn't

Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain visited a Chevron drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday and criticized his rival Sen. Barack Obama for not supporting more offshore drilling. The Obama campaign called McCain's visit a stunt. Associated Press via Google News.

Villaraigosa: "I accept the challenge"

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appeared on my colleague Patt Morrison's radio show on KPCC yesterday and talked about the ongoing effort to get a half-cent sales tax on the November ballot to pay for more mass transit and road improvements.

"We can't complain about traffic, get into our single-passenger automobile and not make the investments we need to address the congestion we have in this region," he said. "For 50 years we really weren't investing in public transit the way that we should. It's only been in the last 20 years that we've started this effort and we're so behind when you think of other big cities. Not only in this country, but the world."

The mayor said he would likely do the bulk of the fundraising and agreed with Morrison that if the sales tax fails, he'll probably have to shoulder much of the blame. "I accept the challenge," he said.

Morrison, too, asked him about the difficulty putting the sales tax proposal together and she singled out state Sen. Gil Cedillo's demand for help for the 710 tunnel project. The mayor responded that there were lots of demands from lots of legislators and some accommodations were made. Still, Villaraigosa said, the spending plan, he believes, is basically pork-free.

Sales tax bill status

AB 2321, the state bill to authorize the sales tax vote, is in the queue to be heard by the state Senate, possibly later this week. Then it must go back to the Assembly for reapproval and be shipped to the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by Aug. 31.

Texting, drinking and driving a lethal combo

A 16-year-old girl who died in a single-car crash this spring in San Bernardino County was drunk, with a blood-alcohol content of 0.15, and was also text-messaging at the time she lost control on the 10 Freeway at 2:30 a.m. The mother tells the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin she had previously warned her daughter not to text and drive.

If you're a parent and reading this, please walk away from the computer and remind your teens that they will be grounded for life if they touch that cellphone while driving.

Skid row gets a DASH line

As do Central City East and Little Tokyo. The downtown blog Angelenic has much better details than the city's DASH website. Surprised?

Peak oil resource

If you're inclined to believe that the world is one day going to run out of oil, the Huffington Post put together this helpful list of all the peak oil resources on the web. Bottom line: Your guess is as good as mine.

Recent Bottleneck posts to send to all your friends

Academics say congestion pricing doesn't hurt the poor

Maps of commuting patterns in Los Angeles County

top photo: Gurinder Osan / AP

bottom photo: Mary Altaffer / AP

Comments

[Jeremy R]

"185 million for 1 mile between La Cienega to Robertson (Culver City terminus)
140 million for 4.5 miles between Vermont to Clyde (1 block east of La Cienega)

185 million a mile from La Cienega to Robertson
31 million a mile from Vermont to Clyde

0 at-grade crossings between La Cienega to Robertson
14 at-grade crossings between Vermont to Clyde (including 8 without crossing gates like Vermont, Normandie, Western & Crenshaw)

0 train horns between La Cienega to Robertson
5760 train horns between Vermont to Clyde

0 street closures between La Cienega to Robertson
8 street closures between Vermont to Clyde"

Improperly citing statistics without connecting them to a well stated and provable claim/thesis/argument is a distraction.

The racism claim is a tough one to prove, and I have yet to see you motivate that sufficiently.

Attack, Distract.

[Jeremy R]

"CULVER CITY GENERAL ORDER OPPOSING ANY AT-GRADE CROSSINGS IN THEIR CITY LIMITS,"

The MTA is following the rules of the land. It must adhere to municipal/county/state/federal guidelines. LA's guidelines are lower than that of culver city, santa monica, beverly hills, etc. That makes all Angelenos dissappointed, but we accept that LA has lower standards and less money.

In some cases, rail lines may be better in Culver city than in LA because of that fact. That is not racist, its just sad. Remember when Beverly Hills killed the subway because they refused to allow it to go under their city? As crappy as it is, Beverly Hills has a right to drive up the cost or kill the project altogether!

This isn't just rail lines Damien. Schools, roads, aestetics, park space, and building codes are all worse in LA than CC/BH/SaMo.

[Gokhan]

Here is how Damien Goodmon tries to mislead uninformed public by manipulation of facts and tries to gather people from the community behind him by such manipulations of his:

The Southern Pacific Railroad, the former right-of-way the Expo Line is being built on, had only one grade crossing in Culver City: Hayden Ave, other than the Washington/National crossing that is being elevated because of the elevated Venice/Washington/Robertson Station.

And this single crossing is not being grade-separated but being eliminated by a simple reconfiguration of National Blvd.

Therefore, the reason why Culver City doesn't have grade crossings is entirely because of the historical topology and zoning of the area. It's not something the Expo Authority is enforcing.

And, yet, Damien Goodmon will over and over again state these numbers, which are entirely meaningless as explained above, to mislead, and mislead, and mislead people.

Now, with all the claims of environmental racism, it's now being clear who actually has prejudice about certain communities:

Damien's own words from a post of his on the Transit Coalition discussion board yesterday: "A holding pen for hundreds of high school teenagers who attend schools with documented behavioral/gang problems?"

LAUSD's own words from their official CPUC testimony: "As long as students were not able to easily access the tracks just outside of campus, where they congregate in such large numbers, my concerns about students jumping the gates, trying to beat the train, or fighting and pushing one another in front of the train would be addressed. If there were no need for students to be forced to wait in the “holding pen,” I believe there would be less violence and fewer robberies during the dismissal period. The overpass would have to be fully enclosed so that students could not throw objects or other students over the top."

I'm particularly disgusted by the testimony of LAUSD. What are we talking about here, a prison or high school? Violence, robberies, fighting, gangs, attempted murder, vandalism?! Don't they have any kind of trust in the civility of their students? If not, why are they spending their time with CPUC while they should try to solve these problems?

And, Damien, the people who post here are not hating the community. But, perhaps, you should give your community more respect by giving them more credit for their civility. Accusing the Dorsey kids for having behavioral and gang problems is the wrong way to start. You also confirmed my predictions about your political ambitions in your last Transit Coalition board post, in which you said "A person with national political contacts, from a politically-connected local family needs a local light rail line issue to run for office?"

An at-grade crossing with pedestrian gates would work. There is nothing wrong with bringing the trains to a full stop during the ten minute period after school. At other times the trains would have 55 MPH operations.

A true community activist would never argue that the teens in his community have behavioral problems and, therefore, would never say, "Let's build the train around our problem teens" instead of the normal way of building the train and putting the teens around it.

[Dana Gabbard]

So sad. Damien not so long ago denounced the Bus Riders Union for playing the race card. Now he is using selective statistics, misleading arguments etc. in the service of his own playing of the race card. And I don't think it will achieve his real goal of jumpstarting his ambitions to being the next Eddie Jones or Najee Ali -- a self-proclaimed leader who actually is just another empty suit playing to the cameras. Lord knows we have enough of those.

You denigrate the proponents but at least they are up front versus the shadow masters of Cheviot Hills who brag of "Our work in South L.A.", leaving us to wonder whose crusade is this really? And I hope you didn't overpromise to your rather loose-cannon allies about what these PUC hearings would produce. May turn out they not the rest of us will give you the most grief, Mr. Goodmon. Enjoy the spotlight.

[Darrell Clarke]

Geography fact: Ballona Creek, not La Cienega and certainly not Clyde (Clyde?!), is the city limit between Los Angeles and Culver City.

Grade separation facts: There are 9,300 feet of grade-separated Expo Line right-of-way in Los Angeles east of Ballona Creek, including two aerial stations at La Brea and La Cienega.

There are 3,800 feet of grade-separated right-of-way in Culver City west of Ballona Creek, including one aerial station between Venice and Washington.

It's obvious which city got more.

Light rail fact: Crossing gates are not needed or used for boulevard-median light rail tracks with signal control where train speed is limited to 35 mph, like in Portland, Phoenix, and Eastside Los Angeles.

[Damien Goodmon]

Ahh more Culver City meeting attendees with amnesia.

Gohkan comes with the attack and Darrell comes with the distract about Phoenix, Portland...and everywhere else except the Expo Phase 1 communities.

Distract and attack all you want and you won't be able to change the facts:

185 million for 1 mile between La Cienega to Robertson (Culver City terminus)
140 million for 4.5 miles between Vermont to Clyde (1 block east of La Cienega)

185 million a mile from La Cienega to Robertson
31 million a mile from Vermont to Clyde

0 at-grade crossings between La Cienega to Robertson
14 at-grade crossings between Vermont to Clyde (including 8 without crossing gates like Vermont, Normandie, Western & Crenshaw)

0 train horns between La Cienega to Robertson
5760 train horns between Vermont to Clyde

0 street closures between La Cienega to Robertson
8 street closures between Vermont to Clyde

Distract, attack and no one can change the facts...

[Jerome H. Weymouth]

DAmien : all your complaiming about the Expo-line being racist is nothing but a bunch of lies! Your just out to make a name for yourself. I see only an individual who is trying to make a name for him self to get elected to the city councils and on to Sacramento!

GET A LIFE! QUIT CALLING PEOPLE RACIST WHO DON'T AGREE WITH YOUR OPINION!

[Darrell Clarke]

"Distract, attack" indeed, from the facts that there is over twice the length of grade separation in minority Los Angeles than in Culver City -- which is also majority-minority along the Expo Line.

"Distract, attack" again, from the fact that the City of Santa Monica is seeking at-grade tracks as more pedestrian friendly.

"Distract, attack" still more, from the facts that mostly-at-grade is the standard of light rail in many cities, including Portland, Phoenix (opening later this year), and Los Angeles' Eastside Gold Line (opening next year).

[Gokhan]

Since when building railroads in minority communities became environmental racism, especially if it will help the community directly through several train stations? If what is in question is uniformity, then aren't they building at-grade in Santa Monica, Rancho Park, Palms, and several crossings by USC as well? These people need to be given the correct information as they are severely mislead by Damien Goodmon. What a pity.

An at-grade crossing with Farmdale remaining open won't have any impact on the local traffic and it won't cause other significant inconveniences for the neighbors as the Farmdale-closed option would cause. And it would be the simplest, fastest, and cheapest to build. Any safety concerns could be addressed by bringing the trains to a full stop in the ten-minute time interval after the final bell rings at 3:07 PM.

[calwatch]

As for profit businesses, railroads want to do as little as humanly possible. All they want to do is maximize their profit. I worked for a city and you wouldn't believe the teeth gnashing it took them to clear sofas from their right of way, or clear graffiti from their bridges. It was usually easier to just pick up the crap ourselves.

[Damon Tordini]

When I attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo my apartment was adjacent to campus, but was on the other side of the tracks that carried both Amtrak Coast Starlight trains and freight trains. I along with thousands of other students had to walk across these tracks every day to get to campus, and it didn't even have a railroad crossing signal or arms. It took a student getting killed by a train to get a crossing signal installed.

Remember, this is a top notch university whose students are mostly from well off middle or upper class families, and yet there was still an unprotected at grade crossing. Is this really a racial issue?

[Damien Goodmon]

Ah Ken, Ken, Ken.

Best line in the whole Pleasant article:

"Of course, everybody supports the Expo Line — in concept. The fight is not against the Expo Line per se, but against a racist, unequal, unfair Expo Line."

Distract, attack, and no one will be able to change the fact that decisions were made to make Expo Phase 1 west of La Cienega a much better neighbor, 1000 times safer, and 6 times more expensive (per mile) than east of La Cienega.

Distract, attack, and no one will be able to change the fact that the resulting design is one that places all of the significant adverse impact and safety risks of Expo Phase 1 in majority-minority and poor communities.

What is amazing is that those who were physically at the meetings where these decisions were made that resulted in a separate and unequal design of Expo Phase 1, have all succumb to a universal case of amnesia.

People who have commented in this thread already, were actually physically at the meetings: a) years ago where South LA stakeholders were mentioning safety problems around South LA schools; and b) where the Culver City City Council/CRA threatened to oppose the project if a grade separation was not added because it would have conflicted with the CULVER CITY GENERAL ORDER OPPOSING ANY AT-GRADE CROSSINGS IN THEIR CITY LIMITS, reply with vitriol when someone mentions a "separate and unequal" Expo Phase 1 design. They respond with shock that these black and brown folk in South LA, who have come to know these facts, might be a bit angered about it.

And the Westsiders Betty refers to are those people and their allies, who don't have children at Dorsey, yet showed up stating their opposition to ANY CHANGE to the at-grade crossing at Farmdale in February of this year. The Expo Authority Board was ready to adopt a street closure with a pedestrian bridge, an overpass or an underpass, and these Westsiders who don't live in the community and have no child at the school said, "NO!" Again, more universal amnesia.

...back to FIXING the problems so many could have avoided if they had just been respectful and equitable in their treatment and money allocations for South LA.

Environmental Racism the Law: http://fixexpo.blogspot.com/2008/05/environmental-racism-law.html
Expo Line Environmental Racism Fact Sheet: http://www.expocommunities.com/info/environmental_justice.pdf

[David Raether]

Half of the Gold Line, which traverses neighborhoods that are primarily white or Hispanic, is at-grade, including the following stops: Del Mar, Filmore, Mission, Highland Park, and Southwest Museum.

Sorry, Betty, your argument that there's racism at work in the at-grade design of the Expo Line just doesn't seem to hold water.

[Ken Alpern]

Whenever we had a crowd of folks in previous years (not the agitators, but just ordinary residents from South L.A., as in the Westside) the majority quietly raise their hands when they are asked if they want a light rail.

I suspect there are a few who are legitimately angry about features surrounding this project, but most South L.A. residents probably just quietly want this rail option to improve their mobility, economy and quality of life in their neighborhoods.

Of course, they're probably too cowed to speak up, lest they be called all sorts of names and slandered into silence and submission.

I think there are legitimate issues to be dealt with here, but I suspect that there's a lot more heat than light being generated on this particular issue.

[paul]

"MTA’s plans for South L.A. smacks of Jim Crow, and its tactics are reminiscent of those used by Southern segregationists to divide and conquer blacks during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s and ’70s."

Unnecessarily inflammatory. A much more relevant and recent comparison would have been with Robert Moses and the South Bronx. Instead of sounding educated she sounds like a talking head. And I actually agree with the basis of what she's saying, just not at all with how she says it.

[Dana Gabbard]

Betty Pleasant continues avoiding the question why are westside opponents of Expo bragging about "Our work in South L.A."? (see link below to memo Steve posted a while ago). Despite all this talk of protecting children and grassroots activism, is this all nothing more than folks in South L.A. being manipulated into carrying the water for westside NIMBYs? Ms. Plesant should go about asking a few hard questions of Damien Goodmon and his allies. But she should steel herself for disappointment at the ugly truth behind this alleged “crusade” and having to apologize to the Expo proponents who she so recklessly attacked:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/bottleneck/2008/07/expo-line-phase.html

This morning a lady at the wheel motioned to apologize as she whipped in front of me off Wilshire as I was crossing a side street--and of course she had been distracted while chatting on the cell phone. Ditto the other car behind her. Then yesterday at the bus stop I spotted a young woman furiously texting while waiting at a red light, then zipping forward when the light changed but seeming to barely be looking away from her texting device--clearly she is an accident waiting to happen. Such selfish stupidity!

76 days until the Nov. 4th election--and we still have to wait until Sacramento gets organized and AB 2321 can be signed before the campaign for the sales tax can really start. What a cliffhanger!

[Peter]

McCain loves big oil, Every chance he gets. I feel that McCain would be more likely to cater to the rich - after all if you make 4 million a year you are middle class. I also think McCain would be more likely to get us into WWIII
see the video of McCain talking about his failed first marrige. http://www.mccanes.com I guess someone is making a movie about Obama's teenage years. http://www.theobamaplan.com McCain and Obama who ever is elected should make T. boon pickens theyre secretary of energy. http://www.tboonpickens.com Y McCain will lose if he picks Romney http://www.hotpres.com