TVs in subways, tunnels and the Americana: Ramping up, August 19

The difference between China and L.A.

In China, you can watch sports in the subway. Here? It's just in the last few weeks that the televisions in the subway began showing the time the next train is leaving. I say let's raise the bar and get the train timetables and a little Monday Night Football.

MWD completes tunnel under mountains

The four-mile tunnel under the San Bernardino Mountains is for water and it took the Metropolitan Water District almost five years to finish. I mention it here because various tunnels in the Southland are still on the table, including the proposed subway extension, a tunnel under South Pasadena for the 710 Freeway and another under the Santa Ana Mountains to better connect the O.C. and Riverside County.

This tunnel took longer than expected. "It was some tough going and there were definitely some geologic issues to work through," MWD spokesman Bob Muir said. "We had some geologic studies, but until you get in there, you really don't know [what you're dealing with exactly] until you start digging."

Not all tunnel projects here take as long. The twin 1.8-mile tunnels under Boyle Heights for the extension of the Gold Line took less than a year to complete.

Other Gold Line project has sales tax issue

An interesting news release showed up from the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority: They surveyed 700 Gold Line passengers who parked at the Sierra Madre Villa station in Pasadena and found that about half drove from points east in the San Gabriel Valley.

The authority's point was that there's demand to extend the line to Claremont, as they want to do. However, the authority's board still doesn't back the sales tax that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is trying to get placed on the Nov. 4 ballot to pay for more mass transit. The board prefers that the MTA give them $80 million in seed money to help attract federal funding.

Their position puts them in a bit of a spot. If the board doesn't back the sales tax and voters approve it, will they not take the $758 million that the MTA spending plan designates for the project? And if the sales tax doesn't pass, and the authority campaigns against it, will the MTA board reward the authority with the $80 million?

Think about it.

What about the bus?

I swung by the Americana at Brand yesterday, wanting to see what the big Rick Caruso development in downtown Glendale looks like. Short answer: kind of like the Grove, another Caruso project, but with a bigger lawn, housing and a kind of cramped parking garage.

And, like the Grove, the mall pretty much faces inward and only on one side does it interact in a meaningful way with the actual streets of downtown Glendale. Oh well. That's how it's done in L.A. On the plus side, it's much more charming than the old Glendale Galleria across the street.

I also picked up a fat packet of literature for the luxury condos being sold at the Excelsior. Two bedroom, two-and-a-half bath units start at about $542,000. The packet also points out that residents have access to valet parking and the concierge can hook them up with taxis, limos and car service.

Um ... they left something out. The Rapid Bus stops right up the street! Hey concierge -- where's my bus pass?

Reader has issue with LA Weekly

I ran a short item yesterday about a recent story in the Weekly on the half-cent sales tax increase proposal in Los Angeles County. A reader e-mailed and took issue with the story, saying it wrongly stated that the costs will skyrocket on the projects.

The reader may have a point. I checked with the MTA and, in fact, agency spokesman Marc Littman said that three recent rail projects that the agency built were built on time and under budget: the third leg of the subway, the Orange Line busway and the Gold Line east extension, which may open as early as next summer.

"This assumption that everything we touch is going to go over budget is just not true," Littman said.

Mayor talks sales tax with Patt Morrison

L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will be talking about the proposed half-cent sales tax, among other issues, with my colleague Patt Morrison on her radio show on KPCC at 1 p.m.

--Steve Hymon

top photo: Wu Hong / EPA

bottom photo: Steve Hymon / LAT

Comments

[Morgan Wick]

"The board prefers that the MTA give them $80 million in seed money to help attract federal funding. Their position puts them in a bit of a spot. If the board doesn't back the sales tax and voters approve it, will they not take the $758 million that the MTA spending plan designates for the project?"

This could be interpreted as saying the $758 million is part of the sales tax increase, which could lead to confusion: how is $758 million not enough but $80 million is?

[Spokker]

I would only like this idea if the TVs were muted and closed captioned.

[M]

I'm not sure how I feel about putting tv into the train stations. The tvs on the buses are already annoying and do you really want to encourage people to just stand in the middle of a walkway so they can watch tv? Getting people to move off of the stairways so people can walk up and down is a problem without giving people something to distract them even further.