A.M. Greenlist: So many public transportation meetings....

>> Hear about and discuss the second phase of the Expo line (PDF), which will extend the light rail from Culver City to Santa Monica. Two primary right-of-way alignments are being considered, so get your two cents in at the upcoming community workshops:

* Wednesday, March 26, 6:30 pm, Webster Middle School, Los Angeles
* Tuesday, April 1, 6:30 pm, Crossroads School, Santa Monica
* Thursday, April 3, 6:30 pm, Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, Los Angeles

>> Chat with Metro Board Chair Pam O'Connor about Metro's new draft Long Range Transportation Plan and ways to fund traffic relief. The live internet chat happens from noon to 1 pm, Wed., March 19.

>> Or show up in person at the public meetings for the Long Range Transportation Plan.

>> The Big Blue Bus' annual community meetings are coming up too, starting early April.

>> Tour the L.A. River and see what's happening with the revitalization efforts first-hand. The next car caravan Friends of the LA River tour happens April 6. Cost: $20 members/$25 non-members.

>> Make your finances paperfree with VaultStreet, a newly launched web service that'll automatically store all your financial statements electronically.

>> The trouble with eco-labels aimed at the consumer. More companies are using them to detail their greening efforts -- but it's unclear what criteria were used to crunch the numbers -- and difficult for would-be eco-consumers to decipher.

Comments

[Dan W]

Public transit NIMBYs have had far too much influence in this city for far to long. They were successful in delaying construction of the Purple Line for 20 years, having the Orange Line start as a busway instead of light rail and are in danger of sabotaging the whole Expo Line project with unnecessary, gold-plated improvements to Phase 1 which are meant to bankrupt the project so it never has the chance to get to phase 2.

With the possible exception of Hancock Park, In almost no place in Southern California do NIMBYs need standing up to more than in Cheviot Hills. The Expo Line must go along its right-of-way.

They are wrong anyway in believing that light-rail will "lower" property values. In every other city, accessibility to the transit system raises property values, as it will in Los Angeles as the car culture continues its unraveling. Cheviot Hills is ground zero for delusional NIMBYs who still think they live in Sam Yorty's Los Angeles, where they don't have to interact with people from other neighborhoods and don't have to consider any other modes of transportation other than an automobile. No one is entitled to government preservation of an old-fashioned, low-density, automobile-based suburban lifestyle just because of what their neighborhood was like half-a-century ago.

Let's make our voices heard to the MTA that we want the Expo Line built effciently via the right-of-way through Cheviot Hills and lets tell our elected officials that we want them for once to stand for the common good instead of grandstanding with the misguided NIMBYs.

The Venice-Sepulveda alternative will merely add needless time travel delays to and unnecesary added construction costs.

[Carter Kirkwood]

Siel, Thank you very much for mentioning VaultStreet. Your post is particularly timely because tax season is the time of year when we all wish we were more organized, and VaultStreet makes that possible - without wasting paper and other resources

[Dan W.]

Here's the 500 character question I sumbitted which probably will not be included for not being a "convenient" question:

[quote]In the draft LRTP, there is no substantial improvement in public transit between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside. It seems to me that the proposed Santa Monica Blvd. alignment allowing a one-seat ride from North Hollywood to Century City should be included, as well as a Sepulveda LRT from LAX up to Metrolink. The current Rapid 761 is weak terminating only at Wilshire. It should be extended to Pico to reduce the number of transfers needed for many people by one. Shouldn't the countless people snaking through passes and canyons each way every day have a public transit alternative?[/quote]

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Siel, thank you for this wonderful blog. I've learned a lot from it.