ALPERN AT LARGE - As the last parties of the now-self-congratulatory era of Antonio Villaraigosa come to an end, the very real successes of the outgoing mayor offer insights and opportunities for our new, incoming mayor-elect.
Eric Garcetti can build upon Villaraigosa's high points while also avoiding some of the pitfalls--both self-induced and external in origin--that limited the successes of what is surely a New Era of Transportation for LA City and County.
I'll start by wishing Eric Garcetti all the best, and by acknowledging (if not proclaiming) that his predecessor, Antonio Villaraigosa, was a true-blue Transportation Mayor. Only a true Antonio-hater would fail to recognize that one of Mayor Villaraigosa's greatest successes was to reverse, overcome and move forward past huge obstacles to both the Wilshire Subway, Light Rail to LAX and the creation of citywide rail, bus and bicycle networks.
Eric Garcetti will not have to contend with the funding and legal limitations--popular with many of the voters, mind you--set by Zev Yaroslavsky and Henry Waxman that was the law of the land when Antonio Villaraigosa entered office. My personal fury and feelings of betrayal by Villaraigosa (shared by quite a few transit advocates, by the way) in his land use decisions cannot and should not detract from my respect for how he handled these initial obstacles.
So Eric Garcetti has a chance--like Villaraigosa--to make the history books with respect to Transportation, but without the acrimony that was created between the Mayor and with both:
1) Neighborhood leaders, who for the most part encouraged a favorable vote on Measures R and J, but are now frightened and feeling betrayed by a lobbyist-friendly, developer-friendly Downtown and an enabling Planning that is really starting to put a bitter taste in Angelenos' mouths as to what transit will be. After all, no one wants a transit line that will--in the end--worsen mobility and the environment.
2) Other cities and regions within LA County that also pay into Measure R and expect some reasonable payback in return for their own personal needs. The Mayor of Los Angeles is NOT the Mayor of LA County, but needs to respect the other regions of the county, and recognize that the voters and taxpayers and commuters from outlying regions must be treated like partners and friends.
As with the Hollywood Millennium Project, the Casden Sepulveda Project (my favorite personal pet peeve as of late, as well as that of the majority Westside leadership) is an example of how Angelenos wanted a nice, tall glass of water (a transit line) with a twist of lemon (some mild-moderate density) and were then fire-hosed with sewer water by an uncaring Planning/Downtown that took their taxpayer rail construction money and used it against them.
There is an alternative arrangement that was in part forged and negotiated by Westside leaders of neighborhood councils and community groups, which has a dramatic downsizing of the project but still leaves a huge residential complex, with considerable traffic impacts, for a project that has many variances and is NOT A BY-RIGHT PROJECT, which means that there has to be a give-back by the developers to the community for this project.
The alternative, as described by the Times is by no means certain, and the possibility of a last-second bait-and-switch by this team of Casden developers is very real and very typical of how they operate. Concerned members of the community are strongly urged to attend City Council chambers on Friday, June 28th.
And make no bones about it--the Westside community leaders, most of whom favored the Expo Line (and Measure R to fund it) are NOT happy with this project. Are there transportation/transit benefits that will be paid for and established by the developers, particularly since the Westside city taxpayers paid roughly $15 million for a rail bridge over Sepulveda to allow this project to occur?
Is there a Westside Regional Transit Center, or some related transit mall, with bus bays and/or other amenities for transit users to transfer from the many buses on Sepulveda to access the Expo Line? Is there a sufficiently large bicycle and pedestrian facility, and a parking lot, for transit commuters of all transportation modes to access the Expo Line?
Shall we remember that clogged roads and intersections impact bus traffic to/from the Expo Line?
Clearly, the deal to have Casden build a wonderful transit center and transit-oriented development at Exposition/Sepulveda/Pico, arranged by Metro and the City of LA, was abused by a mean-spirited, nefarious, corporate opportunist who never gave a damn about transit as much as he just wanted to build a big Playa Vista-style development...except it would be even more dense than Playa Vista and set a horrible precedent for projects near the Expo Line Corridor.
(Playa Vista has about 110 dwelling units/acre, and the "compromise" has a potential of 150 dwelling units/acre)
Clearly, Metro and the City of LA will have to take charge of creating and establishing new transportation resources and centers, because Alan Casden has little to no interest in that (of course, Expo Line advocates could have told them that, all along). The guaranteed transit, transportation, open space, parks, police/fire, education and other mitigations for this project, which again is NOT BY-RIGHT and requires variances, just are NOT there!
But enough of this project--if the new Mayor and City Council want to ask voters to raise taxes for road repair, infrastructure development and rail/freeway construction, then it will have to respect these voters' wishes to NOT have new transit-adjacent development claim to be "transit-oriented" and thrash the mobility, quality of life, environment and economic potential of the City.
Ditto for Garcetti needing to respect the will of San Gabriel Valley, South Bay and eastern LA County voters.
The ongoing questions surrounding the Crenshaw/LAX line must be answered. A Leimert Park underground station is a boon to the community, but it comes at the expense of Westside and South Bay projects (like MetroRail to LAX and a Green Line extension to Torrance). Unless megadevelopment can justify it, legal and engineering issues prevent an underground Park Mesa tunnel from being approved.
An agreement with the San Gabriel Valley to fund a Foothill Gold Line to Ontario Airport is needed to get their support for a Measure J-style extension of the sales tax needed to build a similar airport/rail connection at LAX. Villaraigosa did his best to create an airport/rail transportation system, as well as a Wilshire Subway, but for Garcetti to finish what his predecessor started he must change the combative tone that Villaraigosa all too-often set with the rest of the county.
Eric Garcetti, Don Knabe, Mark Ridley-Thomas and Mike Antonovich will need to work together to both finish what was started with Measure R, and make sure that bad projects are pushed aside while popular and good projects are fast-tracked. Trade-offs should occur, and transparency with any future long-term Metro plans--and with county voters who will pay for these plans--is essential to replace acrimony with teamwork.
I wish Eric Garcetti well in his efforts, and look forward to working with him should he be the visionary--but not the combatant--that Antonio Villaraigosa was in promoting a better 21st Century City and County of Los Angeles.
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at [email protected] He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.
-cw
CityWatch
Vol 11 Issue 52
Pub: June 28, 2013