ALPERN AT LARGE - On vacation in South Dakota, it was a surprising but entirely-relevant discovery to note that the gigantic Crazy Horse Memorial mountain carving project to memorialize and promote the history and culture of the Native Americans has powerful links to the grassroots endeavors to promote such monumental efforts as the Metro Expo and other rail lines and the California High-Speed Rail Project. To the point: the Authority to create the Crazy Horse Memorial, a 21st Century MetroRail system and a California High-Speed Rail system comes from the people, and NOT the government.
For example, the sculptors of the Crazy Horse Memorial, Korczak Ziolkowski and his surviving family, refused and still does refuse all federal and state funding (he was once offered $10 million from the feds) because he and his family believe that governmental funding comes with too many onerous strings attached, and that the ultimate will for this project dedicated to oppressed and brutally-mistreated Native Americans comes from the American people. And that will is exactly why the explosion of interest in this project has taken off.
The glorification of what ordinary individuals can do is a distinctly American paradigm, whether it be for conservative or liberal purposes, and if government steps in then it must (but usually does NOT) respect that its Authority stems from ordinary individuals who vote and pay taxes.
Korczak Ziolkowski started his life as a miserable orphan and took up the cause of the Crazy Horse Memorial in 1948 to honor the request of the Lakota chief Henry Standing Bear to "let the White Man know that the Red Man has heroes also."
Standing Bear noted this as the recently-completed Mount Rushmore (started with private and then receiving federal funding, but ultimately incomplete with only the faces sculpted) was built within the Black Hills that were so sacred to the Lakota tribes.
Ziolkowski, so deeply moved by his own Polish heritage and keenly aware of the Wounded Knee massacre and of the betrayal and assassination of the never-surrendering Chief Crazy Horse, took on Standing Bear's request with a virtually non-existent budget and his own limitless drive.
Very few individuals took Ziolkowski seriously, and even today there are (to quote the tour guides) relatively few even among the richer/casino-owning Native American tribes who've contributed to this future gigantic memorial (dwarfing Mount Rushmore), university and medical center. And it now increasingly rivals Mount Rushmore in its ability to move and impress tourists and historians.
For those of us who fought and strove for an Expo Line amidst relative obscurity and with a lack of serious credibility given to us by Westside and Downtown political leaders, we can relate. Amongst those who claimed to be environmentalists among the Hollywood elite, only Ed Begley, Jr. and Jimmy Smits ever recognized and supported the Expo Line.
Now that the Expo Line will be completed with a future Downtown Connector to the Gold Line and Union Station, the billionaire Eli Broad is demanding special features but to date has donated nothing to either the Expo or Downtown Connector Lines.
As with Korczak Ziolkowski, those of us who fought for the Expo Line, as well as the Wilshire Subway, Green Line to LAX and Downtown Connector, were and are used to being asked by government electeds and appointed officials, "Who the heck are YOU, anyway?" To which we did and must continue to respond to that question with "The people who pay for and ultimately run this country. Who the heck are YOU, and who empowered YOU?"
It's easy to fall back on the argument of "well, the government has to run things sooner or later", but that's not necessarily the case with all good things that are done well, and the best government ends up being the government that is always quick to remember that government-appointed and government-employed workers have their Authority from the voters and taxpayers, and not the other way around.
But the fact still remains that the Expo Line effort started with grassroots, unpaid volunteers working closely with thoughtful and open-minded Metro officials who were extremely receptive to these volunteers.
Now, after a decade of a roller coaster fight to create and fund and promote the Expo Line, and after seeing the previously close Friends4Expo/Metro relationship virtually shredded with an Expo Authority that still meets predominantly during the daytime when people work and are unable to make these meetings, and treats outreach meetings as part of a "to-do" list rather than an effort to confirm a close community-Expo Authority relationship, the Authority and the Authority alone has to acknowledge their responsibility with the shortcomings of Expo Phase 1:
● A lousy contractor that made a less-than-ideal project with less-than-ideal oversight that has resulted in engineering problems such as that which exists at the Blue/Expo Line intersection.
● Less than ideal signage at/on its stations and trains, including a clear delineation as to which trains are going to the Blue versus the Expo Line.
● Less than ideal station shelter and amenities that are already being changed by the new contractor for Phase 2 station designs.
In the defense of the Authority, they did have to contend with a sue-happy opposition from "FixExpo" and "Neighbors for Smart Rail" (many of whom truly wanted to kill the line altogether), and who proved so disruptive at public meetings that police presence became necessary.
However, when even Expo supporters were shut out by Mid-City Board members who tried to either make the line "their own" or make it an ethnic/race-oriented project, this project did become an example of how a "bottom-up" planning approach became a "top-down" project...and with less than favorable results to show for it.
It's up to Metro and the Expo Authority to determine whether the Crenshaw Line, Expo Phase 2, Downtown Connector and Wilshire Subway projects will be "top-down, or whether the "bottom-up" approach that allowed the Expo Line and Measure R to become reality (and for a host of Expo Authority and Metro officials to become gainfully employed for years to come) will be the new working paradigm of transit project planning and construction.
The Expo Authority (with its excellent new contractors) and Metro (with its new expanded service to 2 am on Friday and Saturday nights) will do the right thing by the people, so long as they listen to the people (particularly for those providing helpful and constructive criticism and ideas because they really want these new projects to become reality).
So if the Expo Bicycle Advisory Committee, LA Native and other grassroots groups express concern, and that they're really not being allowed credible input for the Expo Line and related station/bicycle/greenway effort, it's best remembered that it's their Authority that were and are the source of the successful construction and operation of the Expo and other MetroRail lines.
On a related note, it's vital to remember how a truly "top-down" approach--the California High-Speed Rail (CAHSR) Authority--failed the taxpayers and planners who supported this project for decades.
Maybe it's naiveté, maybe it's downright lying on the part of the CAHSR planners, maybe it's a religious fervor for rail lines that left the realm of rational decision-making, but the insistence of a very-high-speed rail that went 220 mph versus 150 mph--which is the current speed of the Acela HSR line in the Northeast U.S. and is still pretty darn fast compared to a car--has left us a project with lots of poor spending and with questionable environmental benefits.
The perfect became the enemy of the good, which is very easy to do at public expense when other people are paying the costs--a 150 mph rail would have done the trick just fine for the immediate future.
Had the CAHSR Authority been more transparent and less "top-down", it's likely that its most reasonable grassroots and elected/political proponents would have allowed this project to be more like the aforementioned Acela Line, focused more on the benefits of medium/short-distance travel and not insisted on an "ideal line" for which the taxpayers will not pay $98 billion.
As it is, the operational costs of the line and the unlikely prospects of getting a fully-funded $68 billion project suggests that we've just spent half of the voter-approved CAHSR bond funds for a project that will not be built within our lifetimes ... if ever.
Nothing happens without public will and a recognition of the ability of the ordinary individual to make a difference, and as historic and ongoing efforts continue at a grassroots level--and with private funding--it becomes increasingly evident that governmental, public-sector, taxpayer-financed-but-top-down-managed projects are neither appropriate nor even American in its nature and in our current economy are either bound to lose public support, and/or fail altogether.
What's true for Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse is true for transportation and infrastructure projects, and is true for all major endeavors worth fighting for. True believers must show the extent of their belief from their own work and sacrifice, relying best on volunteer and sincere assistance from citizens equally committed to fighting for their cause.
And if government must step in, then risks abound from those elected and appointed to "lead" the rest of us, particularly in a modern-day era where government "leadership" leans toward the control, and not empowerment, of the ordinary American citizen that has made--and continues to make--this country the unique and enduring phenomenon to which the rest of the world aspires.
(Ken Alpern is a former 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.)
Tags: Ken Alpern, Alpern at Large, Crazy Horse, Metro Rail, transportation, transit
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 57
Pub: July 17, 2012
