SEVEN ITEMS FOR YOUR ‘ACTION’ LIST-There are times to be proactive, and times to be reactive. There are times to talk, and there are times to act. There are times to be cautious and wait, and there are times to act. Here are a few items to act on, and to act on right NOW:
1) Kill the City half-cent sales tax proposal. The optics of City repair crews goofing off and moving slow while they're supposed to be fixing potholes and sidewalks, as evidenced by CBS 2 investigative reporter David Goldstein--referenced in CityWatch articles by Jack Humphreville and Greg Nelson is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.
This tax will not get the required 2/3 vote, and the City needs to refocus on reforming its budget right now.
2) The need to repair the City's pension funding and on what it pays Wall Street for its pensions is paramount. Although it is excellent that LA Councilmember Paul Koretz to exclude rapacious banking firms unless they renegotiate with the City is as laudable as our failure to act so far is deplorable .
Again, with the City spending more on financial fees than on its roads, the time for a half-cent City sales tax is NOT now. There might very well be a future need to raise revenue (such as proposed County Measure R-2), but NOT now.
3) It is no shocker that we are not getting a NFL team, but the need to create a first-rate Convention Center and make Downtown Los Angeles a mecca for the convention/event industry that other cities enjoy is blatantly obvious.
Push for the Plan B, add the space, upgrade and beautify the center, and let's get Downtown Los Angeles up there with San Diego and Chicago as places where tourists and businessmen flock to ... NOW.
4) Stop trying to nail shoppers and commuters with more parking officers, and start building more parking and enhanced access to our businesses. Small businesses in particular are being destroyed by a lack of easy and attractive parking, sidewalk, bus and bicycle access, and the idea of diverting all business fees away from the City general fund and toward better access requires consideration.
Let's connect customers and workers to their places of employment...NOW.
5) What will bring more transportation fees and access is the proposed County Measure R-2, and the "big picture" items require Metro-approved Major Investment Studies to allow for "real" projects to achieve that critical Planning and Consensus before they can be funded.
Now that the Wilshire Subway is funded to La Cienega, the time is NOW for a Major Investment Study to extend the Crenshaw/LAX line north to the Purple/Wilshire Subway, or maybe even to the Red Line Subway. Ditto for a Major Investment Study to link the San Fernando Valley with the Westside ... NOW.
6) We blew it in the Valley (or, more specifically, Valley residents and political leaders blew it) when they failed to revisit and kill the Robbins bill that required ALL rail projects to be underground in the West Valley. Hence we have an inferior Orange Line Busway and must now build the rail line it should have always been.
Kill the Robbins bill, and let's get a Major Investment Study for a Metro Orange Light Rail Line that can carry thrice the passengers that the Busway currently carries...NOW.
7) City and LA World Airports planners are doing yeoman's work behind the scenes to create a LAX Connect Plan that would make the Metro Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Line and LAX renovation a combined effort worthy of a 21st Century Los Angeles.
LAX Connect, in addition to creating the most comprehensive Metro Rail/LAX link possible, also has the potential to create a secondary benefit of establishing a gigantic jobs center around LAX and neighboring Inglewood. This LAX Connect needs to be expedited to the Metro Board...NOW.
It should be no surprise that there are a lot of City workers and electeds who ARE doing the right thing, and they are bearing the brunt of the screw-ups and shortcomings of the past and present.
They deserve credit. And they will get that credit if they act NOW.
(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] This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . He also does regular commentary on the Mark Isler Radio Show on AM 870, and 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 12 Issue 44
Pub: May 30, 2014
