CommentsBALLOT BATTLE TAKES ON NEW DYNAMIC--One very interesting (and overall great) thing about the Trump/GOP and the Sanders/Clinton feuding is the heightened interest that the average American has in our federal and electoral processes. Apathy is a terrible thing, and bad political processes occur as a result.
This November will be dominated by federal/national issues, but at least we can have a focus on the spring of next year for our own local/City crises. (Photo above: Neighborhood Integrity Initiative campaign chief, Jill Stewart, at media conference on steps of City Hall, announces ballot measure rescheduling to spring 2017.)
As a "true believer" in honest, rational and moral transportation and urban planning, I have no choice but to be an unabashed proponent of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative (NII), so my initial reaction to the rescheduling of the Neighborhood Integrity Initiative to Spring 2017 was less than happy, but when all is said and done it makes sense.
This November we will have a money-soaked, adrenalin-laced election that will certainly be one for the history books. Federal domestic and foreign policy will be on the minds of a high-voter turnout, and local City issues will not be as high a priority.
The same cannot be said for spring 2017 elections, when more serious and (dare I say it?) cynical voters will dominate the electorate. "Boring" and "nerdy" issues involving Downtown LA, such as pension costs, road resurfacing, and overdevelopment will be on the minds of those who choose to vote...and who are less likely to be swept up in any patriotic issues involving Washington, D.C.
We will also not have to "choose" between more transportation funding (a county issue) and better planning policies (a City of LA issue). It's not hard to conclude that we need BOTH more countywide transportation funding AND more limit-setting with a corrupt, incompetent and inefficient City of Los Angeles political/planning system.
For example, we now have a Foothill Gold Line that extends to Azusa, and whether it helps the I-210 freeway or not is beyond the point: the San Gabriel Valley (SGV) wanted it, and if it helps create more housing there then the SGV can avoid the same mistakes that the City of LA made.
Besides, does EVERYONE in LA County have to live in the City of LA?
So with due respect to rail/transit expert Ethan Elkind those opposing the Foothill Gold Line are wrong. We need a central rail line for buses to feed into in the SGV, and we need a more rapid and high-capacity train line to serve a region instead of a "just let them take the bus" mentality that's hurt LA County mass transit for decades.
Just ask the San Fernando Valley how well it's fared with its bus-based, capacity-reached Orange Line Busway: the region regrets not making it the light rail line it always should have been, and it will be a lot of time and money before that Valley does things right.
In mid-May, we will have the Exposition Light Rail Line to serve the Westside and Mid-City regions, which is being created in a "reactive" fashion in contrast to the "proactive" fashion of the SGV.
And both the South Bay and Southeast LA Cities will want their own light rail line to form the main framework of a bus/rail transit network like we're seeing in the SGV. Ditto for the cities along the SR-60 corridor and Whittier for the Eastside Gold Rail Extension.
Aaaaaand, of course, the Sepulveda Pass connecting the San Fernando Valley and the Westside will need a rail connection with an arguably greater bang for the buck than what we saw with the recently-completed I-405 widening megaproject.
Hence this November's Measure R-2, along with all the federal candidates with promises for matching transportation funds, should receive its own focus this fall.
But next spring, the focus can and should be redirected to our City, with its pro-1%, unsustainable, environmentally-cruel, profit-laced, and illegal/making-up-the-law-as-is-financially-convenient policies.
We will have a slew of City Council races, and a choice of whether we will choose to honor the City Charter and proper urban/environmental policy, or to crush the will and the lives of City residents who have been paying higher and higher taxes for decades.
The Neighborhood Integrity Initiative, and the rule of law, will be on the ballot this next spring. We will have the opportunity to develop in a manner that creates affordable housing and improves neighborhoods ... not over-gentrifies and destroys neighborhoods (as is currently the case).
So go back to your presidential debates and primary/delegate counting, and let's dream of a better LA County for this fall.
But spring of 2017, the local battles and "come-to-Jesus" talks with our electeds and our Planning Department begins in earnest.
(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member 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 CD11Transportation 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.)
