As Metro Moves Ahead with the Eagle Rock BRT Project, It Just Gets Stranger and Stranger

Last time, we left the BRT Project with the following observation: 

“Having tracked this from the beginning, it seems clear that Hilda Solis and Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian have already decided to ram this sucker through for their own political reasons. Whatever the public face. That seemed obvious at the community meetings in 2019. Seems to me the rest is a bunch of bureaucratic BS generating a ton of paper to support the decisions already made.  

Kevin de León’s been around politics long enough to know this, and maybe that was what prompted his call to key Eagle Rock leaders. But he has a number of potential problems as this project goes forward.  

First off, while bike lanes may be cool, just ask Councilmember Bonin all about them. Not to mention the truth is that the project will likely wipe out almost all of the existing retail businesses along Colorado Blvd, because they simply cannot survive a couple of years of the streets being torn up and their businesses functionally closed. 

And that’s even if Metro chooses an option to keep some parking.” 

Since there have been a number of variations of the actual  BRT route through Eagle Rock, the latest Metro Board vote gives us the Beautiful Boulevard Refined F1 option. 

As the blog Metro - The Source explains it: 

“In Eagle Rock — where there has been significant public interest in the project — the bus would operate in side-running lanes on Colorado Boulevard from Broadway to just west of Eagle Rock Boulevard. East of Eagle Rock Blvd., the bus would operate in center/median-running bus lanes to Linda Rosa Avenue via one of two potential design options. One option maintains the two existing travel lanes in each direction while the second option reduces the number of travel lanes to one in each direction in this segment. 

As the project evolved, the study looked into putting the project on the 134 or Colorado Blvd. through Eagle Rock. Colorado won out because of its better accessibility to the community. 

The project is funded by Measure M. Metro’s goal is to open the project in 2024 — the reason it’s important to select a route and move forward with designing the project and beginning the process of hiring a contractor to build it.” 

Subsequent to Metro’s action, the Eagle Rock Community has made its voice heard, and not for the bicycle version that would cost parking spaces and traffic lanes. 

First, there was a protest on June 25 at 4 p.m., where 40-50 intrepid opponents to the Project demanded that the Metro do a “cone study,” to show everyone exactly what will happen in the event that the Beautification version of the plan actually goes through. Simply put, a cone study would involve using those orange traffic cones to map out on Colorado Blvd exactly what the roadway would look like when built. 

Weird 

Ok, fair enough, but the answers weren’t. For one thing  there became an issue as to whether Metro or LADOT, if you believe it, should be the ones to handle such a monumental issue like a cone study. 

I’m not making this up. 

Allegedly, the Project Manager for the BRT (Brian) told participants that Metro was not entertaining a cone study “because we don’t have to,” and “go talk to LADOT.” This did not compute, so I reached out to Metro for a clarification. 

To their credit, Metro did respond, and a big thank you to them. It turns out that the Project Manager is out on leave for a while, so they can’t confirm or deny the statement attributed to him. 

However, they could affirmatively state that “Metro staff is looking to determine whether the “cone test” can be accomplished in a way that would realistically simulate real world conditions.” 

At about the same time, it was  further alleged that Kevin de León (CD14) had told the Eagle Rock folks that it would be LADOT, not Metro, to handle the task if there was a cone study, but “LADOT is broke.” 

Again, this made no sense, so I reached out to de León’s Chief of Staff, Jennifer Barraza, for clarification. You will be shocked and amazed that as of the date of this article, the silence has been deafening. I’m still waiting, sorta like Waiting for Godot. 

Weirder 

To make matters even weirder, without any noticeable notice, during the same week we were asking about cone studies, LADOT conducted a cone study off of Avenue 50 and Meridian in CD14. It was a traffic circle, a block north of Huizar’s park on Ave 50 and York Ave.  

When I questioned the LADOT staff present (Clare Eberle, a former Huizar staff member), I was told that this was an old 2015 Jose Huizar special, using State funding with Federal help of some sort, and isn’t it cool? 

Also, another former Huizar staff member confirmed that this project is, you got it, a done deal, but it was to be kept under the radar. As in, don’t tell the troops. 

Community observers noted that there was a surprising amount of traffic during the study, with some going the wrong way, and a Fire Truck couldn’t even go around the circle at all. 

I have reached out to LADOT for further information on this project, and why they can do a cone study for a low-density traffic circle that is not really needed, even as they evidently cannot do a cone study on Colorado Blvd which impacts thousands. 

Again, as of the date of this article, no response. 

And Bizarre 

Just to keep matters on the strange side, on the eve of July 1, over by the Bank of America Building on Colorado Blvd, four motorcycle cops and three or four cops dressed as civilians, suddenly set up a sting on a portion of the roadway which will be the Project. Evidently, the undercover cops would put a foot or two out on the road when there was an oncoming car, and a motorcycle cop would then bust the driver for failing to stop. A bunch of big-time tickets resulted. 

So by some feat of magic, the LAPD had motorcycle cops available to stop and issue traffic tickets to those criminal motorists (it turns out that if a pedestrian starts to cross a street, anywhere, traffic is obligated to stop or get a ticket). 

Personally, I’m impressed. You should try and find a cop to respond to speeders and violators along Eagle Rock Blvd, or El Paso. Good luck. Those streets look more like a freeway as folks flee downtown to get to Eagle Rock and Highland Park after work. 

I have reached out to the LAPD Central Division for an explanation of this unusual gotcha, since a suspicious person would probably think that the sudden sting operation on Colorado Blvd has something to do with the NoHo to Pasadena BRT Project. 

So far, no response. 

The Takeaway 

It seems that absent  an act of God, Metro is going through with the Colorado Blvd BRT project.  The best that the community can expect is to try and keep as much parking and as many traffic lanes as possible. That way at least business will eventually survive, and those living on the small side streets will have the least amount of disruption. 

The real question is, where is Kevin de León in all this. He has moved out of his rental on Rangeview off Ave 50 for an actual house elsewhere, and I think it’s fair to say that he is no longer very interested in our area of Northeast LA. 

All my de León watcher friends seem to agree that he’s given up on the gentrified Eagle Rock, Glassell Park, Highland Park patch of his District, and has decided to concentrate on Boyle Heights and El Sereno. 

Over time, we’ll see if that is true. If it is, my bet is that Kevin has figured out that he is simply not competitive to be Mayor and is simply shifting to a more amenable voting base to get the relatively small number of votes it takes to keep a Council seat. 

Only in LA.(Tony Butka is an Eastside community activist, who has served on a neighborhood council, has a background in government and is a contributor to CityWatch.) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.