May 23 I attended a meeting on the Exposition
light rail project at Los Angeles Trade
Tech, along with Charles Hobbs and Kent
Landfield. At one point a vocal activist
pointedly stated the neighborhoods along
the route were opposed to any property being
taken. Later she inquired why more
parking hadn't been provided at stations
along the route. To which I thought
"because otherwise they'd have to seize
property, which you just told us you oppose".
Talk about a contradiction!
Once in a while, while reading some dreary
document I'll suddenly strike gold. This
happened recently while slogging through
the Metrolink proposed 2006-2007 budget.
Buried in it was a line item to repair vandalized
ticket machines. It seems in May 2005
a series of machines were robbed by
thieves using a hydraulic jack to pop the
door open. Six machines had damage so
extensive they had to be scrapped. One solution
being implemented is to harden the
doors. I know a recent break-in was caught
on camera, but I don't recall these earlier
thefts getting any media play. Did these
glide under the radar screen? And did they
ever catch the perpetrators?
The latest MARTA shenanigan posted by
Charles Hobbs on our member board is the
General Manager reporting to the agency
Board: "Transmark vehicle was damaged
when operator fueled with gasoline instead
of diesel. Repairs are underway and disciplinary
action of driver pending." P.S. -the
board wants the General Manager who is
quitting to stick around 3 more months
while they search for a replacement.
I was fascinated in the May issue of Eye on
Infrastructure to read Richard Little, Director
of the Keston Institute for Infrastructure
at the University of Southern California, in
an interview state "A lot of what we need to
do in the future is managing expectations
as well as resources. People can’t expect
that everything is going to be free - that is
not realistic. There are many people in California
and most are concentrated in our urban
areas. This makes finding solutions difficult
but if everyone is willing to give up a
little then collectively we can all gain a lot.
We can’t have a zero sum game where
when I get something you lose." Amen!
How jaded have I become? Recently I sat in
a room full of big shots and discovered I
was the only one to ask the guest speaker,
a member of our Congressional delegation,
a meaningful transportation related question.
Is it any wonder my ennui extends to
having little interest in the impending release
of the "updated" MTA Long Range
Plan? This is my third or fourth Plan cycle
(depending how you count the stillborn Plan
of the late 1990s) and I have come to see
them as compilations of previous Board actions
done merely to fulfill legal mandates.
So much of transportation policy consists of
meaningless dog & pony shows whose chief
purpose is to provide the ribbon cutting/
photo ops politicians (and even some bureaucrats)
crave. Which is probably why I so
enjoy my participation in the monthly meetings
of the Plans and Programs Technical Advisory
Committee of the Southern California
Association of Governments. Yes, the presentations
can often be deadly boring. Yet it
is nice to sit amidst folks similarly steeped in
transportation policy. And it is nice to be
among true adults once in a while. So we
take the good where we can find it and endure
the rest.
I guess the fun is over--the San Gabriel Valley
Transportation Authority website no
longer works. Which isn't surprising as the
L.A. Times recently reported that agency
founder Yosuf Maiwandi had been arrested
on suspicion of perjury for allegedly signing
a document in which he misrepresented his
position. A search of his home and auto shop
turned up firearms, transit authority police
badges and a white, unmarked Ford Crown
Victoria complete with radio equipment,
computer mobile digital terminal, official
government license plate, flashing front and
rear lights and siren. Is this the last chapter
of this strange saga? Time will tell...
On May 17, 2006, Subcommittee #5 of the
Assembly Budget Committee rejected the
Governor's proposal to permanently shift
Public Transportation Account (PTA) spillover
revenues to reduce General Fund debt costs.
I think this bespeaks transportation interests
in the past year or so becoming organized
and sending a clear signal to our friends in
Sacramento that robbing trust funds to balance
the state budget whenever the economy
has a blip is no longer a viable option.
I'll conclude by noting how odd it is the city
of L.A. is now helping reactive the Southern
California Regional Airport Authority, since it
was lack of involvement by L.A. a few years
ago that led to the Authority going dormant.
Oh, well--I guess that was then, and this is
now…
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