All I'll say about the June 22 Sector Council joint meeting is I noticed Deputy CEO John Catoe winced when I touched in my remarks on the on-going problems with MTA's contacted bus lines as being one of the items the Councils might find worth taking a look-see at.

I guess I should call it the two sides of Zev--in the June Metro Investment Report L.A. County Supervisor (and until this month MTA Board Chair) Zev Yaroslavsky is interviewed. In discussing his current pet-project, Zev is in full spin: "We are under construction in the San Fernando Valley on the Orange Line, which is a high-speed busway connecting Warner Center to the Red Line terminus in North Hollywood. We think it is going to be a huge success and a harbinger for the future way in which MTA dealswith some of its transit requirements in the outlying areas. This is a very inexpensive and very flexible project, which can be built in a relatively short period of time." How a project that costs a third of a billion (excluding land acquisition costs) and will end to end substantially be no faster than the existing Ventura Blvd. Metro Rapid qualifies as 'high-speed' and 'very inexpensive' is beyond me.

But Zev redeems himself at the end of the interview with a brilliant summing up of the situation at LAX: "The big failure of the LAX plan is that they never talked to anybody. It was all very insular and very top down, in a dogmatic way. They should have engaged other stakeholders in the region-not just governments, but other stakeholders-in the development of the plan, which they did not do...The airport spent a fortune developing a plan that had no support. They are no closer to the end result than they were before they spent $130 million. In fact, they will have to backtrack unless the Miscikowski compromise comes to pass, which appears to be happening. The issue with this plan, as well as with most long term planning issues, is communication." My only caveat is even with the compromise the Hahn alternative likely is still doomed...

The travails of the Antelope Valley Transportation Authority continue. Jeffrey O'Keefe, who had been hired as the new Executive Director, resigned before taking up his duties citing "health issues". Subsequently Planning Manager Randy Floyd was appointed Interim Executive Director at a salary of $110,000. David Ashcraft of Gannett Fleming shifts to providing advice as a consultant on an as-needed basis. Cryptically the AVTA Boards directed the search for an Executive Director be "delayed" for the time being.

interesting idea of the month: David Yale of MTA in the June Metro Investment Report notes a proposal is being floated to split the California Transportation Commission into two bodies-one for Southern California and another for Northern California. Each would handle funds based on the historic north/south split. I have to admit the idea is intriguing.

The long await Rail Capacity Analysis for the proposed Coast Daylight train between San Francisco and L.A. has finally been released. A copy will be circulated at our July meeting. To sum up-the report finds that substantial capital improvements are necessary to allow the Daylight to operate without impacting existing freight train schedules. Given current tight finances this probably means the Daylight likely won't happen anytime soon.

For a good laugh take a look at the end of the consent decree countdown clock on the front page of ex-member Kym Richards' website: http://www.transit-insider.org/

quote of the month: "We must focus on 'aspiration based planning' considering what type of community we want to be rather than 'trend based planning' that is grounded largely in market and demographic analysis" Ellsworth Brown, President of Carnegie Museums (as quoted in the April-May Delaware Valley Rail Passenger newsletter).

I was surprised to learn one of the critical needs Access Service, Inc. has for staff training is Business Writing Skills. In some cases employees "that require the most basic training may benefit from having a weekly workshop that stresses the fundamentals of writing and grammar". Talk about an indictment of the education system...

Another ASI surprise is the admission that ASI Board member Rosalyn Esposito made at the May 24 ASI Board of Directors meeting: that due to a bad experience she had on a Metro Bus Esposito will not use MTA services until the situation is remedied. Further per the minutes "She expressed concern at the ways that the bus drivers handle peoples with disabilities".

Kudos to the MTA Board for its June 7 action which reduced ASI's budget to reflect a policy of only funding ADA mandated services. I imagine there will be the usual wailing in response to this but in my view it was the only responsible action MTA could take.

Mystery of the month: the July 7 agenda of the South Coast Area Transit System board of directors includes under information items "D. Newsletter from the Bus Riders Union of Ventura County --June/July 2004"

Member Philip Provencio brought to my attention an interesting tidbit contained in the North Coast Transit District Board Governance Committee July 7 agenda (http://www.gonctd.com/agendas/gov_07072004.pdf) : NCTD is organizing a transit coalition with extensive outreach to stakeholders, etc. To my knowledge this is the third such effort in our region (following Riverside Transit Agency's "Transit Now" and MTA's "Mobility 21"). Can other areas be far behind in undertaking similar mobilizations?

I'll conclude by offering congratulations to the San Bernardino Associated Governments as it moves its offices into the newly restored Santa Fe Depot in San Bernardino, a project it co-funded and oversaw in partnership with the city of San Bernardino. Bravo!