BOTTOM LINE: UNCOMMON UNITY, AS POLITICAL WILL GROWS FOR CRENSHAW SUBWAY
All roads are leading to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, where the agency’s board of directors will decide on the future of the county’s largest African-American community next week, and huge numbers of South L.A. residents, together with virtually all of their elected representatives, are traveling those roads together to make sure that decision is a good one.
This movement of the masses from as far south as the city of Inglewood, north through the neighborhoods abutting Crenshaw Boulevard, to the downtown Metro Board Room is set to roll early on May 26 for the 9 a.m. meeting at which the board will make its final decisions on the last two, but significant, elements of the Crenshaw Subway.
The notion of an 8.5-mile, $1.7 billion Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Transit line (Crenshaw Subway, for short) appears to have been rattling around in the recesses of transit officials’ mind, while for years, modern rail systems have popped up all over the Southland in other areas — from the Eastside to the San Fernando Valley. The Crenshaw Subway is the first super-modern transit system to cut right through the heart of the Black community and everybody is ecstatic about it, except for two things:
The subway as planned does not include a Leimert Park/Vernon Avenue Station in what is the residential, commercial and recreational hub of the Crenshaw community, and it ceases to run underground as it traverses the Park Mesa Heights neighborhood, thus guaranteeing the traffic flow at 48th and 54th streets and Slauson Avenue will be adversely impacted for all time.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, a member of the MTA Board, has introduced a motion addressing the final two subway issues, as it calls for the creation of the Leimert Park/Vernon Station and the underground transit of subway cars through their final mile beneath Park Mesa Heights. Ridley-Thomas’ motion calls for transit officials to investigate several different sources for funds to finance these two elements of the subway.
The MTA Board, meeting at One Gateway Plaza, will vote on Ridley-Thomas’ motion May 26 and the Black community is galvanized to support that motion to a degree not seen since Tom Bradley announced his candidacy for mayor. In fact, Ridley-Thomas said as much.
“This is the first example of a unified presence for the Black community in who knows how long,” he said, adding that “the Crenshaw Line is the legacy of Tom Bradley, and is the most important issue to affect the African-American community for the next 25 years.”
Bishop Charles Blake, a very important Crenshaw stakeholder, expects the subway to be the harbinger of great things. “The subway will bring new life and vitality to our community and make it easier for residents to travel into other parts of the region. It is such an important thing that we become fully integrated in the transportation web of Los Angeles County and not shortchange ourselves while other communities have access to the best amenities available,” the bishop said. “Leimert Park will be enhanced by a station there, and to bypass it would be a significant mistake — maybe even a travesty.”
Damien Goodmon and his hyperactive “Fix the Expo Line” group have been fighting MTA for years on two fronts: against the Expo Line and for the Crenshaw Subway. During the past three months, the group has been implementing a petitioning drive and a letter-writing campaign among Crenshaw area residents in support of the Ridley-Thomas motion. “Everybody has a role to play,” Goodmon said. “If we want this important issue to pass, everybody has to show up, link up, speak up and sign up.”
The Ma’at Institute for Community Change has engaged buses to take groups of Inglewood residents to the MTA meeting to support the Ridley-Thomas motion. Kokayi Kwa Jitahidi, organizer, said the buses will depart at 7 a.m. on May 26 from Inglewood’s Center of Hope, 333 N. Prairie Ave.
The Rev. William Smart, an Inglewood pastor, said: “Inglewood is located at the heart of the Crenshaw Line. Therefore residents of the city have a tremendous interest and stake in how it’s designed in Los Angeles, Inglewood and the airport area.” In addition, the Inglewood City Council is scheduled to vote on a resolution next week in support of the Ridley-Thomas motion.
The elected officials who have weighed in on the Ridley-Thomas motion include Los Angeles City Councilman Herb Wesson, who said: “I support the supervisor 200 percent. I think we should get out in front of this issue or we will lose.”
Councilman Bernard Parks said he has been working on the Crenshaw Subway project since 2008 and that his number one priority has been the establishment of a stop at Leimert Park. “We will be there before the MTA to express that view — the same view that has been given in four correspondences we have sent them.”
Sen. Curren Price, chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, who represents virtually everything around the Crenshaw Line, said: “I have been supportive of MRT’s efforts and proposals on the Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail at all stages. I have written letters and had staff testify in support of it. I also support the project’s labor agreement which calls for local hire and MTA’s small business contract efforts. This is economic justice. This will be a good regional economic booster providing jobs and it is a long overdue investment in transportation.”
Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, who likens Crenshaw Boulevard to Wall Street — comparing the latter as the financial center of America, to the former as the financial center of South Los Angeles — is particularly disturbed by problems the proposed street-level mile of the subway would cause in the community. “Railroad tracks divide communities, “Mitchell said. “South Los Angeles needs a united Crenshaw — one without a ‘moving wall’ that turns into an obstacle course for traffic and pedestrians.”
While Assemblyman Mike Davis strongly supports the Ridley-Thomas motion, he revealed his own plans to put some muscle behind his support. “As the chairman of the Assembly Rail Transportation Committee, I will be forwarding a strong recommendation to the MTA that equal opportunities for transportation funding be provided throughout our county,” Davis said. “Furthermore, I have some upcoming hearings scheduled in which I plan to look at the diversity of spending in projects, such as the Crenshaw Subway.”
Rep. Maxine Waters has had nothing but high praise and excitement about the Crenshaw/LAX Transit Corridor and its projected completion date by 2016, a full two years earlier than originally scheduled. “The corridor [the subway and Green Line extension] will provide my constituents easier access to work, school, shopping, entertainment and everything else Los Angeles has to offer,” she said.
Staff writer Leiloni De Gruy contributed to this report.
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