In Crenshaw, Overwhelming Enthusiasm for Leimert Park Station
A recent motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas calling for grade
separation for nearly the entire Crenshaw Corridor and a second station
at Leimert Park, has become one of the most controversial Metro
proposals in recent memories. Transit advocates across the region worry
about the impact on other Measure R projects, especially because the
motion wants to look at moving funds for expansion of the Green Line or
Expo Line to fund the additional projects. You can read more details
about the proposal, here.
But in news papers up and down the Crenshaw Corridor, there is
unanimous support for the ideas of both grade separating the line and
especially for the Leimert Park Station.
An editorial in the L.A. Sentinel
asks the question, “why isn’t there a station planned for Leimert
Park?” The park and businesses surrounding it is viewed by many as the
cultural center of South Los Angeles, and seems to be a natural fit for a
rail station, above or below ground. The editorial is full of
supportive quotes from politicians and advocates, but this comment by
the Michael Jones of the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce captures the
argument for both Leimert Station and a grade-separated Crenshaw Line:
There are two things involved here. One is Metro is
saying they don’t want to do it because it cost too much money; so
that’s a concern that they have.However, when you look at Leimert coming up … the Vision Theater,
the renovated shops and the businesses that will follow, for that train
NOT to stop at Vernon and Crenshaw, will be a travesty to the
community. The other part is that the train must run underground
between 48th Street and 59th Street. Why? Because the time it will take
to build two train tracks in the middle of Crenshaw, the businesses
will be affected in a very, very bad way.
Our Weekly has published Opinion pieces in each of its last two editions by a pair of Ph.D.’s promoting the Station and grade-separation. Last week, Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad makes the same point slightly more succinctly.
Urban centers are designed around two things: schools and
Until our community understands that mis-designing mass transit is a
mass transit. Business comes where the transit stops, and homeowners
come where the schools are. The money then follows both.detriment to the economic development prospects of our community, we
When we get it, they get it.
will never see the change we desire.
This week,
David Horne calls for the Corridor’s black community to come out and
support the Ridley-Thomas motion at this month’s meeting of the Metro
Board of Directors. He notes that the early morning schedule for the
meeting makes attendence difficult, but this may be the community’s only
chance to get the station, and separation, they want.
But the board will have to be convinced to do so. In
order for that proposal to be successful, we all need some real booties
in the balcony. Black folk need to be seen in the aisles, halls and in
the seats to demonstrate our sustained interest in the supervisor’s
proposal. No people, no pressure, and no positive vote. That’s how it
works. So get there.
Last, but never least, Damien Goodmon writes in The Wave that building the Leimert Station isn’t just good for the Crenshaw community, but the entire city:
The plight of the Crenshaw business community should
concern us all. If Los Angeles is a salad bowl filled with a mixture of
cultures from throughout the world, Crenshaw must be the dressing. Our
region should no more welcome the destruction of the Crenshaw business
community than it should Little Tokyo or Chinatown. Crenshaw is as
much a part of our unique identity as a multicultural city, as any
other ethnic center. We must both preserve it and enhance it with the
Crenshaw-LAX Light Rail Line.
One thing that doesn’t appear in any of these opinion pieces is a
broader discussion of Metro finances or an analysis of whether the
Crenshaw Line is more or less important than the Expo Line or Green
Line. The issue isn’t about the larger Measure R picture, its just
about an effort to get the rail line that they feel makes the most sense
for the community.
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