The Bus Riders Union and other groups held a protest march Thursday in Los Angeles and made several statements about Metro to the media and others. In the spirit of setting the record straight, here are a few facts about Metro:
•1,222 affordable housing units are either planned, being built or have been completed in transit oriented developments in which Metro is a partner. That number includes the 172 affordable units that just opened this past spring in a development over the Red/Purple Line subway station in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, adjacent to MacArthur Park.
•Metro has never partnered with Walmart in any kind of development.
•Housing units lost to construction of the Eastside Gold Line Extension and for a planned subway station never built in Boyle Heights have since been replaced and there will be 52 affordable units in transit oriented development at First and Lorena streets. That project is expected to commence construction in a year.
•Metro has no plans to kill its rail program. Los Angeles County voters in 1980, 1990 and 2008 approved half-penny sales tax increases to help pay for the expansion of transit, including rail projects. In 2008, nearly 68 percent of voters approved Measure R, which will help pay for bus and rail projects, bus operations, highway projects, as well as return 15 percent of the taxes collected to cities in Los Angeles County for smaller transportation improvements.
Steven P ..Have dumb can one person be…. Operators deserve every cent they get they have to put up with so many different attitudes everyday i doubt you would survive a min. try riding a bus once in a while and see the abuse drivers face daily
The BRU doesn’t like rail because rail can move more passengers with fewer employees, and having lots of well-paying jobs for drivers is a high priority for the BRU. I’ll never forget whose side the BRU was on during the 2003 strike, because it certainly wasn’t on the riders’ side.