Here is a look at some of the transportation headlines gathered by us and the Metro Library. The full list of headlines is posted on the library’s blog.
Beverly Hills vs. Metro (Neon Tommy)
The USC news site provides a nice glimpse of the state of affairs between Metro and those in Beverly Hills who don’t want the Westside Subway Extension tunneling anywhere near Beverly Hills High School. “I have a 3-year-old son, and his life is at stake,” says one resident.
Brentwood vs. Metro (L.A. Times)
L.A. Councilman Bill Rosendahl is pushing his colleagues at their meeting today to shorten the proposed rush hour bus lane on Wilshire Boulevard to 5.4 miles from the L.A.-Beverly Hills border on the west to just west of downtown Los Angeles. In particular, he wants the segment through Brentwood removed from the project, saying that the bus lane would sacrifice a needed traffic lane and that the bus lane makes little sense unless it’s continuous from Santa Monica to downtown L.A. The Metro Board of Directors last year voted to eliminate an about one-mile segment of the bus lane through Westwood pending further study and Beverly Hills or Santa Monica were never included in the project.
China aims to create world’s largest city (The Telegraph)
City planners would like to merge nine cities around the Pearl River Delta into one mega-city of about 16,000 square miles — or about 26 times the size of the Greater London area. The city of Los Angeles, by the way, covers about 460 square miles. If it sounds a little fantastical, one motivation behind the plan is to have united policies concerning pollution and transportation. Although the plan is just that — a plan, not reality — it fits into the larger trend of a more urbanized China.
Categories: Transportation Headlines
My point is that it would be nice to see newspaper articles written about a public meeting in Century City, including the opinions of people who would actually use Metro to get to Century City. It’s amazing to me that the people getting the most media coverage on this issue would likely not ride the subway. If there was a high-visibility meeting in Century City, people who work there might actually be given a voice in the media debate.
Oren:
Our Community Update meetings are typically held in the evening. In addition to Beverly Hills, we’re holding the meetings in Westwood & Mid-Wilshire. The locations of the Century City station was also a topic of much discussion at the meeting in Westwood that was held last week. The Century City business community has been very cooperative with us in the past and twice provided opportunities for us to meet with people who work in Century City during the day. We’ll try to get another one of those.
Thanks for your interest.
Jody Litvak
Metro Westside Subway Extension Team
Why isn’t Metro holding public meetings in Century City? The NIMBYs in Beverly Hills have had plenty of forums to air their complaints (and resulting media coverage), but the people who actually work in Century City and would ACTUALLY USE the subway have not been provided with a public forum.