Mark Ridley-Thomas’ priorities as Metro Board Chair

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MRT principles

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas took over as Chairman of the Metro Board of Directors earlier this month and will be in that role through next June. Ridley-Thomas is currently presiding over his first full Board meeting today; the above document neatly lays out his priorities. In addition, an article has been posted on his website.

It should be an eventful year. Two rail projects — the second phase of the Expo Line to Santa Monica and the Gold Line Foothill Extension to Azusa — are nearing the end of construction and early testing is underway on both lines. Construction continues on three other rail projects, the Crenshaw/LAX Line, the Purple Line Extension section one and the Regional Connector. Metro is also in the process of updating its long-range plan and looking at a potential ballot measure for Nov. 2016 to raise more money for transportation projects.

There is also a wide array of other policies and projects in progress, ranging from bikeshare coming to downtown Los Angeles next spring to a study underway that could reorganize some bus service. Stay tuned!

You can also follow Ridley-Thomas on Twitter and Facebook.

 

 

Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects

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7 replies ›

  4. Can someone at Metro explain why each chair has a DIFFERENT set of priorities and visions? These all seem like very general, overarching “visions” that could be used to generally describe what Metro does. So how does Mark Ridley-Thomas’ vision differ from the previous chairmen/women, and how does it differ from Metro’s vision as a whole? And if they ARE different, shouldn’t the taxpayers/citizens of LA know well in advance what each “vision” is going to be for that year and how that “vision” will be implemented?

    • Hi Transit Rider;

      I don’t believe the Chairs’ visions/priorities are that terribly different from year to year although there are different points of emphasis. It still takes a majority of the Board to implement most policies (some items require two-thirds approval).

      Steve Hymon
      Editor, The Source

    • The chair rotates every year among politicians. Remember the word “politician.”
      Politicians are elected to do what the people who voted them in to cater to their needs first.

      Previous chair Eric Garcetti made City of LA issues a priority for Metro.
      Current chair Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas is going to make District 2 of LA County issues a priority for Metro.
      So on and so forth every year.

      That’s how the system works and that’s what the voters (may not be you, the previous generation of voters) wanted it to be that way when they voted their politicians back in the day.

      If you do not like how the way it works, you can change it by electing in politicians who will change the law. You might need to start from the top like changing who represents you in Sacramento as these things are pretty much written in stone from CA State law.

      More than likely, your representative in Sacramento in the State Assembly and the State Senate are Democrats. The Democrats holds the majority of the seats in both houses of Sacramento for quite a while now. If you think they’re not doing a great job to California or the laws they are passing, you may want to vote in a GOP candidate to represent you in Sacramento and local politics instead. Research the matter, perhaps run for office yourself, who may have different answers such as smaller government, getting rid of stupid laws, regulations and bureaucratic red-tape, lowering taxes, and cutting wasteful spending.

      If you have the right to vote, you have the right to participate in the democratic process, so don’t throw it away like your vote doesn’t count.