The Metro Board of Directors will hold their first meeting of the full Board of 2023 this Thursday, Jan. 26, at 10 a.m. The full agenda with links to staff reports is here. A link will also appear on that same page to watch/listen to the livestream shortly before 10 a.m. on Thursday.
For those who want to provide public comment, here are the instructions:
Live public comment can only be given by telephone.
The Board Meeting begins at 10:00 AM Pacific Time on January 26, 2023; you may join the call 5 minutes prior to the start of the meeting.
Dial-in: 888-251-2949 and enter
English Access Code: 8231160#
Spanish Access Code: 4544724#
Public comment will be taken as the Board takes up each item. To give public comment on an item, enter #2 (pound-two) when prompted. Please note that the live video feed lags about 30 seconds behind the actual meeting. There is no lag on the public comment dial-in line.
Instrucciones para comentarios publicos en vivo:
Los comentarios publicos en vivo solo se pueden dar por telefono.
La Reunion de la Junta comienza a las 10:00 AM, hora del Pacifico, el 26 de Enero de 2023. Puedes unirte a la llamada 5 minutos antes del comienso de la junta.
Marque: 888-251-2949 y ingrese el codigo
Codigo de acceso en ingles: 8231160#
Codigo de acceso en espanol: 4544724#
Los comentarios del público se tomaran cuando se toma cada tema. Para dar un comentario público sobre una tema ingrese # 2 (Tecla de numero y dos) cuando se le solicite. Tenga en cuenta que la transmisión de video en vivo se retrasa unos 30 segundos con respecto a la reunión real. No hay retraso en la línea de acceso telefónico para comentarios públicos.
Among some of the more noteworthy items on this month’s agenda:
•The Board will receive-and-file a staff report on Metro’s end-of-line policy — i.e. our policy to ask riders to leave trains when trains go out of service at our 13 terminus stations at the end of each night to return to rail yards for overnight maintenance and cleaning.
Some riders who leave the trains are unhoused — raising concerns in communities where those stations are located. Our staff report discusses potential strategies Metro will explore to better connect unhoused riders to services and shelter including: closer coordination and partnership opportunities with local agencies and cities; Identify possible locations for pilot service hubs for unhoused riders, and; studying practices by other agencies who face similar challenges.
The staff report and the issue was discussed in the Board’s Executive Management Committee — you can watch/listen to that discussion here. The discussion begins at the 24:43 mark.
Metro staff will report back on this issue in April.
•The Board will consider a motion for Metro to amend its Code of Conduct and public communications to better clarify that the use and/or sale of drugs is illegal on the system. Motion
•The Board will consider approving entering into a Master Cooperative Agreement with the city of Inglewood for the Inglewood Transit Connector project. The project aims to build a 1.8-mile people mover between the K Line’s Downtown Inglewood Station, the Kia Forum, SoFi Stadium and the Intuit Dome (the Clippers new arena).
The agreement spells out how Metro and the city of Inglewood will work together on issues including real estate, right-of-way, design, construction, safety and quality. The agreement does not require Metro to make capital contributions to the project. Staff report
•The Board will consider approving a $293.6-million funding agreement with the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments for the project to improve the oft-congested 57/60 interchange. Staff report and project website
•The Board will consider approving a $484,000 advertising purchase at the E (Expo) Line’s Culver City Station. HBO’s office is adjacent to the station. Staff report
Categories: Policy & Funding, Projects
Not sure why everyone is so surprised whenever Metro staff are revealed to be the hypocrites they are, especially the highest most powerful positions at Metro. The 4 top leaders at Metro when it comes to transit planning and completing the Measure M transit projects all drive to and from work every day alone in their own private luxury cars, and avoid transit for their own mobility needs: Jim de la Loza, the Chief Planner, his deputy Ray Sosa (Jim’s longtime best friend who he brought in to ensure his own pet project, Eastside 2, costs the most amount of money for the smallest possible benefit to LA transit riders, in order to enrich Jim and Ray’s consulting firm that worked on the project for decades), as well as Jim’s Executive Officers David Mieger and Allison Yoh, are all proud exclusive car drivers who do not ride transit outside of a work requirement or on an opening day/ribbon cutting to congratulate themselves on something they will never use or ride, let alone respect. And this is all easily confirmed, even through their own documented words. Allison Yoh famously declared in a written Metro newsletter to staff (that should be available to the public) that she drives everywhere and doesn’t ride transit because, in her own words, she’s just too wealthy and earns too much money to ride transit! This from a woman who makes over $200K a year to be in charge of transit planning for LA, who can, ironically, easily afford to live a much more transit oriented lifestyle without “inconveniencing” herself like so many of us transit riders in LA have to do every day, taking multiple buses and trains just to reach our daily needs. Allison’s other stated excuse for not riding transit and having to drive everywhere is that she’s a mother. Apparently having children means you cannot ride transit, even after your children grow up. Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of mothers, including single mothers, who have to rely on our transit system every day! If only they could afford Allison’s privileged life of being able to avoid transit!
The man who hired Allison, David Mieger, executive officer overseeing the planning of all transit projects at Metro, famously leases not just one but TWO parking spaces in the Metro garage for his luxury Mercedes and BMW vehicles, vehicles he was able to upgrade to the latest models based on his last promotion overseeing all Metro transit projects. That’s two parking spaces at Metro Headquarters, the very center of LA’s transit network and where so many bus and rail lines all converge on. So that he can always have a private vehicle at his disposal, ensuring he never has to enter or exit Metro Headquarters in anything but one of his own private luxury cars. But that’s still too inconvenient for these “transit leaders” making over $200K a year of taxpayer money to improve transit in LA, and they’d rather cause traffic every day by commuting to Metro in their own private luxury, away from any strangers on a train or bus that may disturb their luxury lifestyle. These people have shown their true selves to us, and their own actions and life choices speak volumes more than any sugar coated “sustainability” speech they may make in order to sound like transit advocates whenever forced to as part of their job. The 4 most powerful and highly paid people when it comes to transit planning at Metro are all drivers who shun transit in their own lives. That should tell you everything you need to know about the state of Metro’s transit system and transit planning for future projects. People who exclusively drive their own cars and shun LA’s transit system every single day of their lives are the same people who are in charge of LA’s future transit system. The people who will be last to ride these transit projects are the very ones that have the most influence and power over them. And we expect them to somehow respect transit as a true viable alternative to driving in LA, let alone know what transit riders in LA need and deserve, while they themselves tell us otherwise through their own actions, daily life decisions and general attitude of disdain towards transit.
Why is Metro filled with outright hypocrites? Out of one side of your mouth, you tell us climate change is real and our driving habits are making it so much worse, and that widening freeways only encourages more traffic and does nothing to “solve” congestion. But then all of you also advocate for and pursue expensive plans to widen freeways, somehow justifying them by noting how often some specific interchange or highway is congested! Guess what, Mr. Hymon and fellow Metro staff? Lots of roads, highways and interchanges are “often congested” throughout the LA region! This specific interchange is juat 1 of many! So why don’t you widen all roads and highways in LA County then? While you tell us to ride your dirty busses and trains that you refuse to run on regular schedules that people can rely on. It’s as if you WANT us all to only drive our own cars, and drive as often as possible and in every possible situation. So we can have even more congestion, and you can continue to somehow justify your never ending quest to expand freeways to “solve” congestion! You are the biggest hypocrites in the world, evidenced by all your executives driving to and from your headquarters at the center of the transit universe in LA, always alone in their luxury sedans and SUVs. Some of the nicest SUVs can be found in Metros own parking garage, and the executives who are in charge of transit planning all drive. The very people in charge of transit in LA and a more sustainable future couldn’t care less about what they’re in charge of! If you truly cared, senior Metro staff would not be driving to Metros own headquarters every single day. But taking transit is just for poor interns who can’t afford tod rive, right, Metro? That’s the message you’re sending to the public when you Yourselves don’t even rely on your own system, let alone ride it at least once a week so you know what all of us transit riders have to go through on a daily basis.
Why no mention of the vote for $294M for widening the 57/60 Freeway?!?
It has been added.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Of course Metro had to add the highway widenings by mentioning it is “oft congested”. Is Metro implying that highway widenings reduce or somehow address congestion, when every study and all data, including from Metro’s own 405 widening, show that the induced demand from that widening leads to even worse congestion? When will Meteo acknowledge the basic fact that expanding auto capacity will only encourage more auto use and traffic? You are some of the worst hypocrites in the world, telling us to ride transit more while expanding highways for more single occupancy behicle traffic! And yet Metro staff have no shame, talking about the perils of climate change while advocating for more highway widenings.
Hi John;
I added “oft congested” because I think that is accurate. Obviously there is a wide range of opinion on what, if anything, should be done about it. But the reason this project exists is because the 57/60 is well-known for traffic. The interchange was not randomly chosen for a project.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
“It has been added”, says Steve Hymon, who made sure to add it along with a “justification” for spending hundreds of millions to widen it even though Metro knows this will not solve its “oft congested” status. But keep convincing us that widening freeways for more traffic somehow leads to LESS traffic, Steve, your Metro overlords wouldn’t have it any other way. Actually, they would! You could just censor anything critical of Metro and Metro’s freeway widenings like you have always done with my comments. That’s even better, now Metro can continue to pretend widening freeways makes sense while you also tell us to ride transit more and get out of our cars. Without being called out on your utter hypocrisy because that would be too hard to address, right?
And now go ahead and censor this as well, like you always do. Can’t have anything negative about your bosses published on a public blog by an agency that supposedly serves the people of LA County.
Hi —
Everyone is entitled to their opinion of the project, absolutely. I did add a phrase to make more clear that this project is focused on the junction of the 57 and 60 freeways — not the entire freeways.
Steve Hymon
Editor, The Source
Mr. Hymon, the very fact that you chose to leave out such a large item, worth $300 million of taxpayer revenue and investment, speaks volumes. You made sure to include an “advertising purchase” worth less than half a million dollars at one of the Expo stations, but fail to mention something worth over 600 times more that amount and that will widen TWO highways for that cost, encouraging more driving, traffic and congestion? That’s not just some innocent oversight, that’s a clear and deliberate decision to not mention $300 million in taxpayer investment, and the acceleration of such a major project, simply because it doesn’t fit into the Metro narrative of addressing climate change by riding transit more and driving less. You post pictures of polar bears and tell Angelenos how awful climate change is and how driving contributes to it, then in the same breath say, “but some highways and roads are very congested, so we have to widen them.” So which is it Metro, is the solution to congestion encouraging alternatives to driving, or is it to continuously widen highways, at a cost of billions across the county, so that our highways can accommodate even more driving and traffic? You cannot have your cake and eat it too, Metro. You cannot say we need to drive less and encourage alternative forms of mobility while expanding the very highways you claim are leading to a climate change disaster. The hypocrisy is so outrageous and disgusting, and yet you continue to tow the Metro party line, making abusrd claims like “this particular highway interchange is often congested so naturally we must widen it and bring more traffic to it”