The MTAs sales-tax boondoggle

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From the Los Angeles Times

The real enemy here is Prop 13. We need more flexibility in funding essential services, including greatly expanded rail service. More busses will just get stuck in traffic.

richard schumacher @ 11:08 AM PDT, Aug 2, 2008
Maybe LA rail advocates will start thinking about the crisis of climate change after the earth's climate hit the 6th degree and the whole planet has gone haywire---maybe you can reflect on your shortsighted contribution riding your lone subway to the sea, wait a sec by the time MTA got over the cost overruns of the last rail line, the region got abandoned due to climate change! oh well it was just a nice obssessive pipedream. Way to save the earth!!

sunspot @ 7:43 PM PDT, Aug 1, 2008
I really doubt the sanity of "environmentalists" who promote corporate driven subways as a solution to the woes of corporate driven development that shaped LA in the first place. You won't get cars off unless you restrict them. Arguments like "more buses will clog the streets" reflect lack of creativity and basic environmental planning knowledge as if afraid of putting auto free zones and bus lanes or maybe most rail advocates hope other drivers will take the train they don't take so they can continue driving.

sunspot @ 7:32 PM PDT, Aug 1, 2008
It seems that all these "buses get stuck in traffic" comments neglected to read (or are ignoring) the proposal of the BRU to have a comprehensive network of bus-only lanes. This WOULD deal with much of the traffic issues people are so worried about. To get people out of their cars, we must TAKE AWAY space of the car, not accomidate it. And if you really think the BRU is so "tired," then why spend time trying to slander the Director and its members. Get a life!

Jamie Marie Smith @ 6:45 PM PDT, Aug 1, 2008
Reject this regressive tax,For decades,state and federal funds have subsidized suburban sprawl,starving cities.Demand reinvestment in the city.Require corporations and developers pay their fare share.Buses every five minutes,bus only lanes on freeways/major streets modeled on Curitiba.TOD is great,but housing must be affordable,otherwise the working poor will be pushed into overcrowded houses in auto-dependent suburbs.Reject the neo-liberal logic responsible for the brutal division between rich and poor,embodied in riding a bus,which should no longer be,as Ludacris put it in Crash, a "humiliation."PM Fotsch, author,Watching the Traffic Go By

Paul Mason Fotsch @ 11:11 AM PDT, Aug 1, 2008
How anyone can suggest that rail is built for white people in the capital of the 3rd World must surely be partnering with the anti-rail Hancock Park and Cheviot Hills NIMBY's who don't ever want to see a black or brown face in their 'hood (less it's to clean houses)and must have stock in oil and rubber. The $200,000 salaried blood-sucking(ironically white) Eric Mann is a sham and so is his "organization".

Fallopia Simms @ 9:46 AM PDT, Aug 1, 2008
Bus advocates call for lower fares and more service in the face of limited operations funds and rising costs. The solution is a bigger pot, which is where the sales tax would generate $7,880 million for bus operations over 30 years, a 70% annual increase from existing (Draft LRTP) levels. Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth! And how regressive is a sales tax that doesn't apply to groceries, rent, transit, utilities, or services? See more on the proposed sales tax at http://lavisions.blogspot.com/ .

Darrell Clarke @ 8:20 AM PDT, Aug 1, 2008
I take the bus from the Park and ride in Pomona. Everyday, the 728 and 720 lines allow many people to board through the second and third doors. this fills up the buses with non paying customers and forces law-abidibg PAYING customers to miss buses that are over-crowded. Why should these people get to ride free while MTA Asks for more money?

Sam Wilson @ 8:03 AM PDT, Aug 1, 2008
I won't give MTA another cent. In these hard times, all the billions that have been given to metro should be returned to all those familes that have been displaced by MTA led gentrification.

Noemi from Watts @ 12:10 AM PDT, Aug 1, 2008
i have to disagree with the comment of of michael the bus riders union is always out there having meetings with bus riders they have a monthly meetign every 2 saturday of the month and outreach everyday! Buses are better than trains. Trains dont go out to were workign class people work at but only to parts benfical to some people of non-color..

Thedore @ 7:47 PM PDT, Jul 31, 2008
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