Metro Rail Benefit Tax

I take issue with Robert Romoff’s letter (Dec. 4) criticizing opposition to Metro Rail. As a former resident of Boston, which by and large has a decent combined medium and light-rail transit system, serving a population whose density rivals London’s, I appreciated the “redundant” mobility, but the costs and fallibility of the system were and are legend.

The community of Los Angeles is acting in its total self-interest by demanding a well thought out, fairly assessed, and safe public transit system which will take it, as Romoff points out, well into the 21st Century. He scapegoats the merchants of the Wilshire district without a simple understanding of their position. It is these merchants and property owners who are in fact the first group to come into contact with what will initially be a nightmare far removed from the sparkling artists’ conceptions and construction management estimate of traffic, safety and environmental disruption.

Los Angeles needs a safe, efficient and fair mass transit system composed of various rail and bus subsystems. It is in a unique position to learn from the lessons of London and Boston. On the other hand, there is a lot of money involved, and the initial fiascoes of San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., are examples of what can go wrong. Prudence is not a myopic reaction, it is, on the contrary, a search for a better transit system, one with a community-serving horizon.

DANA F. WELCH

Pacific Palisades