Wilshire Vows Fight on Elevated Metro Rail Line

Residents of the Wilshire area vowed Saturday to take their fight to Washington if RTD officials decide to place an elevated Metro Rail line along Wilshire Boulevard.

“The community is united in a way seldom seen in its opposition to the aerial proposals,” said Bill Christopher, president of the Westside Civic Federation and coordinator of a group called the No El on Wilshire Coalition.

Said Michael Cornwell, also of the coalition: “If you continue with the elevated line, this (fight) is going to get down and dirty. The stupidity of putting an elevated line down the main street of this city is asinine.”

The two were among more than 20 residents and community leaders testifying at a public hearing before the Board of Directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District on how to link the proposed rail system’s downtown subway segment with Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley. The hearing was scheduled after the release two weeks ago of a state draft environmental impact report examining five possible routes.

If his group is unable to prevail at the local level, Christopher said, it will take its struggle to the nation’s capital. “We will work with Congressman (Henry A.) Waxman’s office to make sure federal funding will include restrictions” against elevated trains, he said.

The initial phase of the Metro Rail system--a 4.4-mile subway segment connecting Union Station with Wilshire Boulevard and Alvarado Street--already is under construction. But Congress ordered the rest of the route changed after a 1984 underground methane gas explosion that raised questions about the safety of tunneling in the Wilshire-Fairfax area. RTD directors then proposed the five alternative routes, which they plan to narrow down to one by the middle of next month.

Three of the five proposed routes include aerial rail lines along portions of Wilshire Boulevard. Particularly worrisome, the residents say, is the potential noise pollution and unsightliness of 20- to 30-foot support structures running down the middle of the boulevard.

“We don’t want to divide the street,” Christopher said. “We want to foster a sense of community that spans both sides of the street.”

His coalition, he said, favors the route that would include elevated train service on Vermont Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard, but a subway segment along Wilshire Boulevard. The fifth plan is an all-subway system with service along Wilshire Boulevard to Fairfax Avenue, but this does not comply with the federal requirement to avoid underground methane.

RTD officials estimate the costs of construction for the Wilshire segment at between $2.6 billion and $3.2 billion, with completion expected by the year 2000.

At an impromptu hallway press conference during the hearing, RTD General Manager John Dyer said the board will give “enormous weight” to the public’s concerns regarding aerial tracks along Wilshire Boulevard. “There is tremendous concern (and) there are alternatives which address that concern,” he said.

Speaking on another matter, Dyer denied allegations that the RTD has sloppy accounting procedures which could threaten completion of the Metro Rail project. “All that was resolved six to eight months ago,” he said, referring to a 3-year-old federal audit report that criticized the agency’s contracting procedures.

Among other things, the report questioned the RTD’s ability to manage the estimated $4 billion in contracts expected to be generated by the project and criticized overpayments to some contractors.

Since being audited, Dyer said, the agency has changed its auditing procedures to comply with government concerns.