Commission Faces Key Decisions on New Transit Projects

The subject was trolley cars--a proposal that could change the character of a community. But on this evening at Luther Burbank Junior High School in Highland Park, only 35 residents showed up.

They listened, asked questions and listened some more. When they left, a clear majority thought that the neighborhood would be changed for the better, the old-timers reminiscing about the Red Cars and Yellow Cars of yore.

“This sure isn’t the Valley,” a transit official at the meeting said, shaking his head.

Earlier, he had described opponents of a trolley line--or light rail, as streetcars are now called--in the San Fernando Valley as “these screaming, rabid people” and “16 miles of lawyers.” Residents of single-family-home neighborhoods along proposed trolley routes in the Valley have packed public meetings by the hundreds to voice often hostile, unyielding opposition.

Compared to that kind of resistance, the quest for a northeast passage for Los Angeles County’s rail-system-in-the-making has thus far been a sedate, civilized affair. That is one reason why, despite the infamous congestion of the Ventura Freeway, despite the slew of surveys and studies of Valley light-rail proposals, the next destination for light rail could well be South Pasadena or a stop along the way.

“One thing you hear a lot in the Valley is, ‘I’ll never use it,’ ” Paul Taylor, acting executive director of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, said at another sparsely attended meeting in El Sereno. “What I hear from these people is that they would use it.”

Deciding precisely where Los Angeles’ rail transit system will go next--the Valley, northeast from downtown or along the coast near Los Angeles International Airport--is perhaps the most important decision of 1989 facing the Transportation Commission, which is overseeing current and future projects.

Funds Committed

So far, construction has begun, or funds have been committed, for three intersecting commuter services: the Long Beach-downtown Los Angeles light-rail line (most of which is expected to begin operation in June, 1990); the first leg of the Metro Rail subway, from Union Station to MacArthur Park (January, 1993), and the Norwalk-El Segundo light-rail line to run along the new Century Freeway (October, 1993).

The path for the second phase of Metro Rail has been determined--from MacArthur Park through Hollywood and up to North Hollywood--but there now is only enough money to reach Hollywood. Billions more in federal funds are being sought for Metro Rail.

Light rail is being funded primarily by the half-cent countywide transit sales tax.

Figuring out what comes next is, to a great degree, a question of how much about $800 million would buy. That is the amount of as-yet uncommitted funds the Transportation Commission expects to collect through the year 2000.

After money, the big factors are politics and practicality. Three regions are competing for the next light-rail lines, and transit officials suggest that at least one will probably be left out, put off another decade or so.

“Part of the problem is the commission has made promises in a number of different directions,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Woo, who served on the Transportation Commission last year and is now an alternate. “Now it’s time to decide what promises they can keep. It’s getting to be crunch time.”

A leading booster of light rail in the Valley, Woo believes--and cites polls to back it up--that “a silent majority” in the Valley who favor the project will ultimately prevail over opponents. But he concedes that the controversy could hurt the Valley project.

Political Squabble

Two routes are under study in the Valley, heading west from the planned Metro Rail stations in either Universal City or North Hollywood. One route is along the Ventura Freeway corridor and another in an existing Southern Pacific right-of-way generally following Chandler Boulevard. A third alternative, north along San Fernando Road, has been proposed, but funds for an environmental study are tied up in a political squabble.

The third region under consideration, the one near Los Angeles International Airport, is a northern extension of the rail line along the new Century Freeway, which would serve the airport up to Marina del Rey. There too, officials say, the public reaction so far has mostly been positive.

The regional competition, Woo warned, could lead to “an ugly display of power politics,” with the predominantly Latino community along the northeast route battling predominantly Anglo communities elsewhere.

Woo voiced hope that money can be loosened to extend the rails simultaneously in each region. But in interviews with elected officials and transit technocrats, many suggested that with limited funds, officials are focusing more and more on the northeast and coastal options and less on the Valley.

Ethnic considerations “are very important,” declared Henry Lozano, an aide to Rep. Edward R. Roybal (D-Los Angeles), whose district would be served by the northeast route.

“Almost half the RTD ridership is Hispanic,” he said.

For too long, Lozano said, Eastside residents have favored mass-transit projects only to see routes thus far heading west and south, serving Anglo and black communities. In addition to Roybal, such Latino politicians as state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) and Los Angeles City Council members Richard Alatorre and Gloria Molina are expected to lobby for light rail in their turf.

Light Turnout

The light turnout at recent presentations in Highland Park and El Sereno could mean that most residents are not yet aware of the plans.

“First I heard of it,” one Highland Park man told a reporter when asked about the light-rail line that would run next door to his home.

On Thursday, the Transportation Commission will hold a public hearing at the Lincoln Heights Senior Citizens Center to hear testimony on the northeast routes. By October, the Transportation Commission is expected to decide where to spend the money.

Each of the three proposals has a variety of options: how far to build, where to establish stations. The whole process is fraught with uncertainty, and the first of the new lines probably would not be in operation until at least 1995.

Perhaps the leading candidate for funding is a portion of the coastal line, which if built in its entirety, would run north along Aviation Boulevard, then head in a generally northwest direction along Lincoln Boulevard to Marina del Rey at Culver Boulevard. Part would be subway, part aerial and part at grade.

Seven stations are now marked on planning maps. With the whole line operating, residents of Marina del Rey and Westchester could ride light rail to downtown Los Angeles or downtown Long Beach.

Shuttle Buses

At the very least, officials say, there is wide support to build the line at least to Parking Lot C of Los Angeles International Airport, where rail riders could connect with shuttle buses to airline terminals. At some point in the 21st Century, transit officials envision the light-rail system looping through all the Los Angeles International terminals, probably underground.

Transit officials and an aide to Los Angeles Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, whose district would be served by the line, say that no strong opposition has surfaced to the full route. However, Galanter wants transit officials to study a line extending due north along Sepulveda Boulevard as perhaps preferable to the Lincoln route.

Galanter press aide Rick Ruiz said the councilwoman favors the Parking Lot C destination, with the choice of Lincoln or Sepulveda to come later.

“We definitely want light rail if we can get it,” Ruiz said.

The chances of money coming through for the coastal line, Ruiz said, are “being helped by the whole brouhaha in the Valley.”

Routing of the Los Angeles-to-South Pasadena line is a more complicated matter. It would start at the 6th and Flower streets station, where riders could transfer to and from Metro Rail, but there are a variety of ways it might reach South Pasadena. There are two routes within downtown under consideration, and two from Chinatown to South Pasadena.

The downtown segments are envisioned as subways--expensive, but considered necessary because of the traffic congestion and development already downtown. The less-expensive option would send trolleys north along Flower, with a station at 4th and Flower streets and another serving the Music Center before proceeding on to Chinatown, where there would be two more stations.

Expensive Route

The more expensive route would turn east at 2nd Street, with a station at Hope Street, then turn north at Main Street, with another station serving the Civic Center-Little Tokyo area. It would proceed north to Union Station and make another stop in Chinatown, before heading toward South Pasadena. This line is favored by City Hall planners, transit officials say, but the desire to hold down costs is a strong argument for the Flower route.

From Chinatown to South Pasadena there are two more options. One would head east on Main on an elevated line, serving Lincoln Heights, and turn north along Huntington Drive and proceed through through El Sereno at grade. It would follow the corridor for the planned extension of the Interstate 710 into South Pasadena.

The vehement opposition to the freeway extension in South Pasadena is one of the prime reasons that the other route, along an existing Santa Fe Railroad right-of-way through Highland Park, is gaining favor. The South Pasadena City Council, which is dead set against the freeway extension, has already endorsed the Santa Fe route.

“Right now it looks like the path of least resistance,” Molina said of the Highland Park route.

Although some residents of Lincoln Heights and El Sereno favor the Main-Huntington path, some community groups are on record opposing it. No strong opposition has emerged to the Highland Park route. Opinion expressed at the meeting favored transit lines over the freight trains that now run along the route five times a day.

The Santa Fe right-of-way would serve the western edge of Lincoln Heights, then generally run along Marmion Way, with stations serving the communities of Highland Park and Mt. Washington. It would cross the Arroyo Seco on the Santa Fe trestle, a city historic landmark, and enter South Pasadena.

Richard Stanger, coordinator of rail projects for the Transportation Commission, said Santa Fe is interested in selling the right-of-way. The catch is that the entire route--from downtown Los Angeles to San Bernardino--would have to be purchased.

Make Sense

In long-range terms, transit officials suggest that such a deal would make sense. Ultimately, they envision a trolley service proceeding north to the Pasadena train station and then a train line running between Pasadena and San Bernardino, with stops serving the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys.

That seems many years off, however. Through the turn of the century, there may be only enough money, for example, to build light-rail line as far as Parking Lot C at Los Angeles International on the coastal route and only from 6th and Flower to Chinatown on the northeast line. The full route to South Pasadena could gobble up $800 million all by itself, Stanger said.

At the Burbank Junior High meeting, however, a clear majority wanted light rail in their neighborhood, Highland Park, as soon as possible.

Rosemarie Stasolla, 59, told how as a teen-ager she would ride “the old W streetcar” downtown, then ride another 45 minutes to Long Beach. She pronounced the Santa Fe proposal as “fabulous.”

Evan Kramer, a mailman, sees different attitudes about rail services where he lives in Highland Park and where he delivers letters in Burbank in the San Fernando Valley.

“There are a lot of working people here, more people who ride the bus,” Kramer said. “A lot of Mexican people who go downtown to shop. A lot of seniors who remember the Pacific Electric cars and know it works. . . .

“If they (in the Valley) don’t want it, fine,” Kramer said. “Build ours.”

Future Trolley Projects Coastal Line A trolley line under consideration near LAX would connect with the Century Freeway light-rail and proceed north and north-west to the airport and on to Marina del Rey. A first phase as far as Parking Lot C at LAX has the strongest support. San Fernando Valley Line Of the two leading candidates for a trolley lline in San Fernando Valley, one runs along the route of the Ventura Freeway; the other follows Chandler and Victory boulevards. Both would connect with the Metro Rail subway on the east and end in the Warner Center on the west. Northeast Line The proposed line between downtown and South Pasadena could follow along a Santa Fe Railroad right-of-way used now by freight trains, or it could follow a route farther east, following the corridor of a planned extension of Interstate 710. Both would connect with Metro Rail downtown, with some options including stops in Chinatown.