Company’s Tactics Spark Interest

* Let me see if I can get this straight.

First, way back in the early 1980s, the MCA corporation told the then-county Transportation Commission that it was not interested in negotiating a deal whereby a Metro Red Line subway station would be conveniently located within the entertainment giant’s property.

The reason given then by MCA officials was that they did not want to be the drop-off point of every commuter in the Valley wishing to park and ride the subway into Hollywood and points east.

Now, after sitting back for 10 years watching this “pipe dream,” as it is termed, become a reality, MCA would love nothing better than to force the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to change the approved location to a locale more suitable to MCA’s CityWalk attraction--a change that would cost a conservatively estimated $72 million.

And if you are wondering if MCA has offered to assist to help absorb some of this cost, get real.

Not only that, MCA has gone as far as to attempt to hold the MTA and those of us in the Valley hostage if it is not given its way. The threat to withhold the swing vote to agree to contribute $6 million to $8 million as part of the planned assessment district around the station areas exhibits a complete disdain for the rest of the 1.5 million people in the Valley, and Los Angeles in general.

Last, but I am sure not least, MCA has now run off to Sacramento seeking the assistance of the governor’s office in negotiating this one-sided request.

The next installment of this soap opera will no doubt involve MCA’s invoking the tired cliches “more jobs” and “the state of the current economy.” But, at the level of wages MCA pays their work force up on that hill, the benefits to the local economy pales in comparison to the costs to the public for being required to foot the bill for MCA’s corporate benefit.

Can anyone spell s-p-e-c-i-a-l i-n-t-e-r-e-s-t?

ROBERT LOVERIDGE

North Hollywood