Civil Rights, Environmental Groups Seek to Block Freeway

Throwing up another barrier to the long-delayed Long Beach Freeway extension, civil rights and environmental groups filed a complaint Tuesday alleging that the project discriminates against Latino residents.

The complaint, filed with the federal government, alleges that the mostly poor Latino residents of the El Sereno district are denied the same protections from freeway noise and other effects that are afforded to predominantly white, more upscale residents of Pasadena and South Pasadena.

State transportation officials have sought for nearly three decades to close the 6.2-mile gap in the Long Beach Freeway between the San Bernardino and the Foothill freeways but have been blocked by lawsuits and political opposition.

Under civil rights legislation passed during the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration, individuals can petition the federal government to stop a federally funded project if it is discriminatory. If that fails, they may sue in federal court.

The complaint, filed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Natural Resources Defense Council, asserts that most of the freeway through El Sereno will be built at ground level or above grade, while most of the Pasadena and South Pasadena sections will be below grade.

“East Los Angeles already has the greatest concentration of freeways in Los Angeles,” said Hugo Garcia, president of the El Sereno Organizing Committee, which signed onto the complaint along with Mothers of East Los Angeles and the El Sereno Neighborhood Action Committee.

Robert Vidor, assistant chief counsel for Caltrans, said the groups already had an opportunity to air their objections during an environmental review of the project. “This is kind of a belated attempt to revisit what already has been considered over a long period of time,” he said.

Edward Kussy, deputy chief counsel of the Federal Highway Administration, said the issues will be fully considered.