Council OKs Bid for 115 Transit Projects
The City Council on Friday approved an application to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority requesting $308 million for a prioritized list of 115 transportation projects, including two of particular interest to the San Fernando Valley: repair of streets at railroad crossings and improvements at a planned Warner Center transit hub.
Los Angeles is competing with other Los Angeles County cities for MTA funds for improvement projects. The MTA has $491 million to be divvied up.
The only vote against approval of the list came from City Councilwoman Laura Chick, who represents the southwest Valley. She complained that the Valley projects were each bumped down a notch on the list because another project--landscaping at the MacArthur Park Metro Rail station--was moved ahead of them at the request of City Councilman Mike Hernandez.
“I asked for an explanation of why things were moved around, and what criteria were used to move that project up,” Chick said after the meeting. She said the only explanation she received was that Hernandez had requested it.
On Wednesday, Hernandez stalled a council vote on the matter, saying he had not had enough time to review it.
Then, at his request, the city Transportation Department moved the landscaping project from 11th to fifth place, ahead of both the railroad crossings and Warner Center programs.
Hernandez said that putting the MacArthur Park station project ahead of Warner Center made sense because the inner-city station is completed and because the MacArthur Park area has many public-transit users.
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