MTA Makes Monthly Stop at the Surreal

Tom Hayden was there accusing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of discharging arsenic into the Los Angeles River. Hollywood celebrities were there among homeowners opposing the MTA’s plans to tunnel beneath their pricey homes for the subway. The usual army of lobbyists was there in their fancy suits seeking lucrative contracts. And a gadfly was there in a well-worn T-shirt reading “Crooked Politicians Build Crooked Tunnels.’

Welcome to the Fellini-esqe monthly MTA meeting.

At Wednesday’s convergence, the MTA came under attack from a variety of fronts.

Liberal state Sen. Hayden (D-Santa Monica) and conservative Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich formed an unusual alliance to unsuccessfully urge that the subway project be stopped. “Hollywood Boulevard looks like a Third World country,” Antonovich complained.

Actress Sally Kellerman, who has taken to the airways in radio advertisements to speak out against “the gravy train,” brought her protest to the board personally.

And then there was the standing-room-only audience of more than 300, many of whom came to the heavily guarded board meeting with an assortment of gripes.

One 55-year-old woman opposed to tunneling through the Hollywood Hills was escorted out of the room by five transit police officers after she disobeyed Board Chairman Larry Zarian’s order to stop speaking out from her seat. “We’re not going to have a circus here,” Zarian said sternly.

The day began with the MTA finding itself being criticized by the Friends of the Los Angeles River.

The group joined Hayden in accusing the MTA of discharging arsenic into the river at 20 times the limit of 5 ppb allowed by law. Hayden called on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to investigate “this rogue agency.”

MTA officials acknowledged that arsenic has been discharged into the river but said an analysis concludes there is “no impact to human health, aquatic life or the environment.” But they admitted they aren’t sure where it is coming from.

One possible source, officials said, is an arsenic-laced preservative used in timber laggings from the subway. But just to be sure, studies are under way.

“They make it sound like midnight dumping,” one exasperated MTA staffer told a reporter. The agency is doing its best to correct the problem, he said.

Later, Kellerman and actress Marilu Henner joined homeowners at a rally outside the MTA’s spiffy new headquarters to oppose tunneling beneath the Hollywood Hills.

Standing behind a made-for-TV prop of dynamite, the critics chanted: “Waste and fraud and arsenic spills! Stop the subway through the hills! Hey, hey MTA, who has bought your votes today? Property damage, sinkholes too, when the MTA passes through!”

Noting that the Galileo spacecraft cost less than the $1.6-billion Hollywood-to-North Hollywood leg of the subway, film producer Blue Andre told the rally, “It’s less expensive to go to Jupiter than to Universal City.”

One MTA staffer sent to monitor the rally complained to a reporter that Hayden, a former anti-war activist, “is definitely stuck in a ’60 time warp in terms of the rhetoric.” Hayden likes to compare MTA’s blasting plans to a “bombing campaign.”

The audience got restless as a closed-door meeting to discuss legal suits dragged on for almost two hours.

Once the open meeting got under way, board chairman Zarian angered the audience even further by announcing that speakers would be limited to one minute.

When his turn came to address the board, Eric Mann, who represented a group of bus riders wearing yellow T-shirts reading “Billion$ for Buses,” said that the one-minute rule “means you really don’t want public comment.”

Zarian finally warned the crowd to stop booing or hissing or they would be thrown out.

But he didn’t prohibit laughter.

John Walsh broke up the crowd, even drawing smiles from board members, when he admonished Mayor Richard Riordan’s previous declaration not to vote on whether to tunnel through the hills. Riordan, who is on the MTA board, cited a campaign contribution he has received from a Hollywood Hills property owner.

Walsh, loudly ripping checks from his checkbook, told the mayor, “I’ve got a check here from John Walsh for $250. I live in Hollywood. You can’t vote on the Hollywood Metro Rail. I’ve got a check from a relative of mine. . . . You can’t vote on [the proposed extension to] East L.A. I got a check from another relative of mine. . . . You can’t vote on [the proposed subway extension to] Chinatown. . . .”

But Riordan ended up voting after all to continuing tunneling, even though he said the transit agency’s experience underground thus far “has been a disaster.” Aides said he had returned the contribution.

“It was just a typical meeting,” a staffer said as the session ended.