Dual Transit, Child-Care Center Opens

Flanked by nearly two dozen preschoolers, Woody Woodpecker and a cross-dressing clown, local officials Friday dedicated the second facility in the San Fernando Valley designed to provide parents with the dual conveniences of mass transit and child care.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alarcon and Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Larry Zarian were on hand to dedicate the 5,000-square-foot, Spanish-style structure at the south end of the Sylmar/San Fernando MetroLink Station.

With this center “we can do many things at once” said Katz, who secured $400,000 in state energy funds to get the project off the ground four years ago. By tying transit to day care, government can “reduce congestion, improve air quality, provide quality child care, and give single parents the opportunity to work,” Katz said.

He added that the concept of “putting as much as you can in one location” to encourage mass transit was overdue and deserved replication.

Some, meanwhile, were taking more of a wait-and-see attitude.

Maria Sivelle, 30, a working mother who commutes by car from Santa Clarita to San Fernando, said she would consider taking the train. Sivelle, who had stopped by the center to inquire about the day-care facilities, said she would have to weigh the advantages of a three-month, one-time subsidy being offered by the MTA to encourage parents to use MetroLink or buses.

The subsidy would shave about $300 off the regular cost of the day-care service over three months. The day-care facility is open to commuters and non-commuters on a first-come, first-served basis.

MTA officials hope to enroll 68 children, from infants to preschoolers. Weekly tuition cost will range from $90 to $130. The building was built using $1.2 million in state funds, as well as money provided by the MTA and the city of Los Angeles.

Designed by Los Angeles architects John Mutlow and Helena Lin Jubany, Transit Tots East, as the facility is called, was built with a child friendly design that resembles a choo-choo train complete with locomotive, cars, caboose and an outdoor shed that doubles as mountain scenery.

The building also boasts an on-site kitchen and laundry facilities as well as a 5,610-square-foot playground enclosed by a gate.

*

Despite the safety measures, one mother, Dalia Leon, worried that the center’s location, next to MetroLink tracks and a busy street, increased the danger that children could be hurt if there was “a derailment or they got out on the train tracks.”

Leon was one among a few dozen parents who stopped by the station to inquire about the day-care service. Twenty took home applications to enroll their children.

Transit Tots East is open from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and privately operated by Children’s Discovery Centers Inc., one the nation’s largest child-care providers. Commuters have access to the Santa Clarita MetroLink line, 6 MTA bus lines, LADOT and shuttle buses. It is the third center of its kind to open combining child care and transportation.

Two other MTA facilities, also run by Children’s Discovery Centers Inc., are in Chatsworth and Montclair.