MTA to Seek $44 Million to Extend Subway

In a no-holds-barred fight between representatives of East Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley, a bitterly divided Metropolitan Transportation Authority board Wednesday decided to seek $44 million from the federal government to extend the Metro Rail subway deeper into the Eastside at the possible expense of a cross-Valley rail line.

The raucous debate, which left in tatters board members’ recent pledge to act courteously toward each other, came after it was revealed that three Eastside Democrats in Congress had threatened to withhold their support for the agency’s request for future rail funding unless more money was sought for mass transit in their districts.

Los Angeles Councilman and MTA board member Richard Alatorre said it would be “somewhat idiotic” for the board not to bend to the demands of Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard, Xavier Becerra and Esteban Torres, arguing that it needs to present a united front on Capitol Hill.

“We need friends,” he shouted. “We don’t need enemies!’

But county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky fought back, stating that any additional funding for the Eastside would diminish the MTA board’s resolve to make an east-west rail line in the Valley its next priority after the completion of current projects.

The MTA already has agreed to seek $58 million to design a rail line from North Hollywood to Woodland Hills. Yaroslavsky and his supporters voiced fears that there just isn’t enough federal money to satisfy all demands. If Congress were to slash Los Angeles’ requests as much as it has in the past two years, they argued, adding a new request for the Eastside would jeopardize the chances of getting sufficient funds for both areas.

“I don’t think it’s healthy for three members of Congress to say they’ll blow this place up if they don’t get their way,” Yaroslavsky said, accusing the Eastside representatives of blackmailing the board.

Noting that the MTA has been unable for years to pick an east-west route in the Valley because of concerns about costs and the lack of political consensus, he added: “I know exactly how this game is played: That money will put the Eastside ahead of the Valley, and we will watch them leapfrog right over us.”

The debate took on a measure of urgency because the MTA must submit its funding request to Congress by Monday for the start of committee hearings on national transportation spending priorities through 2003. Los Angeles will compete for a dwindling pot of money with projects such as Portland’s light rail system and San Francisco’s effort to extend Bay Area Rapid Transit to its airport.

The Eastside project will be included in a request that also seeks $100 million to extend the subway to the Mid-City area and the $58 million to design the cross-Valley line.

Alatorre was joined by county Supervisor Gloria Molina and five other board members in pushing for the Eastside extension, arguing that completing the design work now would make it easier to request more than $1 billion for future construction.

“The reason that the east-west line in the Valley isn’t further along is because they couldn’t get their act together,” Alatorre said of residents, merchants and politicians who have debated the route and type of rail for more than five years. If the board didn’t move forward to put the Eastside on an equal footing with the Valley for future federal rail construction funds, he added, “we will look like . . . fools.”

Mayor Richard Riordan, a member of the board who was not present for the debate, was highly critical of the decision. “While on the face of things no money was taken from the Valley, the reality is there is only so much money to go around,” the mayor said in a statement released by his office. “Adding projects to the MTA project list lessens the chances that the Valley is going to get its fair share, and that is not acceptable.”

City Councilman Hal Bernson, who voted against seeking the Eastside funds on the mayor’s behalf, was more blunt. “I see it as an attempt to screw the Valley,” he said.

Added Mel Wilson, a Northridge realtor appointed to the board by Riordan: “We constantly hear that we’re next, we’re next, we’re next. But these incremental actions show that we’re not next--we will be leapfrogged by the Eastside, and never live to see a Valley line in our lifetime.”