Officials Urged to Delay Decision on 710 Extension
The state Assembly majority leader has urged Vice President Al Gore to delay a pending final decision on the Long Beach Freeway extension through South Pasadena, Pasadena and El Sereno.
Assemblyman Antonio R. Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles), a longtime opponent of the project, in an Oct. 30 letter requested that Gore ask federal highway officials to delay a decision.
Last month, highway officials presented a draft proposal to local officials that called for the 6.2-mile route’s completion but indicated that it was not a final decision
Villaraigosa wrote that the project is “outmoded and fails to substantially solve transportation problems in the region.”
He added that a pending lawsuit by some of his constituents in El Sereno against the state over the freeway should be resolved before any decision.
The suit alleges that the proposed extension does not provide the largely Latino neighborhood with anti-pollution and historic preservation safeguards equal to those planned for predominantly white areas of Pasadena and South Pasadena.
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