Controversial Opening

A subway station entrance is under construction across the street from Kaiser Permanente in East Hollywood, but that isn’t stopping the Metropolitan Transportation Authority from spending $7.9 million to build a second portal, closer to the medical facility.

The project is another example of the sometimes perplexing decisions made by the MTA, which has built a rail line better known for where it doesn’t go than where it does.

In this case, the transit authority is building a pair of elevators to take riders from the soon-to-open subway extension to the Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center at Vermont Avenue and Sunset Boulevard.

Just across the street, the bulk of the station--with an escalator and another elevator--is under construction.

Kaiser officials, who lobbied for the second portal with the support of Jackie Goldberg, councilwoman for the area, say the additional entrance is needed because the street is difficult to cross, especially for the ill.

They also contend that sick people should receive the same consideration that the MTA provided for tourists in allocating $6 million for a passageway to take subway riders from the future Universal City station, under busy Lankershim Boulevard, to the foot of the entertainment complex.

In both cases, officials say, forcing riders to cross busy streets could endanger their safety, clog intersections and make public transit less attractive.

“You know how people are in Los Angeles,” said Leland Wong, director of government and community relations for Kaiser Permanente, which has agreed to contribute about $5 million to the portal project’s $13-million budget. “If you want to get them out of the car, you really have to make it convenient for them.”

The Kaiser portal is one of the “enhancements” that have contributed to $290 million in cost overruns on the $1.7-billion, 6.7-mile Hollywood leg of the subway, though a large part of the increase was due to the 1995 sinkhole that engulfed part of Hollywood Boulevard. The subway extension is scheduled to open next May.

The portal also is one of the projects that an MTA consultant apparently had in mind in a 1995 report raising concerns about “political-based decision making in the MTA’s construction program.” The report cited the redesign of station entrances for the Hollywood segment after the original design was essentially complete.

The portal was originally approved in 1994, although an MTA planner said it was “unnecessary, not warranted by the ridership and not a justified expenditure of public funds,” according to records.

The issue was back before the agency’s board last week because MTA chief Julian Burke earlier this year recommended dropping the portal project because its estimated cost has more than doubled in four years, from $6 million to $13 million.

The MTA decided to keep the project alive, however, after Kaiser agreed to increase its contribution. Officials also shaved about $350,000 off the portal’s cost by, among other things, substituting concrete for granite on the exterior.

Engineers overseeing subway construction for the federal government urged the MTA last year to consider building a bridge over Vermont--perhaps for $1 million--to save money, but the idea was largely ignored. The federal government’s consultant didn’t press the matter because the portal is being funded by local taxpayers.

Kaiser representatives say the second portal will serve a facility that has 35,000 patient visits a day and 5,000 employees. Childrens Hospital on Sunset is across from the subway station but did not seek an entrance on its side of the street, citing concerns about security and the impact of construction on its facility.

Supporters of the Kaiser portal say that in most big cities, subway stops have multiple entrances. The MTA, in a cost-cutting move, decided a few years ago to build most other stations on the Hollywood subway extension with only one entrance.

In arguing for the Kaiser portal, Goldberg told the MTA board earlier this year: “I don’t want this to be another example of almost doing the job right.

“We’re looking at the absolute quintessential notion of what public transportation is about, which is to take people who are dependent on public transit and get them to where they want to go,” she said.

An MTA staff member acknowledged that most riders probably will take the escalator and walk across the street anyway rather than wait for an elevator at the Kaiser portal.

Transit officials said they worked out a good deal by persuading Kaiser to share the costs. The MTA had already spent $1 million on the Kaiser portal, and it would have cost an additional $5 million to terminate the project, including paying damages to Kaiser, which cleared its property and relocated staff in preparation for the portal’s construction, officials said.

Despite the MTA’s financial troubles, Burke said the agency had an obligation to Kaiser to proceed with the entrance.

“It’s not generally a good idea to breach a contract because it has such ramifications on the credibility of an organization,” he said.