MTA Should Consider Merchants

Once the dust settles and the streets reopen and subway trains zip along deep beneath the blacktop of Lankershim Boulevard--then the busy North Hollywood shopping strip will be a retailer’s heaven. That’s the very reasonable line from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which correctly assumes that the dusty, hard to travel streets of North Hollywood will thrive once the northern stations of the Red Line subway open.

In two years.

It’s good news to everyone except the shop and restaurant owners who fear their businesses will never survive to reap the benefits. All they know is the grit and noise and inconvenience that comes with constant construction. Most recently, the MTA began a repaving project that has shut down a stretch Lankershim for five consecutive weekends. Next weekend will be the sixth and final closure. Meantime, business owners have watched their sales plummet.

They know the hazards of doing business in a construction zone and many have become adept at directing customers around the detour signs and flashing lights. This time, though, the merchants got just one day’s notice before the street closures took effect. Despite spending more than $1 million to soften the impact of subway construction on businesses, the MTA has earned a bad reputation in North Hollywood.

Clearly, the agency needs to adopt an economic development program far more comprehensive than the “oops, sorry” many business owners say they get. To that end, members of the Los Angeles City Council’s Transportation Committee have threatened to block city funds for subway construction unless the agency does a better job of addressing the needs of small-business owners. Councilmen Richard Alarcon and Joel Wachs must use their leverage to ensure that a few merchants do not bear a disproportionate share of the public’s burden.

MTA chief Julian Burke notes that the agency does not have the money to fashion the sort of $16.7-million economic development program offered to merchants along Hollywood Boulevard. North Hollywood does not need that much money. The problems along Lankershim are not nearly as severe as the sinkholes along Hollywood. But for the merchants watching their business disappear in the dust, the troubles are real.

Someday, the North Hollywood extension of the subway will offer a quick route between the San Fernando Valley and downtown, bolstering the neighborhoods at both ends and around all the stations in between. Merchants who have guided their businesses through the tough times deserve to share in the good.