MTA Approves Light-Rail Study

Police broke up a raucous demonstration by the Bus Riders Union on Thursday just minutes after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board took a significant step forward in efforts to build a six-mile light rail extension to the Eastside.

In other action during the turbulent meeting, the MTA board approved a $2.7-billion budget, rejected efforts by community activists to kill a proposed freeway offramp near Los Angeles International Airport, and overrode opposition by South Pasadena residents to pass a measure renewing support for a bitterly opposed extension of the Long Beach Freeway.

Three people were forcibly ejected from the meeting room during discussion of the airport issue. They were upset over a plan that some believed would make it easier to expand LAX, always a lightning rod for controversy.

No sooner had that issue been disposed of than nine members of the Bus Riders Union were nearly arrested when they locked arms and sat down after the light rail vote. They were protesting the spending on rail, which members of the group contend takes away resources needed to improve bus services.

As the protesters took their places, county Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, the MTA board chairwoman, left her seat and came directly to the rail that separates the public from the board. There, she waved off security guards who were preparing to make the arrests.

“Leave them alone! Leave them alone!. . . . Leave them alone!” Burke shouted at security guards after they waded into the demonstrators and began twisting arms and prying legs apart.

Burke adjourned the board into a closed-door session to discuss lawsuits, and the bus rider group eventually left peacefully.

The debate that preceded the blowup involved a confrontation between members of the riders union--”Sindicato de Pasajeros”--and Latino residents of East Los Angeles who badly want a rail connection to downtown Los Angeles.

At issue was approval of environmental studies necessary to obtain federal money that will pay most of the $759-million cost of the light rail line. Construction will not begin until at least 2003.

Eric Mann, one of about 125 union members who showed up for Thursday’s board meeting, argued that the MTA’s focus on rail violates its legal obligations. Mann contended that the MTA is required to improve bus service before starting any new rail projects under a consent decree signed by transit agency officials in 1996. The MTA disputes that argument.

An equal number of partisans in favor of light rail turned out for the vote.

County Supervisor Gloria Molina said Eastside residents were disappointed several years ago when the MTA canceled a subway that had been planned for the area. She said they were adamant about receiving light rail.

“This is their second choice,” Molina said. “They want access to the rest of the transit system throughout L.A. County.”

Burke agreed. “The Eastside of Los Angeles is entitled to transportation just like North Hollywood,” she said. “They are entitled to it, and we are going to give it to them.”

One of the day’s other heated debates was over the airport. It centered on a proposed offramp on the San Diego Freeway at Arbor Vitae Street. The offramp is supported by Caltrans and the city of Los Angeles, but has languished without funding for nearly 20 years.

It became a hot-button issue after being drawn into the fight over possible expansion of LAX.

The MTA board approved a trimmed-down version of the interchange that would serve only the airport side of the freeway. Considered a concession to local residents, it passed unanimously.

“They really didn’t give us anything,” said Mike Stevens, organizer of a large group of LAX growth opponents and one of those ushered from the meeting by guards. Stevens estimated that 225 residents of Inglewood and other communities turned out for Thursday’s meeting, arriving in three chartered buses.

The fight over the Long Beach Freeway extension developed over a change in language describing plans for the freeway that opponents interpreted as a sign the MTA was quietly moving forward to build the long-delayed project.

City officials from South Pasadena and La Canada Flintridge as well as residents of the El Sereno section of Los Angeles urged the board to reject the language.

As it stands, plans for the freeway extension are part of the MTA’s long-range transportation blueprint, but without any money to back those plans up.

In contrast to the uproar that greeted those issues, the budget itself passed without discussion. It will pay for hundreds of bus, rail and highway construction projects for the government budget year starting July 1.

Board member John Fasana, a Duarte city councilman and member of a coalition of San Gabriel Valley cities, was elected by other board members as the next chairman, replacing Burke.