Thursday, December 27, 2012

Inglewood: ‘Metro’ TOD City Hall Meetings Could be ‘Cut & Paste’

http://citywatchla.com/4box-right/4231-inglewood-metro-tod-city-hall-meetings-could-be-cut-paste

Written by Randall Fleming

21 Dec 2012

INSIDE INGLEWOOD - Are City of Inglewood executives allowing residents of Inglewood to believe that LA County Metro is responsible for recent Transit-Oriented Development meetings? One might easily infer exactly that from two December meetings held in Conference Room A at city hall in Inglewood.

The first meeting was held on Wednesday, December 5 and featured Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts, who spoke to the group. Also attending was former Inglewood Mayor Danny K. Tabor, District 4 council member Ralph L. Franklin and at least one person wearing an orange vest with reflective stripes bearing the Metro logo. Neither Tabor, nor Franklin, nor the person with a Metro vest spoke. The meeting was hosted in part by San Luis Obispo-based RRM Design Group and the key speaker appeared to be the firm's Principal Landscape Architect, Tony Keith.

The second meeting was on Saturday, December 15. According to the December 13 edition of the newsletter Inglewood Today, "councilmember (sic) Ralph Franklin announced the City (sic) is sponsoring a meeting Saturday, Dec. 15 to get community input about the future of downtown in regard (sic) to the future transit station near LaBrea and Florence." The implication was that Franklin would again be present. It was the second of two such meetings. One difference between the two meetings was that neither Butts, nor Franklin, nor Tabor was present at the second one.

Employed at both meetings were PowerPoint presentations prominently featuring the City of Inglewood seal and the Metro and rrmdesigngroup logos. The PowerPoint clearly mimicked the design style of Metro PowerPoint presentations.

The striking resemblance of Metro's signature design style was also found in a document titled "TAP-Report-Inglewood-Florence-La-Brea-Station-2011.pdf," a report which was published in part by the City of Inglewood. In the 24-page report, Linda Tatum is identified in photographs as well as formally acknowledged. Also of note is the term "TAP" in the title, which does not mean Metro's TAP (Transit Access Program) but "Technical Assistance Panel." The report was never mentioned during the TOD meetings.

At both meetings, the same three people spoke at length to the attendees about the importance of community input regarding the Metro station to be placed at La Brea and Florence. One was Keith. The other two were City of Inglewood executives, Linda F. Tatum and Mawusi K. Watson. Tatum is the Planning Manager for the City of Inglewood's Planning and Building Department, and Watson is the Executive Assistant to the City Manager of Inglewood. Keith, who introduced himself as the "Principal Landscape Architect of RRM Design Group,” later introduced the City of Inglewood executives as only "Linda" and "Mawusi.” None of the speakers were identified publicly as City of Inglewood employees.

At both meetings, Tatum failed to follow two fundamental rules of oratory: full disclosure (i.e., one's name and title, et al.) and credibility. Upon being called from her seat at a table nearest the entry door and at the rear of the audience, Tatum immediately launched into her monologue: "This workshop is a meeting that is coordinated and sponsored by the City of Inglewood in cooperation with the target team." As she spoke, she swept her arms as if to indicate the people and PowerPoint presentation screen behind her. She went on to speak at length, mentioning Metro a number of times.

It was only after a lengthy private discussion held near the meeting's end and out of earshot of the audience that this reporter learned that "Linda" is the Planning Manager for the City of Inglewood, and that according to her, Metro had "absolutely nothing to do with the TOD meetings." Later calls to Tatum to inquire if the meetings' findings—including the extensive ideas proffered by those who spent the better part of two days to contribute—would be turned over to Metro were not returned.

On Monday, December 17, when asked if Metro had anything to do with the TOD meetings, Metro Media Relations spokesperson José Ubaldo confirmed Tatum's statement. "Metro was not invited to the TOD meetings. It's too early for Metro to do TOD developments. [The City of Inglewood] could have just cut and pasted the logo from the Metro website."

There appears to have been a third meeting, one that was unannounced and, surprisingly, unknown to Metro.

According to a city employee who requested anonymity but who was present at the December 15 meeting, Franklin had been present at a meeting with Metro representatives on Friday, December 14, in the very same room that the Saturday meeting was held.

According to Ubaldo, "Franklin had been at an event hosted by Metro's Community Relations (CR) department. It was not a meeting." Ubaldo would not name the person in Metro's CR department who provided the information.

Speaking to Metro CR Interim Deputy Executive Officer Susan Gilmore revealed little. Upon being asked to confirm if Franklin had been present at any such "event" with Metro personnel at Inglewood City Hall on Friday, December 14, Gilmore refused to answer. Instead she asked, "Who told you this?" When informed that it was Ubaldo, Gilmore promised to call back. The return call never came.

The circular logic of Metro's Public Relations staff prompted a deep research that unearthed a Metro South Bay Cities Service Council Agenda document that was clearly titled as a "Regular Meeting." The date and time were also clearly stated at the top right: Friday, December 14, 2012 / 9:30 - 11:30 AM." The cover page also noted that the Chair of Metro's South Bay Cities Service Council is Inglewood District 4 council member Ralph L. Franklin. The meeting was held in Conference Room A of Inglewood City Hall.

Calls to Metro regarding the document and Metro's alleged ignorance of it, the respective proceedings and the persons who attended were not returned.

At the end of the December 15 meeting, Keith announced that there is to be one more TOD meeting in mid-January. It is the belief of this reporter that such a meeting may not occur.

(Randall Fleming is a veteran journalist and magazine publisher. He has worked at and for the New York Post, the Brooklyn Spectator and the Los Feliz Ledger. He is currently editor-in-chief at the Morningside Park Chronicle, a monthly newspaper based in Inglewood, CA and on-line at www.MorningsideParkChronicle.com)

-cw

'LA Shuffle' means lots of political moves in huge county

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/12/la-shuffle-means-lots-of-political-moves-in-huge-county.html

December 19, 2012

The "LA Shuffle" isn't a dance, or at least not one of the musical variety, but rather a name that some political insiders apply to the constant movement of politicians in Los Angeles County, which has more than a quarter of the state's population.

The county has all or parts of 18 of the state's 53 congressional districts, 15 of the 40 state Senate districts and 24 of the 80 Assembly districts. There are also 15 well-playing slots on the Los Angeles City Council, the city's mayoralty and five seats on the county's Board of Supervisors.

With that many political positions as lures and term limits as spurs, there's a lot of movement among Los Angeles, Sacramento and Washington in any election year, whether it's the even-numbered year for federal, state and county balloting or the odd-numbered year for city elections.

Five members of the Los Angeles City Council are former state legislators, including the council's president, Herb Wesson, a former speaker of the state Assembly but one, Tony Cardenas, is leaving to take a seat in Congress, which will mean a special election next spring for his seat.

Eight odd-numbered city council seats are up in the spring as well, and five current or recently termed-out state legislators are running for them. Were state Sen. Curren Price and Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield to win their council races, the new Democratic supermajorities in both legislative houses would be diminished until their seats are filled by special election.

And then there's the county Board of Supervisors, whose members were dubbed the "five little kings" until women began to win seats.

Three of the five supervisors are former state legislators. Two of the five, ex-Assemblywoman Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky, will be forced off the board by term limits in 2014, two others, former Assemblyman Mike Antonovich and Don Knabe, will be out in 2016, and the fifth, former Assemblyman (and LA City Councilman) Mark Ridley-Thomas can serve until 2020.

The departures of Molina and Yaroslavsky, and later of Antonovich and Knabe, are expected to touch off a political feeding frenzy among the county's legislators, city council members and even members of Congress.

Former Assemblywoman and state Sen. Sheila Kuehl has already declared her candidacy for the Yaroslavsky district, which includes the wealthy "west side" of Los Angeles.

LA Transportation: Top 10 Hopes for 2013

http://citywatchla.com/lead-stories-hidden/4250-la-transportation-top-10-hopes-for-2013

Written by Ken Alpern

28 Dec 2012

GETTING THERE FROM HERE - 2012 was a year of progress and disappointments for transportation—the 2012 election year had negative campaigning on both sides of the political aisle, and kept (and still keeps) the country hopelessly divided, and we lost Measure J by a tantalizing hairbreadth. Yet in LA County we’ve seen an extraordinary explosion of progress on current and future rail and road projects that bode well for an exciting new year.

Here are my Top Ten Hopes for Transportation in 2013:

1) Keep the promise of Measure R alive, despite the near-passage of Measure J. The planning, approval, funding and construction of freeway and rail projects from Santa Monica to the Inland Empire (and everywhere in-between) are still moving forward at historically fast speeds (even if our traffic isn’t).

Both the benefits and shortcomings of Measure R need to be highlighted if Measure J is to be re-introduced (and it probably will be, in some shape or form). We’ve got an Expo and Crenshaw Light Rail Line, as well as an I-405 and other freeway projects, being built years or even decades ahead of time, yet many other key projects now only have seed money (see below).

2) Promoting the narrative of Measure J that it nearly passed, and not that it failed, is the correct narrative for our cities and county to promote.

Measure J failed despite getting 66% of the popular vote—that’s 12% higher than the state tax hike/budget-balancing Proposition 30 received for passage, and 15% higher than what President Obama needed to achieve re-election.

We need to pass a constitutional amendment to allow transportation measures the benefit of a more reasonable voter threshold needed to pass by a will of the majority—if a supermajority of the voters at either 55% or 60% was necessary, Measure J would still have passed.

3) We need a new Measure J with more clearly-defined goals than merely expediting those projects already approved by passage of Measure R.

Measure R only provided seed money for a north-south Westside/San Fernando Valley transit project and the LAX Metro Airport Connector. A rail project (ideally underground) for Westside/Valley commuters to cross the Sepulveda Pass in less than 10 minutes, a MetroRail project connected to the LAX central terminals, and a connection of the Green Line to Metrolink at or near Norwalk, are as long overdue as the Wilshire Subway.

Ditto for a widening of the I-5 between the 710 and 605 freeways, and a host of improvements to those freeways in the eastern, northern and southern periphery of our county, and ditto for a major renovation of the major roads throughout the City and County of LA.

4) Promotion of those “best practices” in communication and operations by the contractors building Phase 2 of the Expo Line and the Sepulveda Pass I-405 Widening project are necessary to show that the taxpayers’ money actually CAN be spent well.

Whether it’s fixing the screw-ups of previous contractors for either the Expo Line or past freeway projects, Metro has demonstrated it can do a great job building important projects with quality contractors. Voters have always wanted that good government, and Metro’s credibility, needs to be enhanced whenever possible.

5) Washington, DC and Sacramento need to be better and more reliable partners with LA City and County for transportation than in the past.

Maybe it’s a new stimulus package, maybe it’s a reconfiguration of the federal and state budgets to ensure proper funding of transportation, and maybe it’s our federal and state governments learning what cities and counties really need for transportation and other infrastructure, but it’s not fair for L.A. County to do it all on its own.

There are certain key freeways (like the I-5), certain rail projects (like the Wilshire Subway, the Downtown Light Rail Connector and the LAX/MetroRail Connector) and certain freight rail betterments (like the Alameda Corridor East) that, if funded by the state or federal governments, would restore a great deal of local voter/taxpayer confidence as well as beef up both the local and national economies.

6) Expedite the Downtown Light Rail Connector and other major rail projects with an array of new initiatives to unite Metro with the business community as major urban/economic renewal projects.

There is quite a bit of controversy between Metro and the Downtown LA business community as to whether or not this Downtown rail subway project can entirely be performed with a deep boring machine. The possibility that it can it be excavated manually, as was done with certain portions of the Pasadena Gold Line, needs to be explored as well. The rewards are too great to ignore.

Linking MetroRail stations with businesses creates both a “sense of place” and economic empowerment which most still don’t yet appreciate. Universal Studios paid a huge price for not linking with the Red Line Subway, but North Hollywood has benefited from its association with the Red Line, and provides a model for the rest of L.A. County to emulate.

7) Building all bus/rail stations with appropriate transit, carpool, bicycle and pedestrian amenities, and not "cheaping out" on the parking or sidewalk repairs, remains elusive.

Naïve or dogmatic City and County planners and politicians must stop shortchanging those taxpaying commuters who need a car or bike to commute to transit stations, and must start demanding government and developers cough up the dough to fund the parking structures, bike lanes, bus/rail connectors and sidewalks.

Repeat after me, my theologically-obsessed anti-parking friends: parking structures and lots get cars off the street, parking structures and lots get cars off the street, parking structures and lots get cars off the street … (those transportation and urban planners without small children need not bother confronting this reality).

And while we’re at it, let’s expedite the fixing of our City sidewalk network and create a bicycle network like many other cities in California.

8) Can we finally achieve an appropriate and pragmatic definition of "affordable housing" and "transit-oriented development" to avoid promoting overdevelopment that isn’t helpful for either Endeavour?

Will planned transit-adjacent projects be truly “transit-oriented” to benefit their neighborhoods, or will they transform these neighborhoods into car-laden, traffic-jammed hellholes? Where are the freeway, road, transit and pedestrian mitigations…and if they’re not there, then why are transit-adjacent-but-not-truly-oriented projects moving through the City Planning process at all?

Can we finally acknowledge that housing endeavors that appeal specifically to transit users are truly limited to senior affordable housing, student affordable housing, and commercial affordable housing (workers who are verified to work and live near a transit station?)

9) For those of us not living next to a transit station, can we start rewarding telecommuting in the City and County of Los Angeles with tax and other incentives? This behavior really helps keep cars off the roads while strengthening our modern economy.

10) We need a Mayor, City Council, City Controller and City Attorney who will actually do the job that they were elected to do. Since transportation-related and urban planning-related issues remain high priorities in the minds of voting Angelenos, the right leadership to fight for the planning, funding, budgeting and legal implementation of these priorities is the most important transportation-related hope of all in 2013.

I wish all of Los Angeles a happier commute, and a Healthy and Happy New Year in 2013!

(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Boardmember of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11 Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at Alpern@MarVista.org . He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at www.fogl.us. The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)

-cw

New laws set to take effect on Jan. 1

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/breakingnews/ci_22268332

Ryan Teague Beckwith, Digital First Media
Posted: 12/27/2012 12:30:48 PM PST

Driving

Motorcyclists in Illinois will be allowed to run red lights, since they often aren't heavy enough to trip sensors that turn lights green. Florida drivers will be allowed to flash their headlights to warn others about speed traps. Alabama police will be able to instantly check whether drivers have car insurance through a new system. California drivers will be allowed to show proof of insurance using their smart phones or iPads. California will also allow testing of driverless cars.

California inks law paving way for Google's driverless cars to hit state's highways

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/09/25/california-inks-law-paving-way-for-google-driverless-cars-to-hit-state-highways/

Published September 25, 2012

Associated Press

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Tuesday that will pave the way for driverless cars in California.
The bill by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla will establish safety and performance regulations to test and operate autonomous vehicles on state roads and highways.

The governor signed it at the Mountain View headquarters of Google Inc., which has been developing autonomous car technology and lobbying for the regulations.

Self-driving cars might sound like science fiction, but they are already cruising California's roads and could become sold commercially within the next decade.

Google's fleet of a dozen computer-controlled vehicles -- mostly Toyota Priuses equipped with self-driving technology -- has logged more than 300,000 miles of self-driving without an accident, the company said.

Autonomous cars use computers, sensors and other technology to operate independently, but a "driver" can override the autopilot function and take control of the vehicle at any time.

With smartphone-wielding drivers more distracted than ever, backers say robotic vehicles have the potential to make roads significantly safer, noting that nearly all car accidents are a result of human error.

The legislation requires the California Department of Motor Vehicles to draft regulations for autonomous vehicles by Jan. 1, 2015. Currently, state law doesn't mention self-driving cars because the technology is so new.

The regulations would allow vehicles to operate autonomously, but a licensed driver would still need to sit behind the wheel to serve as a backup operator in case of emergency.

The legislation is also aimed at keeping California at the forefront of the autonomous car industry since Stanford University and Silicon Valley companies have been working on the technology for years.

In February, Nevada became the first U.S. state to approve regulations spelling out requirements for companies to test driverless cars on that state's roads.

In recent years, automakers have been introducing autonomous functions such as self-parking, lane departure warnings and adaptive cruise-control, which allows vehicles to automatically accelerate and decelerate with the flow of traffic.

Carmakers such as Audi AG, BMW AG, Ford Motor Co. and Volvo have been working on autonomous car technology for years, and experts say commercial vehicles could feature an "autopilot" function in as few as five years.

The 710 Extension: Is It or Is It Not Mainly for Port Truck Traffic

Posted by Vicki Kea on Facebook

The first part of this file is a Metro news release dated March 21, 2011. The second part of this file is a letter to Jane Demian where Failing denies what appears in the news release. Add this file to the arsenal.

http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/15779516

Contractors Clamoring to Build Transit Tunnel Under the 405

la.curbed.com

Dec. 27, 2012

The plan to have a private contractor finance and build a rapid-transit connection between the Valley and the Westside via the Sepulveda Pass is further along than most people realized, the Daily News reports. It was only at Metro's board meeting this month that a motion passed to further study a private/public partnership to construct either a bus-only lane, an underground rail tunnel, or a subway/freeway combination--private entities would make back their money by collecting tolls or fares. A car/train tunnel would be a wallet-buster to the tune of $10 billion, but approximately half a dozen companies have already contacted Metro to indicate their interest in helping build it. "[Metro's Roger] Moliere added there are only about four to six private entities worldwide that are capable of taking on a project this size, and all of them have reached out to Metro." The transit agency will only have $1 billion for the project and not for many years, but Moliere believes a private entity could "accelerate the project by 30 years." With a tunnel, drivers will be charged tolls to use the faster underground option--Moliere says the fees wouldn't be that substantial since so many use the 405--while transit riders would pay fares as they do currently.

Tunnel beneath Sepulveda Pass or widen 405 Freeway? It could happen quicker with private money

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_22265223/tunnel-beneath-sepulveda-pass-or-widen-405-freeway

By Christina Villacorte, Staff Writer

Posted: 12/26/2012 08:06:28 PM PST

Updated: 12/26/2012 08:10:12 PM PST

Lacking the billions of dollars needed to build the Sepulveda Pass Corridor, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is considering partnering with the private sector to ease the flow of traffic in one of the most congested stretches of highway in the country.
A public-private partnership could result in the project being built several decades earlier than expected -- but drivers who use it may end up having to pay a toll.

The Sepulveda Pass Corridor is intended to add another connection between the San Fernando Valley and the Westside. For now, Metro has not decided whether to merely add lanes on the 405 Freeway for a rapid bus transit system, or build a nearly 60-foot diameter tunnel beneath the Sepulveda Pass that could fit a highway, a railway, or both.

Metro's chief for real property and new business development, Roger Moliere, said the difference in cost between adding a rapid bus transit system and a rail transit system is "vast" but said the latter would be more effective in reducing the congestion in that area.

"If you look at the Sepulveda Pass, there's no room to expand it because you've got mountains on each side," he said. "You might be able to build another lane -- maybe -- but that may not help much because this is the most congested highway segment in the country."

"Something like 300,000 vehicles a day go through that 10-mile stretch," he added. "At peak periods, it takes more than an hour to get that 10 miles."

Under current funding scenarios, Metro expects to have $1 billion for the project by 2039, with the money coming from Measure R, a half-percent sales tax that voters approved in 2008.

The cost of a tunnel, however, is about $10 billion.

Moliere said if Metro decides to partner with the private sector, it would create financing for construction to begin in just a few years, instead of a few decades.

"At the very least, this would accelerate the project by 30 years," he said. "At the most, it actually creates the project, ... because there's really no funding set aside for this now except $1 billion, which is very little for a project this size."

Moliere added there are only about four to six private entities worldwide that are capable of taking on a project this size, and all of them have reached out to Metro.

Investors would get their money back either by waiting for more public funds to come in, or by charging drivers a toll for using the highway within the tunnel.

County Supervisor and Metro board chairman Michael Antonovich has embraced the concept of public-private partnerships for infrastructure.

"Public/private partnerships for all of our transportation infrastructure projects can leverage limited tax dollars with private capital -- without having to increase taxes," he said.

Bart Reed, executive director of The Transit Coalition, a nonprofit that advocates for improved transportation, said a public-private partnership might be the only way to avoid having to wait more than 25 years for relief in the Sepulveda Pass.

"If we don't do anything, basically, we're stuck with a freeway that can't be widened any further, and we're essentially relegating the Valley to gridlock for decades," he said.

Reed said he himself would be willing to pay the toll, as he has found himself stuck in traffic for three hours on the Sepulveda Pass while driving from Sylmar to LAX.

Moliere estimated the toll would be small because so many drivers would share in the cost in such a high-traffic area.

"It would probably be very comparable to the tolls that are on the 91 Freeway in Orange County, for example," he said. "And it would be completely voluntary, of course, because people don't have to drive on the tunnel -- they could stay on the 405."

"The tunnel would be an alternative for people if it was important to them to get through a heck of a lot faster," he added.

The toll on the 91 Freeway is as little as $1.35 during nonpeak hours, but as much as $9.55 at 3 p.m. on a Friday -- making it one of the most expensive in the state.

But in Orange County -- which has had toll roads for more than a decade -- some of the paid expressways have been plagued with financial problems, including heavy debt loads and lower revenue than expected. The San Joaquin Hills and Foothill-Eastern corridors, for example, are facing a new inquiry from the state over whether they can cover interest payments to investors who financed the projects with bonds.

Glendora Mountain Road gets a blog

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/breakingnews/ci_22259790/glendora-mountain-road-gets-blog

By Ben Baeder, Staff Writer
Posted: 12/25/2012 08:38:47 PM PST

Updated: 12/26/2012 07:41:32 AM PST

The windy byway is a favorite for motorcycle racers, bicycle riders, hikers, nature lovers and criminals looking to dump bodies.

Annette McCusker liked the road so much that she started a blog, at glendoramtnroad.blogspot.com.

She chronicles road openings, road closures, accidents, weather, bear sightings and anything else on the road, which stretches from the northern edge of Glendora north to East Fork Road, way up in the San Gabriel Mountains.

She started the blog in 2007 after she started riding her bicycle on the road with her husband, Bill.

At first, she was primarily seeking a way to stay fit.

"After a while, it's not about the calories, it's about the people you meet, your interactions with the denizens of the forest and your interface with the people up there," she said.

Linked on McCusker's Glendora Mountain Road site are dozens of other blogs written by like-minded friends.

For videos and photographs of wild animals living in the forest, a reader can click over to the Parliament Of Owls blog.

For chronicles of the area's most friendly bike rider, check out the link to Mr. Beanz and his Bike Rides blog.

Although McCusker loves the road's views, she also chronicles its wild side.

Within the past year, a horse and bicyclist were killed on the road.

A rider knocked off his horse by a car last year is still scared to go up in the area, said Dottie Hilliard, a member of an equestrian group.

The horse was euthanized.

"Ever since then, with that gentleman, he's just terrified to ride up there," Hilliard said. "It's a trauma."

The riders do all they can to stay off the road, only venturing onto the black top at bottlenecks and bridges, she said.

"It's really scary," Hilliard said.

The road is full of hairpin turns, climbs and steep descents, making it a popular course for thrill seekers who like to test the limits of their skills and vehicles.

When there's a crash on Glendora Mountain Road, the description almost always tells how far the car fell before it came to a rest at the bottom of some steep canyon.

In 2009, investigators used a YouTube video of a car crash on Glendora Mountain Road to crack an insurance-fraud case that was filed after one of the racers crashed his car.

"There's a night culture, a car culture, and that kind of stuff happens," McCusker said. "But hopefully it doesn't impact you."

For McCusker, she enjoys getting out of the smog into the quiet of the jagged peaks that form the northern edge of the San Gabriel Valley.

"Altitude improves attitude," she said.

Video: How to use the Metro while visiting Pasadena for the Rose Parade

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/breakingnews/ci_22267128/video-how-use-metro-while-visiting-pasadena-rose

By Rachael L. Faught, Special to the Star-News
Posted: 12/27/2012 10:15:38 AM PST

Want to get around Pasadena while visiting for the Rose Parade, but want to avoid driving a car? Here are some quick tips on using the Metro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YOuUaMAJZwg

(A not wholly informative video as it does not mention that paper tickets are no longer issued or does it mention that there is an upfront fee of $1 for a tap card that you need to pay before you are allowed to purchase a ticket and, hence, ride the metro.)

More from Joe Cano

Posted on Facebook December 27, 2012

'Joe Cano is demanding an answer to all the destruction they will be inflicting on Pasadena, the Rose Bowl, the Rose Parade. Along with the destruction of my El Sereno home, my existence, and that of the majority Mexican American population. Are you all a pack of genocidal racists? Now we hear Messina has called Najarian a crybaby. That sounds more like Messina and her husband when they were caught violating the the Political Reform Act & were fined $14,000. Messina complained she had never seen such nasty smear campaign against her and that they never do anything to the other people. Mayor Polyanna. Who sounds like a crybaby now? They won't respond; they are all cowards. I have declared KP& Associates a hostile entity so no one is going to listen to these political hacks.

Roadblock to dissent

Alhambra Mayor Barbara Messina calls Glendale Councilman, former MTA Board member and 710 tunnel opponent Ara Najarian a ‘crybaby’

http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/cms/story/detail/roadblock_to_dissent/11749/

12/25/2012

A brouhaha between Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Board Member Ara Najarian, who opposes plans to build a tunnel connecting the 710 (Long Beach) and Foothill (210) freeways, and a fellow board member who supports the tunnel and successfully helped block Najarian’s reconfirmation to the board appears to be just beginning.
Najarian — also a member of Glendale City Council — told the Weekly he will once again seek nomination for a seat on the MTA Board of Directors, on which his could be a deciding vote in any decision to extend the freeway.

In his role with the MTA, Najarian, first elected to the Glendale council in 2004 and appointed to the MTA board in 2008, represents North County Cities, comprising 12 local communities, among them Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge, Glendale and Burbank, all of which formally oppose the tunnel extension proposal. The MTA Board includes one city council representative each from the San Gabriel Valley Cities, West Side Cities, Gateway Cities and North County Cities. Najarian’s position is extremely unpopular among leaders in the San Gabriel Valley, who support the tunnel idea.
Alhambra Mayor Barbara Messina and Duarte Mayor John Fasana, also a member of the MTA board, led the effort to block Najarian’s confirmation because they believe a 4.5-mile long tunnel from where the 710 ends at Valley Boulevard in Alhambra to West Pasadena would alleviate traffic and clear up air pollution in their cities.

“Neither the MTA nor anyone else involved in the project can give us a reasonable estimate about how much it would cost,” Najarian said of the tunnel idea, which involves construction of two barrel-like tunnels, 80-feet in diameter, with an initial estimated cost of $5.5 billion. The proposal, the most elaborate and expensive of a number of ideas being considered by the MTA and Caltrans, is strongly opposed by Pasadena residents, even some who have in the past supported plans to connect the freeways overland.

“I am concerned it will end up like the Boston Big Dig, which started out at $3 billion and ended at $15 billion,” said Najarian of the controversial subway project. “Also, it would be very harmful to the communities adjacent to the tunnel, South Pasadena and Pasadena. There is no provision to clean the soot and gases, which are going to be concentrated in the tunnel, and it is not really going to provide any traffic relief.”

On Dec. 6, Fasana and Messina — both members of the LA County City Selection Committee — fought to block Najarian’s confirmation to the board after he was unanimously nominated to the North County Cities Seat, which also represents the communities of San Fernando, Malibu, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills, Santa Clarita, Lancaster and Palmdale. All told, Najarian represented 1 million people living in this region during his time on the MTA board.
Fasana did not return calls for comment.
Messina called Najarian “a big crybaby” for complaining about the vote against him.

“I don’t have a problem with someone having an opposing opinion. There was no lobbying before the vote or the meeting, but we definitely have not been thrilled with Mr. Najarian,” Messina said.
“It’s not just the 710 either,” continued Messina. “He takes it to the next level, to the point where he is really ridiculous and just wants to muddy the water. We are in the middle of an EIR process, and all of his questions will be answered when the report is done. There was no lobbying before the meeting. He’s just a big crybaby.”

Several other area politicians representing constituents in areas affected by the unfinished freeway are for the tunnel, including Supervisor Gloria Molina. Also a member of the MTA board, Molina wrote to a constituent in August that she would support the tunnel as long as it could be built safely without demolishing homes.

“If the 710 Freeway extension is built underground and it can be constructed safely with minor environmental impacts, I am open to it,” she wrote. “I will not support 710 Freeway construction if it cannot be accomplished safely, nor will I support it if it requires mass demolition of homes — as was required when freeways throughout Los Angeles County were constructed in decades past.”
However, Molina continued, “an incomplete 710 Freeway further pollutes the already dirty air breathed by millions of children living south of Alhambra along the highway route, and their health matters too much for us to do nothing.”

The 13-member MTA board consists of the mayor of the city of LA, the five county supervisors, the mayor’s respective appointments, city council members from communities most affected by the mass transit system and one non-voting appointment of the governor. Council members are chosen to serve on the MTA board by representatives from the four regions, and Najarian was nominated by all 12 representatives from his region.

However, when the time came for approval by the county City Selection Committee, comprised of mayors of the county’s 88 cities who cast weighted votes based on population size, Najarian finished 10 votes short of the simple majority needed for confirmation. Most of those “no” votes came from the San Gabriel Valley region, which is represented on the MTA board by Fasana.
Najarian told the Weekly he would seek nomination again in January and have his name placed on the MTA board agenda for its Feb. 7 meeting.

“In the past, this had been a routine matter,” Najarian said. “The representatives in my cities are very angry at the other cities for interfering with the selection. This is an attempt by the supporters of the project to gain two seats in the San Gabriel Valley.”
Najarian is calling for full accountability on the tunnel project and demands that all costs be revealed before any decisions are made, demands that have garnered him the support of a growing “No on 710” movement.

“Najarian has been the lone MTA board member insisting on accountability in the SR-710 Study process,” states the No on 710 Action Committee Web site. “The move by officials outside his representative sector calls into question the power of one sector to override the will and vote of another. The No 710 Action Committee strongly condemns Fasana and Messina for attempting to circumvent the rights and silence the voices of constituent sector cities that unanimously chose Najarian to represent them on the Metro Board of Directors. The committee also calls for further investigation of this matter.”

The 4.5-mile tunnel would connect Alhambra to Pasadena at the end of the 710 and exit near Huntington Hospital, close to the hundreds of homes seized by Caltrans through eminent domain more than 50 years ago, when the state intended to create a surface connection between the highways.

Earlier this year, residents of affluent West Pasadena rallied to combat plans to build the tunnel under portions of Avenue 64, which would have meant the destruction of hundreds of homes and brought cargo truck traffic and its ensuing air pollution through that part of town. The MTA took that plan off the table after nearby communities, including Glendale and La Cañada Flintridge, joined in that fight.

After community pressure forced the MTA to take the neighborhood option off the table, residents vowed they would stay in the battle until the project was completely defeated. Three weeks ago, about 100 opponents of the project attended a Pasadena City Council meeting and called on the council to formally oppose the tunnel. Although the council voted 4-3 against the project, it failed to garner the five votes needed to formally oppose the project.

On Dec. 10, state Sen. Carol Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge, and Pasadena Mayor Bill Bogaard, along with the mayors of South Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge and Glendale, sent a letter to Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty, asking for criteria on the decision to reduce the 710 alternatives from 12 to 5. The letter asked why the state agency continues to own the more than 500 seized homes in Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno.

“We ask Caltrans to explain the basis for maintaining ownership of homes that are outside the footprint of any alternative being considered for the SR 710 [draft environmental impact report]. We also request the legal basis upon which MTA determined it was appropriate for properties to be sold when a locally preferred alternative was eliminated,” the letter states.

Final Version of the 710 Tunnel Portals and Route by Joe Cano

Got back from Kinko's and here is the final version for all to distribute. You can zoom once you save to your computer. This how we hit Pasadena City Council over the head. The Rose Bowl & Rose Parade are in jeopardy, and if they blow it no telling what the powerful Pasadena families will do to their careers and legacy after they get through with them. You can call me the man that bitch slapped the MTA, Fasana, Messina& all the conspirators threatening my home & my destruction.

Joe Cano's latest attack on MTA's consultant's was crude-even by the low bar he sets.

Sent to me via e-mail from Bob Huddy, December 27, 2012

I see Joe Cano’s rude and ignorant personal attacks continue. They are what I expect from a raving zealot, who believes in conspiracy theories, and can’t logically argue his case against the 710 on the merits?

What does this rude and ignorant individual propose to do with the 76,000 existing cut through trips, using local streets today in Pasadena? These are folks who make real trips, for real reasons, contributing to avoidable local traffic in our neighborhoods, today Joe, so what’s your solution?

How exactly does requiring hundreds of thousands of folks to every day to travel and extra five, ten, or twenty miles extra on every existing trip in this corridor “reduce” traffic congestion on our freeways or local streets? How does requiring longer and more indirect trips, often on local streets, often in stop and go traffic, reduce fuel use? How does requiring that extra fuel use “reduce” greenhouse gases? How exactly does that science work in the world according to Joe Cano?

The avoidable traffic congestion, from the 710 gap is already here on our streets and freeways, now. People in Pasadena, Altadena, La Canada, and Sierra Madre are already making real trips with or without the 710 tunnel, in Pasadena, right now. These trips are already using our streets, today. Most of the trips that would use the 710 tunnel are coming from our communities, now, to go to places like “work”, or” school”, or to practice a “profession”, or for silly things like cultural events, or to visit family. And, 76,000 have to go on local streets and the rest have to go miles out of there way via other long and circuitous routes. Every day students and professors from Pasadena, or La Canada, or Sierra Madre cross Pasadena to go to Cal State, today. I’ll even bet that every single day, even lawyers and doctors in Linda Vista and San Rafael travel to meet clients at the harbor, or try cases in places like far distant Long Beach, or perform surgery in Downey?

This foul mouthed Joe Cano knows how to use crude diatribe against those who happen to work for public agencies. Why? Because apparently, they are part the evil paranoid conspiracy that makes up his infantile fantasy world. But, what does he really know of travel behavior, or travel economics, or of the actual environmental science involved in this issue? Apparently, the answer is not too much.

How does a full bore tunnel, which will be using clean vehicle technology by 2025, that will reduce cut through local street traffic by 76,000 trips as day, would save tens of thousands of miles of unnecessary travel reducing fuel use and greenhouse gases, and which can be financed by user paid tolls, hurt Pasadena, South Pasadena, or El Sereno?

If folks want to debate the issues arising from the 710 gap, or the potential for a tunnel option, with malicious diatribe, deliberate falsehoods, intentional fear mongering, and general ignorance of the facts, then Joe Cano is definitely your number one source for this issue.

If you are a person who wants to do something to relieve local congestion, would like to find a way to cover and restore the current “gash” from the 710 stub in Pasadena, would like to save millions of gallons of wasted fuel, and millions of resultant pounds of greenhouse gases every year, then you may have to learn to think for yourselves, instead of listening to zealots like Joe?

Bob Huddy

I said before that I will not respond for Joe Cano as he can certainly take care of himself and doesn't need me to defend him. But I really felt for Joe Cano by what he posted this morning on Facebook:
"My home will be the first to go down on our side. If I do nothing I lose my home, but if I fight this, even if we lose, I can walk away knowing 'I tried'. Let history judge me if I did a good of bad thing going after these people in this manner. I don't like being the mean guy in this, but history forces your hand."

"

Map Showing Both 710 Tunnel Portals and the Route Between the Portals

Posted by Joe Cano on Facebook, December 27, 2012

The yellow lines at the top of the map are the 210 West and East and the 134. The middle top yellow line is the 110 and South Arroyo Parkway. The middle bottom line is Huntington Drive. The middle straight north/south yellow line is Fremont Avenue. The houses and buildings along the tunnel route between the portals will have the 710 tunnel beneath them.

Mockups of the Pasadena and El Sereno 710 Portals

Posted by Joe Cano on Facebook, Dec. 27, 2012

The Pasadena Portal Side

To all, here is the Pasadena portal side. The north east tip approx. at Villa St & Los Robles with northwest tip at the front steps of the Rose Bowl. The Colorado Street Bridge will be overcome with construction. The El Sereno side appears it suffer the greater land used construction, storage and the side the tunnel will start on. These new renditions have the positions of the portals aligned properly. The version of the entire path is larger because I had to use unorthodox methods that still rendered an HD image that can be blown to poster and maybe even banner size. At this point I making a proposition. I am asking if the No on 710 groups could pool their resources to have the 'big map' blown to poster or banner size. If all groups pool their resources all will have the same image to use as an educational counterpoint to Metro's PR. How much more dramatic to have a banner up and invite folks to put a color pin where they think their home is on the map only to find its in the construction zone. I am at the end of my technical capacity as far as printing things that large.

The El Sereno Portal Side

Ok El Sereno, here is a rough mock up of how our town will be destroyed. Based on the 'bomb shape' tunnel chart, I have estimated where the construction field will be. We are all FUCKED! look at this map and see if you find your homes!