The Sins of Angelenos

http://thesource.metro.net/2015/05/22/transportation-headlines-friday-may-21-2/

By Steve Hymon, May 22, 2015

Uh-oh! Another NYT article on L.A., meaning local reporters and residents better gear up the outrage. Except this time the op-ed is from one of our own, former LAT reporter, author and area native Hector Tobar. Take it away, Hector!:

Consider that most egregious of California’s anti-ecological excesses: the freeway. We brag that we built the first one, in a riverbed. Because of our dependence on driving, Californians burn more gasoline than all of Africa. But even we are tired of freeways now, and when Caltrans tries to build a new one, it faces fierce local resistance. The residents of South Pasadena, for example, have successfully opposed a plan to extend Interstate 710 for decades.

Consider that most egregious of California’s anti-ecological excesses: the freeway. We brag that we built the first one, in a riverbed. Because of our dependence on driving, Californians burn more gasoline than all of Africa. But even we are tired of freeways now, and when Caltrans tries to build a new one, it faces fierce local resistance. The residents of South Pasadena, for example, have successfully opposed a plan to extend Interstate 710 for decades.

There has been little concerted, citywide opposition, however, to several recent projects to widen existing freeways in Los Angeles. Increasing capacity simply encourages more people to drive instead of taking mass transit. According to a study by an environmental think tank, every mile of additional urban freeway lane will create up to 186,500 tons more CO₂emissions over 50 years.

I’ve also heard people argue that freeways that flow better — perhaps because of new lanes — produces fewer emissions because cars are getting better mileage without the starting and stopping. But his larger point that freeway expansion is now being greeted in some quarters with skepticism is certainly a good point. 

 

As for the bigger point about our errant ways…we certainly drive a lot here and California is pretty much off the scale when it comes to CO2 emissions from transportation — because we’re the most populous state. But unlike some eastern and midwestern states, we’re also far less addicted to the use of coal to heat and air condition our homes, nor do we require as much heating. 

But wait….Josh Stephens offers a pretty thorough spanking to many of Tobar’s points in the California Planning and Development Report: 

People in Los Angeles, even those blinded by some orange-hued vision of the American dream, did not just wake up one day and decide that they “wanted” what they got. The sprawl, freeways, and (not incidentally) segregation of Southern California was as much a function of policy as economics. The federal government’s role in suburbanization (partly through the GI Bill) is well documented. Banks contributed too. Plenty of companies, from homebuilders to pipe-forgers loved the idea of building sprawling, infrastructure-intensive developments. This pattern persisted all over the country. (Levittown, the first mass-produced suburb, is in Long Island.) 

So let’s also look at the national picture. Tobar’s ecological footprint isn’t large because he’s from Los Angeles. It’s large because he’s from the United States. With the exception of a few oil-rich states, we as a country use more energy and create more emissions per capita than any other peoples in the history of the world. Amid this orgy, guess where California ranks among the states in per capita energy consumption? Forty-ninth.

The NYT has done some excellent reporting when it comes to California in its news pages. But the paper seems to get tripped up when talking about our state in the more casual trend articles it publishes.