http://www.sgvtribune.com/opinion/20150612/proposed-710-extension-a-toll-road-not-a-freeway-letters
June 12, 2015
Building 710 toll road is an inside job for Alhambrans
Your
story on the Alhambra pro-freeway rally stated that 100 people came to
support “Close the Gap.” The people wearing 710 blue shirts were paid
city employees. Even if they were genuine supporters, does that justify
spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to have a party on
Fremont? There were also many police and firefighters there as well, all
adding to the costs of the event. Alhambra residents are clearly not
getting their money’s worth.
It is dangerous to clog streets. At last year’s “Gridlock Day,”
at least one resident was unable to rouse anyone at the neighborhood
fire station. The City Council is putting Alhambrans’ lives at risk with
their intolerable, frivolous parties.
Councilwoman Barbara
Messina seems to be the biggest proponent of the tunnel, and her
argument is always because she wrongly says that the air will improve
and asthma in our children will disappear. With all due respect to Ms.
Messina, who clings to her 40-year pro-freeway stance, the current Draft
Environmental Impact Report clearly states that air pollution will show
no measurable improvement if a tunnel is built.
It also states that traffic congestion on Alhambra streets would
actually increase because drivers will chose to avoid paying the tunnel
tolls. That’s right, Ms. Messina; it’s not a freeway. It’s a toll road.
— Janet Ervin, Alhambra
Stop overdeveloping Alhambra, improve the air
Councilwoman
Barbara Messina pushes us to build this 710 tunnel as she lies that it
will improve our air quality. She stays on message perhaps as dictated
by her publicist. If you can start a war based on lies, you can build a
tunnel based on lies. Fremont does not cause our air problem; look to
the 10 Freeway and the rest of Los Angeles air being swept into the San
Gabriel Valley by the southwest winds. The EIR actually says the air
quality will be the same for every one of the five alternatives,
including the no-build alternative, which means doing nothing.
At best, if the EIR is to be believed, the air quality stays
the same for all alternatives. At worst, the air quality will get worse
for Alhambra because of the trucks that will use the tunnel that do not
use Fremont now will spew their fumes coming from the vents at the
south end into Alhambra. They will carry that additional particulate
matter which causes heart and lung disease. The scrubbers do not clean
all contaminants. In the morning commute, the cool ambient air will
simply drop the contaminated air into Alhambra.
Messina can improve air quality if she stops overdeveloping
Alhambra, which brings multitudes and their fleets of polluting and
traffic-jamming automobiles.
— Gloria Valladolid, Alhambra
Purpose
