Purpose

To consolidate, disseminate, and gather information concerning the 710 expansion into our San Rafael neighborhood and into our surrounding neighborhoods. If you have an item that you would like posted on this blog, please e-mail the item to Peggy Drouet at pdrouet@earthlink.net

Monday, June 15, 2015

Three meetings this week -- July 4th: Mark your calendar

From Sylvia Plummer, June 15, 2015

 1.  Thursday, June 18, 6:00 pm
 


El Sereno SR-710 Community Meeting


Please attend this meeting in support of El Sereno.
 


Council member Jose Huizar, El Sereno Organizing Committee, and the Natural Resource Defense Council invite everyone to come and learn about the proposal to extend the SR-710 Freeway through El Sereno.  Join in a discussion about transportation improvement opportunities for the El Sereno and East Los Angeles Area .


El Sereno Senior Center

4818 Klamath Place

Los Angeles, CA  00032


Free Parking is available





2.  Thursday, June 18, 6:00 pm
 


San Gabriel COG Full Governing Board will vote to comment on the SR 710 North


The San Gabriel Valley COG Transportation Committee has voted to recommend that the Full Governing Board take action to send a letter to  CalTrans in support of the Tunnel Alternative.




The San Gabriel COG Full Governing Board meeting is a public meetings governed by the Brown Act and any citizen has a right to appear and provide public comment.

We need people to attend this meetings and speak against the proposed action to support the SR-710 tunnel alternative.

Thursday, June 18, 2015 at 6:00 PM

Offices of the Upper San Gabriel Water District Offices
Suite B, 602 Huntington Drive, Monrovia.  


If you can not attend,  you can send them an email  before  Thursday  with your public comment. Here is the contact information:


Don’t forget to reference  June 18, 2015  Item #22 in your correspondence.  Also ask that your email be distributed to the entire Board.

Below is the link for the agenda for the full governing board meeting of the San Gabriel Valley COG (See item # 22).
 
Background Information:  Barbara Messina and John Fasana, both of whom are in favor of the tunnel, are both on the governing board of the San Gabriel Valley COG as well as being on the Transportation Committee (which met on Thursday, June 11).    The two of them were involved in getting this proposed action regarding the SR 710 North onto the agendas of both the Transportation Committee as well as on the Full Board Agenda.  

As you can see from the agenda item #22 description, they want the board to provide direction to staff to prepare comments for the SR 710 North EIR.   The fact that this comes so late in the comment process could be interpreted as an indication that they may be attempting to do a last minute end run to attempt to get the San Gabriel Valley COG to support the tunnel.    

Listen to Barbara Messina's speech prior to the vote taken at the San Gabriel COG Transportation Committee Meeting (approx. 4 minutes), Audio only:

You should note that they do not describe the project properly as the EIR/EIS for the Western San Gabriel Valley Gap Closure Project – which contains five alternatives – only one of the alternatives involves the SR 710 North.   Instead this has been agendized as providing direction to staff with respect to the “SR 710 North EIR/EIS”.  Completion of the 710 North is only one of the five alternatives in the EIR/EIS.   There is no mention of the other four EIR/EIS alternatives.   Although the agenda description does not indicate what the “directions to staff” might entail, a reasonable person might conclude that there is the possibility here that Barbara Messina and John Fasana may be attempting to influence the San Gabriel Valley COG’s governing board to endorse completion of the SR 710 North tunnel.

  3.  Saturday, June 20, 2015

SR-710 Public Hearing

Be sure to attend this Public Hearing and let your voice be heard during Public Comment.  There will be many people from the East Los Angeles area that will make comments in support of the SR-710 Tunnel because they believe that one of the Alternatives must be selected and they do not want the Light Rail Alternative for their area.  They need to know there is another option for them if their elected officials will work with the Beyond the 710 group in designing a transportation system that works for all the cities.

10:00 am - 4 pm  Map Viewing
11:00 am - 12:00pm  SR-710 Study Presentation of the Five Alternatives
12:00 pm - 4 pm  Public Comment

D.W. Griffith Middle School Auditorium
4765 E. 4th Street
Los Angeles, CA  90022


4.  July 4th, 2015  -  Mark your Calendar



South Pasadena July 4th Parade.  



Come out and join us at this annual event and march with the No 710 Group.  We will meet at 10 am, the parade starts at 11 am.  More details to follow.