The $45 Billion Los Angeles County Rail System

[LosAngelesSportsFan]

Originally Posted by Elsongs

There you go!

BTW how is Roy's? I'm planning to have my birthday dinner there next weekend.

it is a top 3 restaurant in my book and i eat at plenty of restaurants. the food was unbelievable, the service was good, the place was packed, the location is good, the vibe was nice. highly recommended. by the way, get the Canoe appetizer so that you can taste 5 different appetizers and the Ribs were amazing.

also, Famina was nice and had a bunch of people eating there and just chilling at 7:00 last night.

[Elsongs]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

also, Famina was nice and had a bunch of people eating there and just chilling at 7:00 last night.

I would imagine a place called "Famina" would have NO food

[Fern~Fern*]

^ Sounds like a HAIR STUDIO on Melrose......

[LA-dude]

isnt it that new japanese convenient store.....like 7-11 but classier?

[Westsidelife]

It's not your typical convenience store. The don't sell Doritos chips and Snicker bars but things like cookies, sandwiches, Pocky, etc.

[Fern~Fern*]

Originally Posted by LA-dude

isnt it that new japanese convenient store.....like 7-11 but classier?

^ They will also serve fresh sushi to go.

[godblessbotox]

...mmmm mmm mmm, convenience store sushi

[Vangelist]

that place rhymes with "vagina," right? i had a long debate about this saturday

[Elsongs]

Originally Posted by Vangelist

that place rhymes with "vagina," right? i had a long debate about this saturday

I thought the stress was on the first syllable. FA-mi-ma (Triple exclamation).

It's an Engrish-ized shortening of the original franchise name "Family Mart."

[klamedia]

Beverly Hills doesn't want to miss the subway
By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
November 27, 2006


Beverly Hills officials, sensing that a subway to the sea is inevitable, want to ensure the train doesn't pass them by.

They are preparing to select a route and two station locations to best serve residents, as well as business owners and their employees.

It doesn't seem to matter that the city has little say over the path of the proposed 13-mile subway that would travel between downtown Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Or that the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which would design, build and operate the subway, is still at least a year or two away from picking the route.

Forget, too, that no money has been set aside for the $5-billion project. Or that using federal funds to tunnel under Wilshire Boulevard still is illegal.

Beverly Hills residents, some of whom once opposed a subway, may be set to endorse a Wilshire Boulevard route from Western Avenue that would include one station at La Cienega Boulevard, and another between Beverly and Rodeo drives.

At community meetings, city leaders have confronted residents' fears of subway crime and potential terrorism. They warn naysayers that, without a subway, traffic on the Westside will only get worse.

"There is an incredible sea change of attitude from resistance to support for the subway," said Allan Alexander, a former Beverly Hills mayor who co-chairs the city's mass transit panel.

Mayor Steve Webb is leading the charge.

He's trying to put Beverly Hills in the best position to lobby federal, state and local officials for the money needed to build the rail line and to make sure it goes through his city.

Webb directed Alexander's subway study committee to "determine what's in our best interest."

The subway study committee's tentative endorsement of the route through the city is to be finalized next month and sent to the City Council for consideration at its January meeting.

A consultant hired by Beverly Hills said Wilshire Boulevard was chosen because it is surrounded by high-density residential and commercial development. It is the county's most heavily traveled transit corridor, according to the MTA.

The committee considered but rejected a route along Santa Monica Boulevard from the subway's Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue station.

Last year, during his campaign for Los Angeles mayor, then-City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa promised to restart the Westside subway project — more than two decades after it had been derailed.

Longtime subway opponents Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), whose district includes parts of West Los Angeles, and Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the Westside, now are working with Villaraigosa to try to complete the east-west rail line.

But that's still several years away. First, the proposed subway must be added to the MTA's long-range plan — an essential element for federal funding — and given a high priority.

Even with the MTA board's endorsement, the proposed Red Line subway extension faces stiff competition for construction money.

It will have to vie with plans to extend the Expo Line from Culver City to Santa Monica, the Gold Line through the San Gabriel Valley to the Ontario International Airport and the Green Line from El Segundo to Los Angeles International Airport.

Meanwhile, the agency's planners are dusting off old studies, dating to 1994. Planning alone could take up to two years to complete. The MTA board recently authorized a mere $100,000 to hire a full-time planner to oversee the project.

That's all the money currently dedicated to building the subway to the sea. Efforts by Waxman to overturn a federal ban on subway funding along Wilshire are stalled in the U.S. Senate.

Waxman introduced the measure after experts concluded last year that a subway could be built without risk of another methane explosion like the one that ripped through a Fairfax-area clothing store in 1985. Although no one was killed, concerns about the blast helped lead to the stopping of subway construction.

There is another funding complication. In 1998, Los Angeles County voters, in a move led by Yaroslavsky, barred the use of transportation sales tax revenue for tunneling.

No one is suggesting that ban be lifted. Instead, transit officials, including Yaroslavsky, believe local money may be used for non-tunneling parts of the subway project.

Subway advocates are optimistic, especially with passage earlier this month of a $20-billion state infrastructure bond issue.

But critics, such as the Bus Riders Union, argue that bond money should be used to improve bus service.

To make it all happen, MTA officials, who rarely proceed without local support for regional transit projects, welcome the city of Beverly Hills' early efforts to rally support.

"The seriousness and detail of their work shows their commitment for our common vision for improving transit service," Villaraigosa, an MTA board member, said in a statement last week.

Alexander, a longtime subway advocate, believes mass transit is essential to conveniently ferrying many thousands of workers and visitors in and out of the city daily.

"It will allow people to come to work in the city, shop in the city, visit the city without bringing more cars to the city," he said.
The population of Beverly Hills, with just 35,000 residents, swells weekdays to 250,000. Nearly 28,000 people a day board buses along Wilshire Boulevard within the city's limits.

"I'm hoping that by our taking the initiative in this regard that Century City, Mid-Wilshire, Westwood and even Santa Monica will begin focusing on this," Alexander said.

Beverly Hills officials may still have to persuade some residents. At a recent public meeting, one resident fretted that subway stops create potential terrorist targets. Another expressed concern about transit-related crime.

Overall, however, the tide seems to have turned.

"Anything that we can do to get cars off of our streets will be a plus for the quality of the life for the residents as well as assist the businesses," resident Joe Safier said at a meeting this month.

The business community also is on board.

"Gridlock is such a problem on the Westside that it must be relieved, and we must be part of the equation," Dan Walsh, chief executive of the Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce, said Friday.

Chamber members suspect the traffic congestion they encounter daily could someday discourage visitors from shopping, eating and doing other business in their city. It already does.

It also could make it difficult to attract workers.

I believe we will see the subway to the sea in our lifetime. I also believe that it will spearhead or lead to the comprehensive building of a rail system in the county. The piece by piece assembling of rail lines by the MTA seems to have been the best effort taking into account car culture, opposition and lack of funds. The few rail lines that have been constructed and that are now running has created an unannounced momentum in the city towards a more transit friendly LA. The fact that the Purple Line extension must now fight with other lines and extensions for money tells me that a major rail construction program is underway whether anyone is aware of it or not.
"We have to make it a piece of cake to get here," Walsh said.

[godblessbotox]

cool cool. i thought they took back the law about tunneling though

[Reluctantpopstar]

Originally Posted by godblessbotox

cool cool. i thought they took back the law about tunneling though

I was under the same impression. Apparently what happened was that it passed through the House of Representatives. That was a few months ago. But, it did not yet pass the Senate. It most likely will come through within the next few months, especially with the new Senate coming in.

[Reluctantpopstar]

Originally Posted by Octoman

Thats the plan, thanks will do

I wonder if trying to move LA towards a denser public transport based model is necessary. I think one of the LA forumers said a while ago that the city structure is one that works, its just different. Clearly living there you would have different view but from an impartial viewpoint I like the thought that a first rate city exists that offers an alternative model for living. Lets face it, if you want to live in an ultra dense public transport orientated city there are plenty out there. Perhaps as more green fuels become available and more sofisticated car guidance systems are developed etc. a city based around personal transportation will once again be viewed as workable.

Just a thought Im sure these days it could get you strung up suggesting such a thing!

Los Angeles is only so spread out BECAUSE of public transport. Let me explain.

Los Angeles used to have streetcars (or trams as you say) out the nose...going everywhere. The Pacific Electric Railway alone had 1000 miles of track and ran 600 cars a day. One of the main reasons these systems were even built was to provide access to outlying empty lands where new developments, towns and cities were being constructed. Almost nobody owned private autos at this time (1900-1915 or so). Unfortunately, around this same time, automobiles were becoming more and more popular. People liked autos better, leading to the eventual dismantling of all these trams and the construction of our freeway network, starting around the early 1950's.

Now, in 2006, we are all built out. There are no more places to build new towns (unless you go 100 miles out, which, actually, some people don't mind doing). There aren't even any more places for new freeways. We can't expand the freeways or widen them. Therefore, public transport is becoming more and more popular, since it is the only way we can move more people around the megalopolis, and add capacity. The only difference now is that mass transit (rail) is largely publicly owned; before 1970 it was all private companies. Because it is publicly owned, it takes much longer to build a system and put it in place. But, slowly, we are adding more rail lines as the money is available. And there are more and more people, even in Los Angeles, that like mass transit and are willing to use it, as long as it goes where they need to go. That means building more lines. Again, a slow process, but were are making progress.

[godblessbotox]

underground freeways!!!

make that beverly hills freeway just yet!!

[Elsongs]

Originally Posted by klamedia

At community meetings, city leaders have confronted residents' fears of subway crime and potential terrorism. They warn naysayers that, without a subway, traffic on the Westside will only get worse.

Anytime someone brings this shit up, make sure to point out:

1) A subway doesn't make your community any more accessible than it already is by automobile. Actually, criminals would rather drive. I mean, a drive-by shooting just isn't as fun on a subway train, a subway chase won't get as much ratings as a good old freeway chase and stealing someone's plasma-screen TV is more easier transporting it in an automobile than carrying it on the train.

I once had an argument with a paranoid Valley resident back in the early 90s about the prospect of the subway entering the Valley and told her the same thing. She said,"Well they can't afford cars..." and I said, "They can steal em..." As we all know, the criminals have taken over North Hollywood, it has become the murder capital of America and one can't walk a yard there without getting shot at.

2) Ditto for terrorism. A ter'rist suicide bomber can just drive up to Rodeo Drive today and KABOOM. He doesn't have to wait for a subway to be built to get him there.

Besides, by the time the Purple Line gets finished, either terrorism won't be as bad as it is now, or we'll all be dead already.

[godblessbotox]

there just trying to say they dont want there tax money going to a subway with out having to actually say it.

its a good idea and everyone knows it

[future_trance011]

Good to hear NIMBYs on the Westside are finally turning around and beginning to see the "light"....

The quality of life issue caused by traffic gridlock on the Westside is a reality that is not going away anytime soon and is only gonna get much worse..heck its becoming more of a matter of survival now! This would be like a tremendous B12 injection in the arm of once popular, but now flagging tourist destinations ( ie. Rodeo Dr., Westwood) which has incrementally seen a decline in pedestrian activity since the early 90's. With more Westside residents and businesses supportng the Purple Line , we can hopefully expedite the process and have this thing built in time for LA to host the 2016 Olympics (Given that LA will be selected as the host city of course)... Wishful thinking? Hmm, it doesn't sound so farfetched after all...

This "Subway To The Sea" can truly become the catalyst we need, that'll put the city over the hump by altering Angelenos' reluctance for taking public transportation and thus spur momentum in building a bigger, more efficient transportation system that would someday rival the world's biggest. The ramifications of it being built would be huge in a very positive way, that no marketing campaign by the MTA could refuse. For a long time the general perception in LA was that public transportation was only for the working poor..this of course will no longer be the rule of thumb when Angelenos actually see rail transit traversing the wealthy Westside; It'll become hip to ride public transportation again.

In retrospect, the Red line was probably the catalyst that started it all, in altering people's perceptions, but the Purple Line will only help cement the positive attributes of taking public transit even further into Angelenos' consciousness...

[future_trance011]

Originally Posted by Vangelist

that place rhymes with "vagina," right? i had a long debate about this saturday

I believe its FAMIMA!!! which rhymes more with Aunt Jemima...if only they had pancakes The panini sandwiches and steamed buns ain't too shabby for a convenience store though.

[future_trance011]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

and that would include me. i parked at Universal, took the subway to 7th with a bunch of fans as well, had dinner at Roys, then went to the game. On the way back, there were plenty of Laker fans on the subway, and a few cars were standing room only at 11:00.

I parked my car at a friend's house in Hollywood last saturday and we walked to the subway at the Hollywood/Highland station... on our way we witnessed a group of maybe 2 dozen Notre Dame Irish fans (probably staying at the Renaissance hotel at the H/H center maybe?) taking the the subway with us to the station at 7th and than boarding a shuttle to the Colisseum..funny how we felt outnumbered by Notre Dame fans on the Subway until we got to the Colisseum..

[klamedia]

Originally Posted by godblessbotox

cool cool. i thought they took back the law about tunneling though

Well, their are actually two laws that haven't been overturned just yet. Their was Zev's law that forbids local money being used for any tunneling for any subway in LA county. Then their's the Waxman law that came about after the Ross Dress For Less exploded in fear that methane gas again would explode construction of a subway that was to be built back in the 80's. Bottom line, it was a concerted and well thought out plan to make sure that this subway would never be built because Waxman's constituents in HanCOCK Park and Zev's constituents in the Valley would not have to deal with anyone darker or poorer than them coming into their neighborhoods of course stealing their tv's or dating their daughters. Just to think that we could have been WELL on our way to building a system comparable or that even rivaled New York's great system is both saddening and uncontainably frustrating.