For almost 3 years NFSR has
been working in the Expo corridor, collaborating with groups in South
and West Los Angeles, to fight the Expo Authority's intention of running
the majority of the Expo Line at-grade (street level) through
residential neighborhoods, adjacent to schools and parks, with little or
no regard to the safety, traffic or community environmental impacts
such as noise, vibration and visual blight.
Here is what we believe:
1. Running
240 trains a day at street level (at-grade) through residential
communities within 50 feet of schools and homes, blocking access to
parks and businesses, and grid-locking north/south streets is
unacceptable. Specific to our area is the traffic wall created
when Expo trains close Overland, Westwood, and Sepulveda for 40-82
seconds every 2 ½ minutes, blocking Century City, Fox Studio, Beverly
Hills and Westwood from access to the 10 FWY and the 405 FWY; safety
risks to students at Overland; permanent loss of privacy for many homes;
constant vibration and noise from at-grade rail blaring horns as they
cross Overland, Westwood, Military and Sepulveda, all within ¾ of a
mile! Underground crossings will eliminate almost all environmental
impacts.
2. Stations and parking lots have the highest crime rates in transit environments—our
community will have 2 stations with parking lots, at Westwood and
Sepulveda, less than ½ mile apart, operating 22 hours a day. The number
of buses on Westwood Boulevard will double, further impacting area
traffic. Parking will be removed on Overland, Westwood and Sepulveda.
Westwood will lose many of the scenic liquid amber trees lining the
boulevard.
3. Expo Phase 2 misses all major Westside job centers from Culver City to Santa Monica and in WLA as it travels through mostly residential neighborhoods.
The Expo Light Rail will benefit Santa Monica development and it will
be a developer's feast on the already congested Westside. A prime
example is the massive Casden project which, by sharing MTA/Expo
property, parking and station area at Sepulveda and Exposition,
qualifies for a density bonus allowing additional apartments adding even
more to the project's predicted 11,000 car trips daily. The City
Planning Department is already planning R-1 zoning changes to our WLA
Community Plan to accommodate "workforce housing" along the Expo line
(i.e., Ayres, Overland and Sepulveda).
4. The Metro Grade Separation Policy is a fraud. It is predisposed to putting all rail crossings at grade.
It is not sanctioned by the FTA and is based on research designed and
paid for by Korve Engineering who did the engineering on Expo Phase 1.
Korve was subsequently bought by DMJM/Harris who are the current Expo
engineers. MTA's policy looks at traffic volume per lane and train
frequency first. If the traffic count is low
enough the train crossing goes at grade regardless of proximity to
schools, homes, hospitals or parks. Any safety considerations are simply refinements to an already at-grade crossing.
Under the MTA crossing policy a single lane crossing in one direction
will be evaluated the same as a crossing with 12 lanes in six
directions. Note: if you add extra lanes right at the crossings like
they are doing at Overland, Westwood and Sepulveda, the traffic volume
(of course) goes down resulting in an MTA rationale for an at-grade
decision. By their policy, grade separations evidently occur only when
public agencies or politicians intervene. Putting extra traffic lanes
only near the Expo crossings will create bottlenecks at both ends when
the lanes then merge back before Pico (north) and National (south). An
underground alignment does not impact our north/south streets.
5. Lack of political representation
has undermined the legitimate community safety, traffic, and quality of
life concerns on Expo. Continuing to write and FAX letters and
sending e-mails is very important so our elected officials can't say
they didn't hear from the community.
6. The fully underground "subway to the sea" is a better option.
It will connect downtown and the valley with the Wilshire Corridor,
Korea Town, Museum Row, Hancock Park, Beverly Hills, Century City,
Westwood, UCLA, the Veteran Administration, Santa Monica and hundreds of
thousand people and jobs in between. If there is no money to build Expo right, pull the plug on Phase 2.
Use the money to grade-separate critical crossings on Phase 1 and the
rest to support the Purple Line to the sea, a true regional transit
project. It has 100% community support throughout and it will make Expo
redundant the day it opens. Why should Expo and the Subway, the
region's only rail lines, travel mere blocks apart in Santa Monica and
end up at the same place? The subway could be completed years earlier
with Expo money.
