epian ways december 2000

8/9/2019 EPIAn Ways December 2000

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Speaker Emeritus of the Assembly, AntonioVillaraigosa, called a meeting recently at theconference room at the Cal Fed Building -- onSunset. The purpose was to have Cal Transreveal their plans for a new connector betweenthe I-5 and North Alameda. The new connectionwould be just east of Elysian Park and join NorthAlameda at the "cornfields" by Chinatown. Ourown Glendale Corridor Committee (now EchoPark Community Action Comm.) had pushed for

this for years. It had been known as the ReubenLovret Plan, among other things. The hoped-forbenefit would be to draw traffic directlyinto downtown and away fromGlendale Blvd. and Stadium Way.

Speaker Villaraigosa requested CalTrans to develop some plans for thisabout a year ago. The actual work wascarried by Jim Bickhart of the Speaker'sstaff. Jim has been a long-time friend whohas done good things for Echo Park.We are grateful to Jim and to Antoniofor their sincere efforts.

However, Cal Trans dropped the ball. Theydrew up some options that are workable. Theone that I liked best was option 2-D, whichwould provide full access to I-5 going northand south from North Alameda. But CalTrans has chosen an option that involves merelyputting up signs on surface streets. This wouldkeep the commuter traffic on our local surfacestreets without actually building new freewaystructures. They claimed that Option 2-D, my

choice, would cost $235 million, or so. Theirp r e f e r e n c ewould only costp e a n u t s .Obviously thiswas a very bigdisappointment

to all the community members present.Everywhere else in the Cal Trans world is higherpriority than Echo Park.

Most outrageous was their attempt to justifytheir bad judgment. All my previous experiencewith traffic engineers, LADOT & MTA, shouldhave prepared me to expect the worst. Theirjustifications deal only with internal bureaucraticcalculations that are purposely meaningless toreal people. Cal Trans just doesn't want to do

this project, so they came up with uselessgobble-de-gook.

Reasonable people cannot have a genuinemeeting of minds with them. Criteria that

relate to social usefulness and theirpublic service to us, the public, are

beyond their understanding. Trafficengineers seem like an alien species.

When we get Neighborhood Councils, Iwill propose that the planning

function be separated out from theengineering function. Planning must only bedone by competent people who understandhuman beings and our "quality of life" needs.Our best hopes now are with AntonioVillaraigosa. He spent considerable time andeffort in the last part of the meeting trying tosave the situation for us. He asked us to

continue meeting and work toward a genuinesolution. Antonio and Jim Bickhart are our mainallies in this. Of course, Antonio is running forMayor and this gives him a clear issue for hiscampaign. If elected, he would have the power

on the MTA Board that Riordan now has. Staytuned. It's not over yet.

Viva Antonio and Jim!

J EB ’ S V IEW

Opinions expressed in this newsletter are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Echo Park Improvement Association

Opinion by Jeb Brighouse

CAL TRANS STRIKES AGAIN!

epian ways december 2000

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