In an age where Americans are said to be getting lonelier and more disengaged, it was really, really fascinating to see so many people come together for public transportation at the Friends 4 Expo Transit general meeting yesterday.
Around 40-50 people showed up, taking a couple hours out of their weeknight, just to find out and support one light rail line-to-be.
Overall, the meeting was more informative than activist-oriented. First, Jody, the Metro Community Relations Manager, talked about the upcoming initiatives regarding transportation, to be voted on in November.
These are Prop 1A, which’ll close a loophole in Prop 42, thus making it harder for the state to borrow transportation money; 1B, which allocates just under $2 billion for transportation-related projects in California, and 1C, which is primarily a housing related bond but has some information about transit development. I’ll have to look more into those things before voting time.
The 2nd speaker was Roland, a member of the Expo line’s design-build team. He gave a nice powerpoint presentation of what the first portion of the Expo line would look like. Apparently, some of the beginning work — like moving utilities out of the way — begins in just a couple months!
At this point, the fire alarm went off, my allergies started kicking in (The Hamilton High library’s dusty!) and I was running late for dinner plans so I took off, missing a presentation and Q and A by Darrell Clarke, co-chair of the Friends 4 Expo Transit.
I’m still a bit confused about what Friends 4 Expo Transit is, exactly. I mean, the website says it’s “an all-volunteer group of citizens joined together to support an alternative to L.A.’s world-record traffic.”
But I’m not sure what its relationship to the MTA is, or its relationship to other neighborhood organizations — or how the org formed to begin with, and what exactly its members are doing to push this project forward, beyond showing up to say yea.
Which is why I really wish I’d stuck around a lil longer to ask questions. But I’m intrigued! And I’m def. planning to attend the next meeting, the deets for which’ll hopefully be emailed to me sometime soon. If you too wanna be added to the Friends 4 Expo Transit email list, email mail@friends4expo.org.
Update, 9/27/06: The groundbreaking ceremony for the Expo’s in just 2 days!
July 1st, 2006 at 8:49 pm
I’m pretty sure Friends is a private group that was pressing for the project when it was solely on the drawing board . . . I ran into them at the dedication of the Gold Line, and tried to hook them up with LA Walks, the local ped advocates . . . Even if private, Friends has worked with MTA so closely on political support, funding, routing, outreach, etc. that the lines can get blurred, I admit . . .
July 1st, 2006 at 11:58 pm
I think the main thing I’m impressed with is how organized they are — I mean, they had maps, agendas, powerpoint presentations, efficient moderators, etc… I’m mainly wondering how they got to be such an efficient and powerful force for public transport –