>> Get ready for the next round of community meetings for the Subway to the Sea, a.k.a. Westside Subway Extension! I plan to attend the Santa Monica meeting. You?

>> Mon., April 12 from 6 pm – 8 pm at LACMA West – Terrace Room, 5th Fl., 5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles.

>> Thurs., April 15 from 6 pm – 8 pm at Plummer Park, 7377 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood.

>> Mon., April 19 from 6 pm – 8 pm at Beverly Hills Public Library – Auditorium, 444 N. Rexford Dr., Beverly Hills.

>> Tues, April 20 from 6 pm – 8 pm at Santa Monica Public Library – Multi-Purpose Room, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica.

>> Wed., April 21 from 6 pm – 8 pm at Westwood Hills Christian Church, 10808 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles.

At the last round of meetings, we got to see the types and sizes of the stations planned for our neighborhoods before breaking into groups to provide station-specific feedback. It’s unclear how much new news there’ll be this time around. Metro’s basically required to provide the public quarterly updates regardless of how much new stuff’s actually happened, and the agency’s description of this next round of meetings is very vague: “Metro has further refined station details and continued to analyze the performance of the alternatives as part of our ongoing work on the Draft EIS/EIR for the subway.may or may not have a Crenshaw stop.”

One bit of news that might come up is the ongoing, unsettled debate over whether or not to have a Crenshaw stop. Here’s the Metro presentation given at that eventful meeting (PDF).

In other green transit news:

>> LA Department of Transportation got a blog: LADOT Bike Blog, “a labor of love by an intern working with both the public relation’s office and LADOT Bikeways,” as described by Damien Newton at Streetsblog LA. Unfortunately, because the bike community in L.A.’s already incensed at LADOT for its general incompetence and failure to engage with the public it serves, the LADOT Bike Blog launch has been met with more anger and skepticism than with cautious optimism, let alone delight that LADOT might actually be interested in conversing with cyclists. Zach at LAist sounds the most optimistic, calling the blog a “positive step.”

My feelings are mixed: I feel bad for the courageous urban policy student-intern getting a crash course on all of  LADOT’s mistakes, vaguely encouraged that LADOT’s made this teensy step towards engagement (gotta start somewhere), and then derisive of my own feelings of hope….

>> The Gold Line will get its Foothill Extension, building out from the line’s current last stop in Pasadena to stretch all the way to Azusa. The Metro Board of Directors approved the funding plan, which will allow the project to break ground this summer and hopefully complete the extension in 2014.

>> Amtrak engineers will operate Metrolink’s seven commuter lines starting June 26. Remember that Metrolink crash in 2008? That’s why Amtrak’s taking over.

>> Burbank’s Verdugo Ave. got a nice bike lane in lieu of a car lane.

>> Last but not least: Don’t forget about the first ever L.A. Streetsblog fundraiser, happening Friday, April 9 from 6 pm – 9 pm at the L.A. Eco-Village, 117 Bimini Place, Los Angeles. $25 gets you into the party with food, drinks, raffles and meetings with local transit microcelebs like Joe Linton and Damien Newton.

Image via Metro

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