Can’t wait for the Subway to the Sea? Dream a little of the subway-to-be by attending the last meeting for this round of Westside Subway Extension community meetings. This set of meetings discusses specific stations planned around the meeting areas — so the format of the meetings is a little different, and each meeting discusses different stations.
I attended the Santa Monica meeting a couple weeks ago, where about 80 people gathered to discuss the 4 stations furthest west. After a couple powerpoint presentations talking about the progress on the subway so far, the neverending lack of funding issues, and the different types of stations being considered for each location, we broke up into station-specific groups, with each person getting to choose to join a group discussing the station she’s most interested in finding out more about or weighing in on.
I’d describe the mood at the meeting as antsy, because pretty much everyone there wanted the subway built yesterday — yet we still don’t know where we’re going to get funding for this western end of the subway, since Measure R money doesn’t even stretch that far west. Add to that the fact that with current funding, the Subway to the Sea wouldn’t get to Westwood until 2036, and the situation almost sounds hopeless for Santa Monicans.
That said, Metro’s Jody Litvak reminded people that just a year ago, there was no money at all. Now with Measure R funding — and with the Metro Board passing its Long Range Transportation Plan, which prioritizes the Subway to the Sea — we at least have some money.
Plus, Villaraigosa’s revealed his 30/10 plan — to complete in 10 years the transit projects currently expected to be done in 30 years. If the mayor walks his talk, I may be able to take a 35-minute subway trip from Santa Monica to downtown LA before I retire!
Tonight’s meeting — which happens from 6 pm – 8 pm at the Veterans Administration, Wadsworth Theatre, 11301 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles — will discuss Century City, Westwood/UCLA, and VA Hospital stations. Missed the meeting near you? Metro said powerpoints from the meetings are expected to go up on the Westside Extension site this week.
What happens after that? A recommended locally preferred alternative — that would be the draft plan for the subway, with all station locations and formats set — will hopefully be annouced in summer 2010. You can see what the two options are above — though clearly, a few station locations have yet to be set. A final plan will hopefully be adopted by the Metro board in fall 2010. Stay involved to make the subway a reality!
Images via Metro; photo by Siel
Why even bother inlining the tiny, little map of build alternatives if you’re not going make it clickable to one we can actually see?
Comment by Sven — November 6, 2009 @ 12:49 am
I thought about including biggified images, but since the alternatives haven’t changed since the Aug. 2009 meetings, I didn’t think people would be interested. If they were, I thought they’d just head over to the Westside Extension pg, which I did link to, versus leaving a nasty comment on the post.
You can check out the maps here on the Aug. 2009 presentation (PDF, pgs 13 & 14).
Comment by Siel — November 6, 2009 @ 4:41 pm