You said everything I have saying against the political parochialism against Measure R (which, one will note, comes loudest from Supervisors Antonovich, Molina, and Knabe, and from the elected officials in the San Gabriel Valley.

Hopefully the public will see that a comprehensive plan cannot distribute the funds based on population, without taking into account the density of that population, the percentage of transit-dependent in any given area, and the existing use of what services are available.

While I understand the misguided protest from the SGV, which thinks the extension of the Gold Line east of Pasadena should be the center of the plan, the reality is more along the lines of the Metro map you reproduced showing the benefited areas of a subway extension to the Westside. Pure and simple: There is no single project in the plan that serves as large a population, has as great a population density, and has the highest use of existing services, as the subway extension. The map (and your comments on it) clearly shows that the benefits go far beyond the Westside.

Only about a third of the benefits are identified as Westside-centric. The next largest area that would benefit is the SGV. The clueless politicos there might ask why, but the answer is clear to those of us out here in the real world. There are a lot of people who live in the SGV but work in downtown, BH, Century City, and the Westside. They already take Metrolink in large numbers, but the connecting link to the Westside is missing for them.

Measure R can make that connection happen. And, the SGV politicos are loath to admit, there is money for their project in there too.