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October 21, 2009
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Our View: Metro should heed advice
It's not often that Southern California's congressional delegation comes together on an issue in a truly bipartisan way.
But a letter sent Tuesday to the Metro board urging that the Gold Line Foothill Extension and two other projects be added to its long-range transportation plan was signed by everyone from Republican Reps. David Dreier and Gary Miller to Democratic Reps. Grace Napolitano and Maxine Waters.
Fourteen Congress members in all signed the letter, led by Dreier, Napolitano, Adam Schiff (who authored legislation when serving in Sacramento that created the existing Gold Line)and Judy Chu.
When this many Congress members speak - from Jerry Lewis and Mary Bono Mack on the right in the Inland Empire to Diane Watson and Jane Harman on the left and in Los Angeles - it would behoove Metro, also known as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to listen.
The members asked the Metro board to put the Foothill Extension, the Gold Line Eastside Extension Phase II (through South El Monte and Whittier) and the Crenshaw/South Bay Transit Corridor to LAX on its New Starts funding priority list when the board meets today in L.A.
The L.A.-centric Metro board, led by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, has favored the Westside subway-to-the-sea project over the two Gold Line extensions.
"In order to maximize federal funding we strongly urge you to broaden the County's federal strategy," the Congress members wrote. They pointed out that the subway and another heavy-rail project favored by Metro were unlikely to gain funding from the federal New Starts process in as little as three years, which would be possible for the shovel-ready Gold Line light-rail projects.
"If the board does not include these projects, we leave hundreds of millions of federal dollars on the table that will be directed elsewhere in the country," said Schiff, adding that Metro cannot afford to miss the chance to bring dollars and jobs to the region.
Dreier emphasized the broad, bipartisan group of Congress members wanting to prioritize the entire region's needs and to "help secure the federal resources needed to create jobs and invest in an infrastructure that works for all Southern Californians."
Of particular interest to San Gabriel Valley as well as Inland Empire residents, the letter stated in part: "The Gold Line Foothill Extension project, Azusa to Montclair, is developed enough to be ready for Federal New Starts funds in the years before the Westside Subway Extension and the Regional Connector Transit Corridor."
The letter ends by emphasizing the imperative to have a strategy that brings as much federal funding as possible to complement the $30 billion in Measure R sales taxes that Metro will spend over the next 30 years.
"We would like to work together as a team as we pursue New Starts funding for Southern California's priorities on the federal level," ends the letter, also signed by Reps. Joe Baca, Ken Calvert, Lucille Roybal-Allard and Linda Sanchez.
That's a heck of an offer of assistance from some very powerful people who seldom agree on anything. If the Metro board members turn it down, they're nuts.