On Thursday, The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board will decide whether to build a light rail station at Leimert Park Village, the cultural heart of the Los Angeles African American community. The board will also decide if the future Crenshaw/LAX light rail line will be moved below ground for a mile-long stretch of Crenshaw Boulevard, from 48th to 59th streets, where the current plan is for a street-level train.
In recent weeks, as the debate about this decision has spread from the neighborhoods along the Crenshaw Corridor to the broader Los Angeles County community, I hear a consistent refrain: of course there should be a station in Leimert Park Village, and undergrounding the train through Park Mesa Heights makes sense, but how would Metro pay for those upgrades? A Leimert Park Village station would cost an estimated $131 million; the Park Mesa Heights tunnel would be an additional $269 million.
Among the elected officials who comprise the Metro Board, there has also been some rumbling that these enhancements to the Crenshaw/LAX rail line would take money for other future transit projects, like extending the existing Wilshire Boulevard subway to Santa Monica.
Read More...
No comments:
Post a Comment