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Hmmmmmmmm.
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Very excited about the potential expansions. Not so much about the song accompanying that video, though.
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I had to mute it. That was...a terrible choice. |
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/9867/picture6rb.png
Great map except for one thing- the placement of the Purple Line extension. On this map, the Purple Line is seen running down San Vicente, not Wilshire. While I would be extremely happy with this alignment (as I live off San Vicente), this is not the correct alignment. It's a strange mistake to make, as the Purple Line is so well known for running down Wilshire, but I digress. |
News that will surely warm pesto's heart... the Crenshaw Line held its ceremonial groundbreaking last month. The project is definitely moving forward. :tup:
While I don't expect much in the way of ridership, the significance of this project is that it serves as the precursor to a future northern extension in which it would servce Mid-City, Beverly Hills, and West Hollywood. Tell me that's not important. |
Wow! What a beautiful song! I like it lots.
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There was only the anouncement of pre-construction of the Crenshaw Line with utility relocation. But NO OFFICIAL GROUNDBREAKING. Until you see the announcement from the Source, which it will be a big deal, then its groundbreaking. Right now, it's pre-construction utility relocation for $8.8M, not a big amount in a $1.7B project. Things can stop easily, just as they started. Plus, the EIR lawsuit by the Crenshaw Subway Coalition hasn't even had its first trial. I only see active construction notices for the Foothill Gold Line extension and Expo Line to Santa Monica. There is no other significant construction happening other than potholing in downtown LA with the connector and utility relocation in Crenshaw. |
Just a heads up that Metro is finally converting to the TAP Card system as I rudely found out yesterday at Hollywood and Western.
'NO MORE CASH!! TAP CARDS ONLY!!!' Says the evil 70 year old Tap Card lady. |
Delete.
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On a separate issue, there needs to be a serious transit hub on the westside. The whole LAX to the Valley and SaMo to BH corridors will be getting more and more traffic. Something intermodal at the VA or thereabouts would streamline interchanges (rail, bus, car, shuttle, etc.). |
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There will be a westside hub.....it's going to be the Sepulveda Expo Line station. That's the plan. |
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Crenshaw doesn't connect anything. It starts at the least dense area of Wilshire, wanders for 8 miles through low-density sfh's (I have driven the route and there are exactly 2 buildings over 3 stories and only about 5 over 2 stories on the entire route to the LAX area; growth in this area is zero); it then heads toward low density, half deserted industrial, where it would be a long walk across empty parking lots to wherever you're going in any event. It misses LAX, which would require another change of modality. It also stops repeatedly. If the indicia for successful transit are density, connecting destinations and speed, then Crenshaw is a zero. Moreover, Vermont would have made more sense, as would Purple, 405 and others. Even the defenders admit it was a political decision to build it, not one based on need. Bus service is more than adequate for the Crenshaw route (Crenshaw itself is wide and moves freely even at rush hours; it is not busy, since, as I said, it doesn't connect anything). |
From LA Downtown News:
I actually don't mind this. I guess this means that route is Bway-->11th-->Fig-->7th-->Hill-->1st? It still manages to pass by the historic theaters and area that has the most potential for improvement, our 1 quality supermarket, FIDM, LA Live, DTLA's best restaurant corridor, Pershing Square, Angel's Flight, and Grand Central Market. Moreover, it passes by almost all of the DTLA metro stops, comes within 2 short blocks of WDCH/Music Center, and a block from Grand Park.
With the notable exception of El Pueblo, I'd say the reduced route still manages to hit basically everything. Removing the Grand section isn't really that big of a deal considering the route still passes Angel's Flight, allowing passengers easy access to California Plaza/MOCA/Bunker Hill. Just want to see this thing get built. Streetcar Route Reduced Funding Concerns Wipe Out Streetcar’s Proposed Bunker Hill Leg If a special tax is approved by voters later this year, the streetcar would open with a route that omits previously approved sections of Bunker Hill. Posted: Friday, July 27, 2012 3:53 pm | Updated: 4:18 pm, Fri Jul 27, 2012. by Richard Guzmán DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - If all goes as planned, when the Los Angeles Streetcar opens in a couple of years, riders will be able to catch it for a ride to several Downtown landmarks. Walt Disney Concert Hall, MOCA and the future Broad museum will not be among them. The final route approved by the City Council in January and later by Metro included a segment on First Street to Grand Avenue, the cultural corridor that is also home to the Colburn School. That segment, however, has been eliminated from the first phase of the project due to funding concerns. The route approved in January called for the streetcar to travel north on Hill Street, turn west on First Street, then south onto Grand Avenue near Disney Hall. The re-tooled route envisions the cars instead turning east onto First Street, and turning back south on Broadway. “What we are proposing to fund is the reduction where essentially the line at Hill and First heads east, so we’re not proposing to build any of the section going west to Grand Avenue and then south on Grand Avenue,” said Shiraz Tangri, general counsel for Los Angeles Streetcar Inc., the nonprofit overseeing the $125 million effort. On July 31, the City Council is scheduled to vote to finalize the formation of a special tax district that was originally approved by the city in late June. This week’s vote would green-light a special election for a public vote on the tax. If approved by registered voters who live within the proposed district, the tax, known as Community Facilities District 9, would charge property owners within about three blocks of the route between 20-59 cents per square foot annually in order to raise $62 million for the project. Property owners who do not live within the proposed district would not be able to vote on the matter. The rest of the project cost is expected to be funded by the federal government, along with $10 million already secured from the now-defunct Community Redevelopment Agency. While property owners including condo owners would have to help pay for the streetcar, public property could not be taxed if the CFD is approved. Most of the parcels along the segment of the route that has been eliminated — First Street between Hill Street and Grand Avenue, and Grand Avenue between First and Second streets — are publicly owned. “It’s a lot of public property that doesn’t contribute to the district…so you would be shifting that burden to others,” Tangri said. “I think ultimately the goal is to get the streetcar built. We had to balance the interest of the private property owners contributing to this with what can feasibly be built.” Metro, which is currently conducting the environmental review for the streetcar, will still study the entire route to preserve the opportunity to re-insert the eliminated portion in a future phase. Engineering complications with the Grand Avenue leg also contributed to the decision to shrink the line, said 14th District Councilman José Huizar, the chief proponent of the streetcar project. “In the long run, we hope to be able to serve Grand Avenue and many other parts of the city with streetcar lines,” Huizar said in an email. “Currently on Grand, there are grade and bridge infrastructure issues that need to be resolved, and the timelines and funding mechanisms just don’t allow for that in this phase of the project.” While property owners are divided on the streetcar, supporters of the effort acknowledge the practical reasons to shrink the route. “That part of the route was just economically not feasible,” said Steve Needleman, a LASI board member whose properties include the Orpheum Theater and the numerous Anjac Fashion Buildings (See Needleman's letter to the editor regarding the streetcar here. “We have to start somewhere with the route that’s the most feasible, the most practical.” Others are disappointed with the reduction, but say they understand the reasons behind the decision. “It would have been nice to have it go all the way down there,” said Ramin Shagian, who owns a couple of properties along Broadway, the route’s main southbound line. “It’s a popular destination and it would have brought a lot of tourist to our area. However, since they can’t tax public property we as the property owners would have ended up paying more.” Though it may be a long shot, Tangri said there is still some hope the streetcar could open with the fully approved route. |
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2nd - Eventually, the LAX connector ($500M from Measure R) will be connected to Century Station most likely through a People Mover, thus even more ridership 3rd - Also stops repeatedly? The Crenshaw Line is only mixing with traffic between 48th through 60th streets in South LA. This line is over 50% grade seperated and outside of the 48th through 60th street, there's nowhere else the train would potentially stop for cars. So why "stop repeatedly"? That sounds to be an empty statement. The Expo Line stops repeatedly on Flower street, but outside of 48th through 60th in South LA, there is no other possbility for repeated stops. 4th - Destinations? Leimart Park, Slauson Blvd and Inglewood downtown are destinations for riders. 5th - Connectivity. Imagine people from the South Bay can now take a train towards LA's Westside without having to go east towards Blue Line or Silver Line through downtown LA. The Crenshaw Line will save people in the South Bay significant time commuting between Santa Monica/Mid City/Culver City/USC and home. That's more important than an airport connection. |
I see Crenshaw Line as phase 1 of a north/south line that goes from LAX all the way to Hollywood. Because of this, I am not worried about ridership, as I know that eventually this line will become one of the most important lines in the system.
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Source:http://www.metro.net/projects_studie...-%20Report.pdf |
From Curbed:
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2012/0...its_pylons.php Quote:
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Los Angeles gets innovative on jobs (Washington Post)
In addition to the investment in transit, the LAX modernization is a $4B infusion into the Southern California economy and the Port of LA/Long Beach expansion is another $6B. This is already creating good jobs, as well as improving mobility.
Los Angeles gets innovative on jobs By Harold Meyerson August 2, 2012 Washington Post "Anyone who lives in Los Angeles can tell you in gruesome detail what it’s like to sit in traffic. Though crisscrossed by a maze of freeways, L.A. annually leads the nation in time spent idling. And while the city’s air pollution has visibly diminished over the years, smog, like traffic, remains an axiom and a curse of L.A. life. It was for these reasons that Los Angeles County voters approved a ballot measure in 2008, levying a half-cent sales-tax increase upon themselves for the next 30 years, thereby raising $40 billion devoted chiefly to the construction of 10 commuter rail lines across the county. Measure R required support from two-thirds of voters to pass, and backing from business, labor, environmentalists and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa helped push it over the top. Around this same time, the Southern California economy was cratering. The working-class exurbs of Los Angeles had been the epicenter of America’s housing bubble, and they quickly became the epicenter of America’s housing bust. (That’s the main reason the city of San Bernardino recently declared bankruptcy; it ranks among the top five U.S. cities in foreclosures.).." http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...y.html?hpid=z3 |
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