On October 22, 2008 at the Los Angeles City Council meeting, the following statement was delivered by the coordinator of the Fix Expo Campaign, regarding the declaration of war on our community by MTA and our Council Members:
In a matter of hours the CPUC judge will render the draft decision regarding the proposed Expo Line crossings near Dorsey and Foshay, which will either be adopted or amended by the full CPUC commission in November.
It is disappointing that the community and children whose lives hang in the balance have to rely on a decision from a regulatory agency susceptible to political pressures.
For two years, we have been bringing to the Expo Authority board, which Council Members Bernard Parks, Jan Perry, Herb Wesson all serve on, what others have been bringing to them for 20 years. We’ve presented the studies, testimonies, media reports, documents – including MTA’s own documents, showing that the street-level crossings will be unsafe and will worsen traffic. We’ve given them the census tract racial breakdown map and shown them how the hazards and adverse impacts of Expo Line Phase 1 are ALL in the directly adjacent poor and/or majority-minority communities and none in Culver City community next to the track, which is white and middle-to-upper income.
These documents are not of our creation – I, and the Fix Expo Campaign, are simply a conduit.
But Council Members, the South LA community has not just been abandoned – these politicians and the Expo Authority have declared war on the very community they were elected to serve and the neighborhood council system in general.
We did not fire the first shot in this war. We will never have the ammunition that they do. We’ve tried negotiating to no avail.
And so we will begin coming to this Council meeting more regularly to submit to you the documents and concerns they’ve ignored, in part, because we have no other option. Parks and Perry have refused to listen; they have refused to lead.
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