We’ve also had individuals request a flyer for distribution in their community and home of worship this weekend. You can download one here: pdf of flyer

Additionally, you can forward this email.

Monday, Nov. 23, 2009
6:30 – 8:30 pm
3731 Stocker Street, LA, CA 90008
2nd Floor Conference Room (map)

Topics for Discussion & Action

1) Expo Line Update, Including a Status Update on the Dorsey HS Farmdale Crossing

Because of our successful efforts in the administrative courts, MTA still has not received approval from the CPUC to build anything at the Farmdale crossing that is next to Dorsey H.S. They’re stuck! There have been important developments. Come help us continue holding strong and bring about a solution that doesn’t compromise our children’s safety or community.

2) Organizing the Community for the Crenshaw Rail Line MTA Board Meeting Vote on Dec. 10

As we fight from the back-end of Expo to protect our children’s lives and quality of life, we must be on the front end of the Crenshaw Rail Line process that is currently on going. On December 10th, the full MTA board will vote on whether to include in their study an entire underground line on Crenshaw Blvd or one that passes at street level within a block of Crenshaw High School and right in front of View Park Prep.

They will also decide whether the planning and design of the line will include qualified African-American members of the Crenshaw community (more below).

We need to be there in large force to demand the same thing for Crenshaw (a subway) that the Mayor and Supervisor Yaroslavsky want for the affluent Wilshire corridor. Help us organize to turn-out our community.

Coverage of the Crenshaw Rail Line Issue in Local Papers

In The Wave, Betty Pleasant devoted space in her column, The Soulvine, to bring attention to the controversy regarding the MTA staff recommendation for the $10 million Preliminary Engineering and Planning contract:

“I join Damien Goodmon and his group of public transit activists in denouncing this MTA recommendation to award the preliminary engineering and designing contract for the largest public works project in South L.A.’s history to somebody in Orange County when a team that features highly experienced and eminently qualified Black business owners from the heart of the Crenshaw community, itself, already exists!”

The MTA Planning Committee met on Wednesday to discuss the staff recommendation and punted the contract award decision to the full MTA board (on Dec. 10) where Supervisor Ridley-Thomas and the other board members will have an opportunity to amend or reject the staff recommendation on the contract and design.

And the LA Watts Times opinion section covered our full statement on the staff recommendation, where we praise the good, and reject the bad: Statement on MTA’s Staff Recommendations for the Crenshaw Line

FixExpo.org is Getting a Facelift

We’re in the process of converting our website into a more user-friendly and dynamic web home for our organization. Please forgive us if the web address and images look out of place. We hope to be functional by Monday.

Last month the MTA Board approved an additional $54 million for an overpass in Culver City from the same source of money we’ve been requesting they use to build the Expo Line underground in our South LA community and next to our schools and churches. The $54 million is part of an influx of $222 million extra dollars for the Expo Line, with not a single dollar going for putting the Expo Line underground through South LA. This is simply the latest act proving that this is not an issue about MTA’s access to money, it’s about their failure to value South LA lives and communities.

The MTA is now spending more money for Expo Line Phase 1 in the ONE MILE west of La Cienega than they are IN THE ENTIRE 4 MILES IN SOUTH LA! If the MTA spent the same amount per mile in South LA as they are in the 1-mile from La Cienega to La Brea Robertson [typo] they could put the Expo Line in a tunnel or trench, as we’ve been requesting, and still would have enough left over to paint every house on Exposition Blvd.

But instead they’re building Expo Line Phase 1 at mostly street-level in South LA, but totally grade separated west of La Cienega. MTA is building it in a way that forces thousands of our South LA children to walk across the tracks, with 225-ton trains coming 35-55 mph 240 times a day, while not one child will have to cross the tracks west of La Cienega. We in South LA will have 9 of our streets closed, our community divided, our traffic worsened, and our emergency services delayed, while none of that will occur west of La Cienega. We in South LA will hear 1000 train horns and crossing gate bells every day, 22 hours a day in the middle of our residential areas and next to our schools, while no train horn or crossing gate bell will ever be heard west of La Cienega.

Call it what it is: Plain-old fashioned ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM!

• Expo Line Forum TODAY – BE THERE!

The West Adams Neighborhood Council, Dorsey Alumni Association and neighborhood organizations are hosting an important community safety forum on the Expo Light Rail Line through South LA, TODAY, Wednesday, Oct. 17 from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm at Dorsey High School Auditorium at 3537 Farmdale Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90016. (You can download the flyer here.)

The MTA/Expo Authority will be there to answer questions in a open public forum. (We can assume one of them will be, “Why do you want to run a 225-ton train within 20 feet of Dorsey HS at 55 mph up to 30 times per hour?“) Our organization will present the problems we see with the light rail line and the LAUSD Office of Environmental Health and Safety, and the LAUSD Parent Collaborative will speak as well.

Your presence is needed not only to learn more about the problems with the project and how to fix them, but to show all who will be looking on – the politicians and media – that the community is really concerned about the rail line coming through South LA at street level (known as “at grade”). School Board Member Marguerite LaMotte is confirmed to attend and we’re expecting no less than five media outlets and possibly Councilman Herb Wesson.

• We’re on the Web! www.FixExpo.org

We’re now live on the web at www.FixExpo.org. Bookmark it and stop by regularly to keep up to date on this issue and view the numerous memos, videos and audio that expose the deficiencies of the Expo Line as currently designed. Go there now to view the surge of Dorsey students who cross at Farmdale & Exposition after school everyday (link) and read some of the countless smoking memos we’ve uncovered.

• We’re in the News! Pick Up this week’s Our Weekly

Our press release “Was LADOT Head Gloria Jeff fired for Opposing the Expo Rail Line” was published in it’s entirety in this week’s Our Weekly (link). The day before Jeff was fired, representatives from over 8 homeowners associations, 5 community based organizations and 2 neighborhood councils spoke at the monthly MTA Board Meeting to protest adding $18 million dollars to the Expo Line construction for an optional USC station and track improvements in the portion of the Blue Line that the Expo Line is proposed to share. (The MTA has the money for an optional USC station and upgrades to Blue Line tracks, but they won’t pay for underpasses in South LA??? Right in front of our schools???? WHERE ARE THEIR PRIORITIES?!)

Among the documents we presented to the board and press to illustrate that the Expo Line is not designed to be safe was a strongly worded letter from Jeff to MTA. In the letter she states that the Expo Line design is fatally flawed, “not safe for pedestrians,” “not acceptable to LADOT,” and would lead to “major gridlock” (click here to read the full letter). The next day Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa fired the African-American general manager for undisclosed reasons.

• The Petition Drive Continues

The Save Leimert team was out in full force at last Saturday’s Taste of Soul, collecting over 500 signatures from concerned citizens throughout the region, in just a few hours! From as far out as Oceanside and Lancaster to right in Jefferson Park everyone agrees: the Expo Line must be built correctly through South LA! Thank you to all who signed and participated.

Help continue the momentum. DOWNLOAD THE PETITION (link) and circulate it within your home, workplace, church and organizations. (You don’t have to be a registered voter). There is strength in numbers.