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Are You Going Ape?

The LA Times is reporting that the LA County Supervisors voted 3-2 to reject a ballot measure that would have increased sales taxes to fund public transportation projects in LA. Two Republicans voted no based on a knee-jerk, reflexive aversion to the t-word despite having a job that requires actual governing. One of them, Mike Antonovich, has his name plastered on a freeway sign along THE 5 freeway. I suppose using public funds to pay for your own vanity is acceptable. Nevermind the fact that the ballot measure called for a sales tax (a consumption tax), which disproportionately affects the lowest earners--thus alleviating any Republican concerns over the proposal.

The third vote came from Gloria Molina, who felt that Zev Yaroslavsky was funneling too much of the funds to the westside and not enough to the eastside. Molina may well have a point. I don't see the westsiders garaging their Jags any time soon to ride a subway. Meanwhile, those living to the east of Downtown LA are the most frequent users of mass transit now, often traveling to the westside to work at the homes of the Jag owners. But she's still an incompetent buffoon for voting no for reasons I'll explain below.

Last, we have Zev. Zev has always been a friend of public transportation. He never uses the issue for political purposes. He's a true public servant who shuns the media, rolls up his sleeves, and gets to governing. In fact, he's so good at it, that he led another voter initiative in the 90s to STOP sales tax revenues from funding subway construction. That's over 10 years lost. Ten years that could have been used to expand the Wilshire line, or extend the NoHo line to West Valley or to the Santa Clarita Valley. You see at the time, Zev used a sinkhole under Hollywood Blvd as the catalyst to effectively stop any subway expansion to the westside because the Beverly Hillbillies didn't want "the others" to travel through their fine city. Property values, and all...you know how it is. With gas prices rising and congestion grinding the entire city to a halt during rush hour, Zev has had a change of heart.

So now, because these five fools cannot seem to figure out what's best for the County, because they are more concerned about how they are quoted in the press than how they govern, because they care more about political patronage than about the well-being of the whole, because they are pure, unadulterated politicians with absolutely no accountability, and because they have failed at the lone task of importance within their purview (transportation), we are left with either no long-term transportation plans or millions of wasted dollars in an effort to put up a second ballot measure.

Someone point me to the petition to recall all five LA County Supervisors. I'll even donate money to the effort. Maybe then LA will finally have a public transportation system as admirable as BART, constructed over 40 years ago.

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on August 05, 2008 (boomark / email).