Crenshaw Subway Coalition get ready for Leimert Park train stop showdown

Speakers included the Rev. Eric Lee, who was given an opening platform to introduce a relatively new activist organization — the Black Community, Clergy and Labor Alliance — coalition chair and Executive Director Damien Goodmon and filmmakers Ted Levy and Jamari Perry.

The gathering saw a premiere of Levy’s “Put It Underground.” Perry is the producer of “Beyond the Echo of the Drum,” a documentary that explores the future of Leimert Park as Los Angeles’ last remaining cultural Black hub. The film, directed by Lori Webster, has been admitted to this year’s prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Goodmon briefed those in attendance on the coalition’s efforts to secure a Leimert Village Park station, reviewed design issues connected to the line, provided updates of legal issues and contract bids and discussed the mayoral candidates’ positions on the issues in response to letters both Wendy Greuel and Eric Garceti had written to the coalition.

“As soon as possible upon taking office as mayor [I commit to directing] staff to review the design options in the [Environmental Impact Report/Statement] as well as funding opportunities for underground portions of Crenshaw Blvd between 48^th and 59^th streets,” Greuel wrote.

Meanwhile, Garceti declared: “As mayor, I will continue to aggressively fight for the rail stop in Leimert Park to improve safety, create jobs, boost local businesses and provide better access to a transportation option that will help South L.A. residents get where they need to go without a car, which will reduce congestion and pollution for us all.”

In his address, Goodmon argued that the current MTA plan would be too disruptive, too deadly and the omission of a Leimert Park station would completely disrespect the Black community.

He contended that the five or six years of street-level construction from 48^th to 60^th Street, would kill business in the entire Crenshaw district, as people won’t want to travel through, let alone shop, in the middle of a busy construction zone.

Secondly, the 225-ton trains traveling at 35 mph down the middle of Crenshaw Boulevard would pose dangers for pedestrians, motorists and particularly schoolchildren at View Park Prep and Crenshaw High School.

Thirdly, since the MTA has built stations at numerous other cultural centers in Olvera Street, Little Tokyo and Chinatown, the failure to build one at Leimert Park would amount to a huge snub.

“Leimert Park is the last African-American cultural center in the western U.S., it’s like nothing else,” he said. “When you get on the Metro Line and get off at Hollywood and Vine, you can walk to the Pantages Theatre. We say you should be able to get off at Leimert Park and walk to a [newly renovated] Vision Theatre. That’s the type of canvas we’ve been seeking for a long time.”

Addressing the safety issue, he continued: “From 48^th Street to 59^th street, the train would have to stop at signals and travel with no crossing gates. Of the nearly 900 accidents on MTA’s street-level Blue Line, America’s deadliest light rail line, 76 percent of all accidents are at crossings with no gates.”