The Crenshaw Subway Coalition is busy organizing people to show up for the April 26 showdown at the MTA board meeting to demand the adoption of “The People’s Motion,” to wit: That the MTA conduct an environmental review to clear a design option to put the final 11 blocks of the Crenshaw subway line underground to ensure the safety of the community’s children and to maintain the viability of Los Angeles’ last remaining African-American business district.
The motion for a study of this change in the Crenshaw Line resulted from Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s comments during the May 2011 MTA meeting (when the board flatly rejected funding for a Leimert Park Village subway station and a subway tunnel in Park Mesa Heights) that he would be amenable to studying the proposition. The board’s approval of a review pursuant to The People’s Motion at its meeting next week would be the least it can do in view of the fact that the board plans to approve its much more expensive pet project, the underground extension for the Wilshire “Subway to the Sea,” through the Westside, Beverly Hills, Century City and Westwood areas at that same meeting.
Where is the equity? The MTA is spending $6.015 billion to extend the hollowed Wilshire Line and only $1.75 billion on the entire rail line for Crenshaw to LAX. And yet, they want to quibble over whether it should even study the possibility of making the Crenshaw Line better and safer for the African-American and Hispanic residents and merchants who are most likely to benefit from it. It’s environmental racism. The coalition is asking people to show up en masse next week, wearing black as a show of unity and call to RSVP for a seat on the buses that will be leaving from the Crenshaw District at 7:30 a.m. on April 26.
It also should be noted that Rep. Karen Bass is fighting to secure federal funding to build the Leimert Park Station on the Crenshaw Line which the MTA has rejected for “lack of funds.” Bass, with the support of other Los Angeles congressional members, sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood supporting the MTA’s grant application for $125 million to build the station and stimulate economic growth throughout the Crenshaw/LAX corridor.
Oh, and by the way, the 22-member Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project Community Leadership Council will meet from 6 to 8 p.m. on April 26 at People’s Independent Church, 5856 West Blvd., to receive an update on transportation career opportunities, proposed job training efforts and community economic development opportunities — as well as to discuss the results of that day’s Showdown at the MTA.
THE PRICE IS RIGHT, BERNIE! — First, Councilman Bernard Parks blamed and attacked Council President Herb Wesson for the city’s redistricting outcome. Then, he got up off Wesson and shifted over to Mayor Villaraigosa and blamed him for having solely and completely orchestrated the whole process. And now that the redistricting war is supposed to be over, Parks has taken to attacking state Sen. Curren Price, whose 26th Senate District covers all of the 10th District, half of the 9th District and 80 percent of Parks’ 8th District. Through the regular distribution of his tax-supported “8th District E-News,” Parks has been ranting and raving like a crazy banshee against Price because the senator supported the redistricting maps the City Council adopted. I have chosen to simply ignore Parks’ anti-Price rants because, as with any obstreperous 3-year-old, you have one of two ways to handle him: either smack his little butt or ignore him. I felt Parks had been whipped enough, so I took the “ignore” tactic. But I guess Price had gotten enough of Parks’ attacks that last week he was moved to strike back — and he did so in a classy, mature manner through an open letter to Parks sent to all his constituents.
Price opens his letter with: “What happens when you shoot yourself in the foot? You look around for someone else to blame. Such is the case with Councilman Bernard Parks, who is unhappy with his self-induced estrangement from political power on the City Council and with the recently completed Los Angeles Citizen’s Redistricting Commission’s work product and its preliminary adoption by the full City Council.” Then Price goes on to fully explain why he supported the redistricted maps and the benefits that would accrue for the residents of the three effected council districts. Then, Price concludes his letter, thus: “Having stabbed himself in both eyes, Bernard Parks is clearly without political vision.”
The irony of Parks’ action is that he is attacking the man who is doing his job. Several weeks ago, 8th District residents on West 45th, 46th, 47th streets and Normandie Avenue came to me with petitions they circulated to give to the city authorities demanding that they receive the city services for which they pay taxes. They said their neighborhood is in blighted condition, that they’ve tried everything they could to get Parks to attend to their crumbling public infrastructure and he has not. They said they’ve met with Parks’ people (never Parks, himself) several times about their problems and they’ve been completely ignored.
I investigated the issue and learned that these neighbors‘ plight is a state of normalcy in the 8th and 9th district — which they abut — as many residents there have had to take their unattended city public works and planning and land use issues to their state senator, Curren Price! I contacted that office and was told that, “Yes, we have been called upon to assist with these problems on a regular basis. After all, they are our constituents too.” So, this week, I forwarded the petitions, petitioners and their city problems to Price, their state senator — the man who is being vilified by their city councilman for looking out after their interests. What a world.
MEYERS VS. ALL OF ’EM — District attorney candidate Danette Meyers received two highly significant endorsements Tuesday: one from the group of our most influential Black political activists and the other from her peers. Meyers was endorsed by the New Frontier Democratic Club, which is the oldest and largest Democratic club in the state, and she was endorsed by the Association of Deputy District Attorneys, the people with whom she works now and the people whom she will lead when she’s elected D.A. in June.
Speaking of that election, I received a call this week from a voter who was confused as to exactly who’s who in this D.A.’s race. She said D.A. candidate Jacquelyn Lacey called her and asked if she would work in her campaign. My caller indicated her support for the “Black lady running against D.A. Cooley.” The caller said Lacey told her that she was running against Cooley! The caller was quickly disabused of that lie and informed that the Republican-financed Lacey is Cooley, and that Meyers is the Black lady running against Cooley and Lacey and that she is the candidate to support. Don’t get your Black ladies confused, my brothers and sisters, Meyers is the one you want. And besides, Bernard Parks supports Lacey and that’s another good reason not to vote for her.
THE MARTINS ARE COMING — The Rev. Al Sharpton and the Rev. K.W. Tulloss of the National Action Network are scheduled to bring the parents of Trayvon Martin to Los Angeles for a rally to mark the launching of the Trayvon Martin Foundation on April 26 at 4 p.m. at USC. The event is being hosted by USC’s Black Alumni Association.
FRESH AIR — In an effort to diversify its programming and reduce the number of foul-mouthed bigots dominating its air waves, KFI-AM 640 radio station just added Morris O’Kelly’s 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday show to its lineup. “It’s going to consist of humor, entertainment and, of course, politics,” O’Kelly said.
AND FINALLY — Did you know that Judge Otis Wright, who presided over the federal case in which the jury awarded Compton school bus driver Deon Dirks $6 million the other day for his having been beaten by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in 2007, is the same Black judge who slapped that unprecedented restraining order last year on D.A. Cooley and his hench woman, Lacey, for their efforts to thwart union organizing among their employees? I need to get to know this fine judge. Will somebody please introduce us?
Race Man posted at 4:49 pm on Thu, Apr 19, 2012.
Betty,
Your ignorance is exceeded by your lack of integrity and your inability to grasp what it means to be a journalist. If you are going to accuse someone of not doing their job, tell us who is making the accusation and what it is that is not being done. Your lack of specificity tells me you did not get off your couch in your home in the valley and just talked to some folks over the phone that live in Los Angeles. Be specific. I don’t say your column is unprofessional, biased, and rambling. I am very specific in my criticism.
While Curren Price is a graduate of Stanford and should know better, his letter to Councilman Parks only confirms that the people of the 8th Council District have been used as pawns in a political game of retribution by someone you admire, Clowncilman Herb Wesson. Wesson is playing with their futures to get back at someone who will be in office only three more years. He has dismantled the only black majority district in the city of Los Angeles and he has set up the possibility that in 10 years when the city is required to draw districts there may be no black representation on the City Council. Fortunately, the Redistricting Plan passed by Clowncilman Wesson and his lackeys on the Council will not withstand a court challenge and will have to be redone. By the way, why is Herb Wesson running a 2014 campaign for the Board of Equalization? Is he hedging because he’s going to be laughed off the City Council? Clowns love to be laughed at.
Too bad the Redistricting lawsuit won’t be heard by the judge you’re so hot to meet. He would likely rule in favor of Parks.