Who are you calling a Bitch? Sexist Transit Person Bart Reed gives the LA Weekly some opinions.

“Molina is leading the charge in demanding more transit spending for the aging, working-class Eastside suburbs and so-called Gateway Cities she represents....

Bart Reed, executive director of the Transit Coalition, who wants priority given to the Expo Line, between downtown and Culver City, and the Crenshaw line — the “line to nowhere” roughly between El Segundo and the Crenshaw District — says scornfully of the scrappy, longtime Eastside pol, “She is ... a shrill, shrieking shrew, who’s very vindictive.” LA Weekly, Taves and Stewart.

Ok, I think this is a little sexist. No I think that's ALOT sexist. Whatever you think on this issue of the fake transportation bill. Damn you Fred Camino for going on hiatus right now. This is really a bad time for me, I demand you come back to work right now.

I was at the board meeting yesterday. It was pretty entertaining. Nice to put the name to some of the many friendly faces in the world of transit, yet it was also horrifying.

Easier to criticize people you don’t know…lol…

To me Bart Reeds comments are completely unacceptable. As I’ve pointed out several times an opinion that a woman has, has absolutely nothing to do with her vagina. Just like a guy's opinion has nothing to do with his penis, at least in regards to public transit issues.

And I was at the meeting. How was she vindictive? She was fighting for the interests of her constituency. Lots of her constituency takes the bus. She pretty much was the only board member fighting for her constituency.

(Sans Antonovich who was making commentary for a completely different reason, but why no comments on him going on and on, he was just as annoying if you take the valid reasons completely out of it. No comments about his sex or race. His wife is a person of color, maybe you would like to make some comments about her Bart…real progressive Mr. "I'm the head of a transit organization" man.)

Molina’s constituency takes the bus. In AB2321 there isn’t any exact language in regards to busses, so what the fuck Bart? She was doing her job. She was the only one from the minority and working class communities to do so. She was the only one who had the brass ovaries to ask the tough questions.

Questions Bernard Parks and Yvonne Burke should have been asking. Molina wouldn't have looked so aggressive if the two other minorities on the board hadn't just been sitting there  "behaving".

For some reason I have the feeling that Burke and Parks are in some business dudes' pockets.

Stick with the issue Bart. You aren't a damn blog. If you want some respect you don't refer to people as slurs.

Molina isn’t a shrew. If you are going to call her shrew you could call her an “illegal” for giving her opinion, but that wouldn’t be ok would it? (But I’d bet my favorite pair of sunglasses that he has some choice words for the African-American Damien Goodman, email me in private, don't worry I'll protect you I have brass ovaries.)

I’m waiting for feminists to step up to the plate to defend Molina.

Remember women of color are women too.

Besides you have an office up the street.

by Browne Molyneux

Comments

[Bert Green]

Yikes. Bart, very bad. I don't agree with what he said, but I think he is right on the rail issue. Molina's district has rail (Metrolink), and the west side has none. Many more people in her district work on the west side than the other way around.

If there were a train to the places people work, they would take it rather than drive. That's the fundamental reason to build transit.

Crenshaw would not be a line to nowhere. It would become a feeder, like the Green Line is now. If done right, it would also go to LAX.

All the lines that are being given priority have been on the unfunded list for years, have gone through the community process, and are part of the long range plan.

Nothing wrong with that.

[Browne]

I have to say I'm conflicted Bert.

I want METRO to get funded. I want the rails built, but in general they are for selfish reasons. I live in downtown. I go to the Westside all of the things that are happening with the rail will benefit me directly me being who I am.

On the other hand. I don't trust METRO. I do believe they short change busses. I believe they short change North LA. I think Goodman (Fix Expo) has some good points in regards to why can't they build the rail above grade in South Central if they are doing it in Culver City.

And the cyclists, yeah they bug me, but I also see their point there's no money set aside for them.

As a single person who does the stuff single people do with disposable income this is going to work out great for me if this ever gets built, but what about everyone else?

My trips on the bus, they aren't good. Metro has to do a better job. People on the busses need relief now.

You can't just ignore the majority of the people who use your product.

If gas prices go down will people really get it? Will they get that the car is bad. Will Metro really spend this money on rail or on fancy brochures and security and trips to Jamaica.

I'm conflicted here. I really believe the things that Molina said, should have been said, but they should have been said by Burke and Parks too. I totally get why the westside wants it, redondo, beverly hills...that's the thing in the meeting all of the rich cities wanted it, all of the poor ones didn't and there has got to be a reason for that and that reason needs to be respected the way everyone else's reasons are respected.

I think if people just listened to the concerns of East LA and South LA and didn't just go "shut up," it would be alot more productive. On these transportation blogs some of the comments are bordering in my opinion on being classist and racist, which makes me not want to be on the side of people who would make comments like that.

I want the rail, but I would vote no if voting meant I gave people like Bart Reed power or anything or some kind of a push to get elected to some kind of public office. I'd vote no, just to kill that on principle.

I also don't like the money AAA got and the highways.

I hope they build toll rolls all over this city and build bike lanes and rails all across downtown from the eastside to the westside and from south to north. That kind of thing really needs to happen.

I think transportation should be a right in Los Angeles, because it's so freakin huge and so freakin expensive inland (well towards the beach and downtown, which is inland in my little la mind...lol.) And with the gas prices going up and the wages going down something needs to be done immediately in regards to public transit before we become Detroit.

I hate NY (sorry BusTard) and I was actually on Craigslist looking for a place, because it's gotten so bad here for people who are my friends. I love LA and I am actually thinking about moving. That's insanity, at least for me.

[Bert Green]

It's ironic that the "rich" areas are appearing as if they are hogging all the resources for themselves, even though they are actually late to the game. The rails have been mostly built in poorer areas first, not in rich areas.

But I agree with Damian Goodman. And I support his fight. But we need to go a lot further than we have gone before to get a comprehensive rail system, rather than a piecemeal series of low budget light rail lines that will reach capacity in a few years of use.

And very little that Bart Reed says or does will change that fact.

[Browne]

METRO has spent lots of money on the suburbs and contracts for their friends and little if any on the bus lines that the majority who take the bus use.

To me it's very obvious that they don't care about the average person that uses their service. It's like if the arts gave all of their money on people who like TV and none of it on artists or art galleries in order to get more people who aren't in the arts to like art. If that happened wouldn't you be a bit upset? If downtown got a major arts grants and none of the galleries or artists here had any say and the things they did say were just pooh-poohed and people said things like, "Shut-up you're just delaying progress."

Obviously changes has to be made to make public transit more appealing, but to me not at the sake of their root customer base. Not in exchange for giving people who promote personal car ownership subsidies.

In regards to the rails, don't you find it curious that they have sheriff on the rails, but not on the busses, the busses that run in the middle of the night in places you can actually get shot in?

As I've said I'm not anti rail, but the facts all point to METRO not treating all of it's ridership the same.

I was on the blue and green lines today I'm still wondering where are the departure times on those lines? I'm still wondering why is the green line in the middle of a freeway in Downey. That is the most unpleasant place to wait for a train.

LA is very complicated Bert. If you were in LA in the 90s and 80s you could be able to see very clearly the classist nature in the creation of the rails.

Again I state I'm for the rails, but the concerns of the people taking the bus right now and the people riding their bikes right now should be taken into account. Money that goes to the highways and trying to finish the 710, all of this unconcern for the majority of the people in LA is going to hurt this measure.

The attitude of the people who want it, who are beyond just Bart Reed who should step down as leader of the transit coalition, because if that slur had been towards anything but women that would be demanded. I hear nothing from that side of the world in regards to that slur which to me is a very big deal. It's not some minor aside. A shrew, that's way not ok.

I will not vote with people who think in that way or allow those kinds of things to be said unchallenged. I will never vote with people who think it's ok to make racist, sexist or homophobic slurs. That is a big issue.

Comments by people like Bart (and the no comment from the people in his organization and from the website looks like lots of people are involved in his organization) just substantiates all of the things people accuse METRO of in regards to the rails.

Actors and radio show host have lost their jobs for just that very thing.

[Browne]

Question, why was Gold Line built into Pasadena instead of building it into the eastside first...no one in Pasadena ever took the bus in large numbers.

They put it so that middle class people could easily get to it...

Look at the ads, to sporting events, movies and malls. Do they look like the people on the bus. Why don't they have a working class guy on the ad, that's who is on the train and on the busses.

Everyone in LA calls the bus the Shametrain, why do you think that is Bert?

Look at people who ride the busses and trains in NY and look at the people here, what's the difference?

[Simon]

I've never met Bart or anyone else in the online LA-transit blogowhatever (I just comment on everyone's blogs and promise that someday I'll get off my butt and do good), but yeah, I saw that comment and my first thought was "Whoa, what the hell is that?"

It's textbook sexism, using codewords that only apply to women and weirdly singling her out. I'm not sure what precipitated it because frankly, as someone who really supports this sales tax bill, other people involved in the process seemed far more deserving of such anger.

A few random thoughts on class and tax [note, this goes on way too long]:
I hope you do end up voting for the sales tax. I know it's not a perfect bill, and there are a ton of really reasonable issues with it, but I actually think the status quo is tremendously dangerous. Obviously 6 billion out of 30 billion isn't an incredible haul for buses, but without this money I can't imagine how they'll avoid huge fare increases, increases that will essentially punish low income riders for the gas costs and increased transit ridership. [and Bart and the transit coalition will be just as anonymous either way]

I don't mean to make it sound like people should vote for it just because the alternative is so bad. I think this bill will do a tremendous amount of good. I don't necessarily trust Metro (their incompetence is really legendary at this point), but it seems to me like they genuinely have the right ideas much of the time and they end up so bad because those ideas are being translated to us through politics. This final bill is not an efficient use of the 30 billion, but it's probably the only version of it that has a chance to pass. Also, frankly, Los Angeles/California are horrible places to try to get things done; our state constitution is basically designed to prevent competence, not to mention that any multi-billion dollar construction project is going to hit giant, giant potholes and piss off everyone who isn't in the construction business.

One defense on the class issue. I agree, as the white suburb-raised yuppie that I am, that there's a fundamental disconnect between people like myself who like to ride the train or the occasional bus for various soft reasons and those who take public transit because it's their only option. But I think there's actually something important at work here. You talked about how New York is different from LA, and that's because everyone there rides public transit, whereas here we see it as something for our housekeepers. That's why I think something like the purple line is so vitally important.

Public transit here is never going to improve so long as the people with money never use it and it serves as a class dividing line. I once mentioned in a job interview that I'd love to work at that particular office because it was so close to a subway stop and the person interviewing me looked at me like I was insane. One major line like the purple line down Wilshire (and possibly the Expo line too) could do a lot to erase the stigma of public transportation and get a broader cross-section of the population onto buses and trains.

Yes, I'm basically saying that in addition to the sheer number of people it will carry, the purple line and others like it are important because white, rich people need to start viewing public transit as a viable option instead of "that stupid bus taking away my lane." Even more than that, I think that if things went incredibly well and the city succeeded in getting all classes of people onto public transit, we'd see the effects spill over positively into so many other aspects of Los Angeles. There'd be more of that shared, common experience you need to define a community. Everybody hates it when some bum gets on the subway and just reeks up the whole train with stench, but if you didn't ride the subway you wouldn't even know that person existed.

I'm sure I sound insane, but I actually think that if this city doesn't start building a better public transit system and start doing it soon, traffic and gas costs are going to start to make this city rot away, and people will wind up even more trapped in their own little sections of LA, all isolated from each other, no one giving a crap about anybody else.

I think this proposition might actually make a difference.

[Bert Green]

The Gold Line was built first to Pasadena because the MTA owned the right of way. They also own the Expo right of way (the next new line to be built from scratch), but the Gold Line extension to East LA was not in the original plan. It was added to serve that population after the Red Line extension past Union Station did not pan out. It's actually one of the few rail projects that was pushed up in priority over others, to make up for the omission of Red Line service.

I'm not fundamentally disagreeing with the fact that there have been bad decisions and discriminatory actions in the past, but I do think the MTA is now trying their best to build a comprehensive system that will benefit everyone.

[Damien Newton]

Bart Reed said that? I'm sorry, but even though it's in a pretty reputable publication, I don't believe it. I've worked with Bart since I got here and that line is just so far away from anything I've heard him say that I just don't believe it. I've never heard him say anything remotely sexist or racist.

As for "My Evil Twin," I've never heard Bart say a bad word about him other than that he sometimes disagrees with his tactics, and I've sat with Bart at many a public meeting.

On an unrelated note, Browne, I have access to people's email addresses when they post at Streetsblog. I never use them without permission or if there's some sort of issue with their post. That said, do you mind if I drop you a line?

[browne]

yes you can email me, unless you work for the irs.

browne

ps

the contact info for the bus bench is my contact info, since i rule the bus bench with a little tiny iron fist

[BusTard]

Damien,
If Bart reed did not state what he was quoted as saying, then he has a clear case of libel. I await his litigious refutation as having gone on the record, and the award to be granted him.
Until then, he said it. And while Browne failed to quote the key word—"shrill"—I also would be happy to know of any quote whereby a male described another male as "shrill." Anyone with a smattering of semantics will understand the subtext of that word, much like the true meaning of "perky" and "urban."

[Browne]

I don't think urban is code for black anymore, I think it's code for yuppie.

I think when people say urban they actually mean cosmopolitan, but people in LA don't like saying words with more than two syllables.

Two syllables is too much really, which is why I've christened you Ran.

I don't have the brain power to say Randall BusTard Fleming more than twice a day. I've already blown lots of brain cells typing your entire name and it's not even 8am yet...