Cameras aren’t going to make fewer people die.

I decided to go down and take a look at the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension (MGLEE)—you know, that light rail line that was supposed to open in June, but then it didn’t.

(Yes I understand that way back in January 2007—and again in January 2009— they said the completion date would be in December, but then Metro changed it to June. They were so confident that it would be in June they cancelled service on certain sections of bus lines owing to those services being redundant once the Gold Line started running.)

Before I went I had to make some phone calls.

I had heard through various Metro employees (the ones that are installing the TAP are pretty chatty)  that the Gold Line wouldn’t be opening up until at least December owing to some electrical problems, so before I went down to the Gold Line I got in touch with Metro’s press department. I asked if there were any truth to the rumors of the Gold Line not opening until at least December.

“We aren’t at the point of setting an opening date yet,” Metro senior spokesperson.

 I asked if the delay had anything to do with an electrical issue and inquired as to whether Metro would be breaking up the concrete to fix these alleged problems.

“Not that I’m aware of, no,” Metro senior spokesperson.

So I kept all of this in mind when I went down to visit the Gold Line.

When I got to the Gold Line I saw some broken-up concrete at nearly every corner of the Gold Line Extension from east of the L.A. River all the way to Indiana and Third Streets, each of which were straddled by sawhorses labeled C. T. & F. There were also high voltage warning signs between the tracks and on at least one Gold Line platform.

It turns out that C.T. & F. is one of Metro's regular contractors for lighting, traffic signals and similar work. The C. T. & F. project manager stated that C. T. & F. was only responsible for installing the photo enforcement cameras meant to monitor motor vehicles. He stated it would take at least "two to two-an- one half months" to complete the camera installation work on the MGLEE.

When asked about the broken-up concrete over which stood safety equipment clearly marked with C. T. & F., the project manager stated that it that as-yet-completed work was the responsibility of Steiny.

Steiny and Company is an electrical contracting and engineering firm that does a fair amount of work for Metro.

   

 

Hey that doesn’t necessarily mean that there are any problems, but it does mean something is not finished or something needs to be redone.

(The following is my soapbox.)

The MGLEE is not opening up until at least October, but if I was a betting person I would say January of 2010. There is no way Metro is going to open up that poorly designed rail (in regards to safety) without those cameras being up.

The cameras that Metro has C.T. & F.  putting up have nothing to do with Metro or the government watching people. The government doesn’t give a damn about the people on the Eastside; all you have to do is look at the way the Gold Line Eastside Extension was built. Those cameras are to reduce Metro’s liability when their train kills people. They can always fault the man or woman who was driving the car, no one is going to remember that building a train at grade with no barriers is the most dangerous way to build public transit. Why sue Metro for millions when you can sue Joe Blow for thousands that you’ll never see, because he won’t have it.

Why isn’t there a barrier?

There is nothing, just some signals that I’m assuming are having some issues.  The Gold Line Eastside Extension is worse than the Gold Line around Highland Park. The Extension around Indiana looks as unsafe and thrown together as the Blue Line.

And I’m not anti-rail. I’m anti unsafe rail. The Red Line is great. They need to do the Red Line all over LA. The Gold Line around South Pasadena and Pasadena is also great, if they are going to do it at grade they need to put in a barrier like they do in South Pasadena.

On the Expo line the one mile section between LaCienega and Robertson there will be grade separation.

No one even walks there.

The Gold Line Eastside Extension where there are many pedestrians and a school that is being built pretty much on the track (on the video where the black tarp drapes the gate that’s going to be a school,) there is no grade separation.

GoldLine_Indiana_16aug2009
Uploaded by shametrainla. - Up-to-the minute news videos.

Why is this? Why is the safety method on the Eastside going to be of the “pull yourselves up by the bootstraps” variety via cameras to blame personal drivers and old men in yellow vests reminding people to “be safe,” while the City of Los Angeles west of LaCienega get the “silver spoon” variety of safety with expensive barriers and elevated stations?

There will be no testing out Darwinism theory on the Westside, but there never seems to be.

Only the neighborhoods with higher concentrations of poor people and brown and black people are tested with sink and swim theories.

The rail dips just one mile into the magic dividing line of LaCienega and the people on that side of LA who don’t walk or even use public transit as extensively as people on the Eastside get all of our tax dollars spent protecting them from being hit by a train that most of them won’t even take or even be near outside of driving by its protected barrier.

by Browne Molyneux

GoldLine_Mariachi_16aug2009
Uploaded by shametrainla. - News videos from around the world.

_______________________________________________________________

Transit Nerd Vocabulary-
At grade means- street level, it means you could walk by without effort and touch the train and tracks.

Barrier or separated means- there is a barrier between you and the train, you don’t touch the tracks unless you’re getting on the train and even then you might not depending on how it is designed.

Comments

[M]

Cameras are a joke in general. They are fine and dandy for recording someone's life without their knowledge of what will be done with the footage, but they are primary used as a "cover-my-ass" sort of thing or as a reactive measure. They aren't much of a preventative measure.

I recently watched a story of tv that was about this chick whose body was found burned on the edge of a parking lot. Eventually the police were able to semi-cobble together a story of what had happened through surveillance videos at the gas station where she disappeared, a couple of other gas stations and finally the parking lot where she was found burnt. Despite all of this, they still didn't actually have any evidence of who killed her, just who burned her body (which wasn't the cause of death). Fantastico! I guess the solution is to have a personal video camera following every single person, so that we won't miss out on critical little details like that.

Maybe it's because I grew up in a community a bit smaller than LA, but I really don't trust the almighty camera. So someone, who I don't know, is recording my moves as I walk around my apartment building, walk along the streets, enter many stores, get on the bus on train, but I don't know who the person is on the other side. I don't know how they are going to try to use what they recorded against me. People gleefully tell me how anonymous LA is, yet someone is at least recording many of your moves, you just don't know who or where unless you are on constant security camera look-out. There's something to be said about having actual real people that you know watching you and being in your business over a strategically placed camera.

[the dude abides]

At grade light rail is a good thing. Portland has both light rail and street car service run through downtown with no grade separation. It has nothing to do with concentration of poor people, it just makes sense to build light rail at a manageable cost.

[Spokker]

Soooo racist.

[Justin N]

I agree with The Dude Abides here. At-grade light rail works well in many cities, including Portland, soon Seattle, San Francisco, Boston and Sacramento. The real question here is not why the train will be run at-grade in much of the Eastside, but why tax dollars were wasted in La Cienega putting up barriers and grade-separation.

The solution is not expensive barrier methods, but educating people about how to drive and walk around trains. Specifically- if there's a train, don't walk or drive in front of it. If there's tracks- you should probably check to see if there's a train coming.

I'd be happy to run an at-grade streetcar line through my neighbourhood, to the point that I've proposed it on my blog.

[browne]

LA isn't Portland. LA has lots of people and lots of cars and Portland does not. An at grade rail can be safe in Portland, the desert, but you don't see them in New York and East LA is way closer to NY in regards to Pedestrians and traffic than Portland.

Also lets go into Metro's track record we have five (ok six if you count the purple as separate from the red) rails, only five, but yet Metro manages to have the deadliest rail line in the country. How does that happen. Maybe at grade is safe, but obviously not for the LACMTA to build. They obviously don't understand how to build one safely which is why they have the distinction of running the deadliest rail in the country.

Now since everyone thinks the at grade is totally find and obviously Metro does since they built it at grade with no barrier in East LA and South Central then why exactly would they not do that in South Pasadena and west of LaCienega, because as we know it's not that South Central hasn't been very vocal about wanting a barrier and elevation too. Google Damien Goodmon.

So what do you call it then when people ask for the same thing and you give one to another group of people, but don't give the same consideration to another group of people? TWICE with oddly the same things being similar amongst the people who get to have barriers and elevation and the same thing being similar amongst the people who don't get shit.

What do you call the difference between the rail in Highland Park and the rail in South Pasadena: http://www.thebusbench.com/2009/04/the-santa-fe-railway-wasnt-so-nice-either-the-gold-line-inequities.html

What do you call it, if racism makes everyone too uncomfortable how about you at least say that it's probably a little classist, because how in the hell did South Pasadena get such a wildly different rail configuration than Highland Park and the Eastside and how the hell did the Blue Line and Expo through South Central get built that way and west of LaCienega there are all of these fancy safety mechanism (I'm not sure but I'm going to bet they'll be some nice barriers around USC too.)

If you all think it's totally safe and totally ok and Metro agrees what's up with the South Pasadena and west of LaCienega.

And yeah at grade can be safe if it's not just jammed into a neighborhood with no consideration see the Blue Line for a demonstration of it.

Browne

[Spokker]

Why does East LA get a 1.8 mile tunnel and South Pasadena gets at-grade light rail? What's up with that?

[browne]

You know the entire time it's in South Pasadena the Gold Line is protected, so what the fuck is up with South Pasadena being so precious that it needs sound walls, barriers and barriers for the barriers.

Spokker have you been down to the MGLEE, no you haven't, so you really shouldn't speak on things you know nothing about.

The Indiana section looks scary, some of the Blue Line is elevated too, but that doesn't stop the sections on the ground from being engineered poorly.

The section around Indiana looks very confusing and I could see drivers getting very confused and pedestrians getting very confused, it should have been underground the entire way.

Oh by the way that neighborhood is Boyle Heights not East Los Angeles, maybe you should actually go to neighborhoods instead of just reading about them real quick from an answer you find on google so that you could "win" and argument and then you wouldn't label them wrong, but I guess that would take work and actually having a desire to be informed.

Browne

[Erik G.]

Browne,

Not NYC, but Hoboken, NJ has at-grade light-rail! ;-)

Thanks for the update and this post.

I think that if they can't start running empty trains for operator training purposes by Labor Day, there won't be any service on the Gold Line in 2009.

[Erik G.]

Hey, wait a minute, don't you mean the LLdOERRMGLEE?

(La Linea de Oro, Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension)

[browne]

Light grade in Hoboken? Well that right there proves my point. You won't see that on the Upper East Side. You know in NY poc has a looser definition and white has a stricter definition...ok on to more serious business sort of...I put MGLEE because that's what it said in the documents and I didn't want people to be like, "What the hell does that mean..." so I stuck with its original name for this post, but when people start getting killed I'll definitely use La Linea de Oro I want people to know what section the accidents happen on so people can see clearly the accidents will be higher on that section as they are higher in Highland Park than they are by the Pasadena section.

[Spokker]

Boyle Heights is a neighborhood in East LA, so yes, that's East LA.

Anyway, the Gold Line through Highland Park received an award from the US DOT.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/planning/tpea/2004pisa.htm

"The original operating speed would have required street closures, increased property taxes, railroad crossing gates with at-grade crossings, increased noise impacts resulting from train horns and bells, and a completely walled-off transitway."

A walled-off transitway sort of like... South Pasadena? :)

"The reduced operating speed allowed for system features that were more compatible with the safety requirements of the neighborhood's residents, including easy-to-use pedestrian crossings and traffic lights using signal pre-emption at all existing at-grade crossings, and a simple four-foot centerline fence to take the place of the six- to eight-foot walls originally designed to enclose the transitway."

You mean Metro listened to poor people of color and redesigned the light rail?! Gasp!

It also says that there were no sidewalks there before the Gold Line was built. They also added lighting and other elements that beautified the neighborhood.

[browne]

No Spokker Boyle Heights is in the City of LA. It is on LA's Eastside and East LA is in an unincorporated section of Los Angeles County. East Los Angeles gets serviced by the County, they don't even vote for the Mayor of LA, Boyle Heights gets serviced by the city, so if it's all the same then why are different agencies servicing the two different places? Oh because they are two different places. Is Culver City and West LA the same city, no they are no matter how similar we think those two places are they are not the same places because we think it is and can't tell the difference because they all seem the same to us.

Just because someone got an award then that means they are ok? I don't know why I'm bothering having a conversation with person who thinks that Boyle Heights is East LA. It is obvious you know nothing about big city life and have fallen off the turnip truck from some horrible place where they say y'all.

In HP they go through residential neighborhoods in South Pasadena they do not and the few houses they do go buy they have a sound wall and a ditch to make sure it doesn't disturb anyone...all you have to do is look at my link to see the difference, I did the real work for you.

You know what this is why I hate the internet some jerk off can go into google and pull off press releases from joe the lying pr bastard and then without ever setting foot in a location or even doing real research can think he's a fucking expert.

You know what your link from 2004 doesn't mean shit anyone can find anything online to say whatever the hell they want it to say. You go out and take some pictures, get some actual facts and statistics of death rates, crash rates, call up metro, call up the FTA, hell look at some FTA facts which give you a much clearer pictures on how safe things are, or don't. Don't do anything be like the rest of the morons on the blogosphere that just get on their knees and stick out their tongue and get fed bullshit by the pr departments.

The world of PR must love the blogosphere this place is filled with the easiest marks and you don't even have to pay them to get them to disseminate your bullshit.

Browne

[Spokker]

Well, all I know is that I'm going to continue to enjoy riding the award-winning Metro Gold Line.

[M]

Browne, I mentioned this before, but the sound walls were NOT installed in South Pasadena when the Gold Line was first added. The sound walls only came in the last couple of years and from what I understood at the time they were being installed, they aren't complete (installing the sound walls causes delays during normal business hours.) There is nothing that says to me that there is no possibility of sound walls being installed anyplace else. South Pasadena also had a sign right next to the Mission station saying which hours it was ok for the train to blow their horn. I noticed that disappeared. What do you make of that? Also, as much as one might think soundwalls are the golden ticket to fixing any issues from trains or freeways, they aren't. You can still hear sounds with soundwalls (and you can see through the ones along the Gold Line so they don't bring 'visual' privacy either).

If you simply look at the neighborhoods of South Pas vs. Highland Park, it seems like adding sound walls in HP would bisect the neighborhood in ways that adding them in South Pas does not. HP is rather open and I have to say that I see people gathering outside and conversing way more often in HP than in South Pas. In most instances, the sound walls in South Pas are just kinda hiding fences that were already there. Do you know if anyone has spoken to HP residents to see if that is what they really want? Do they want a giant tunnel blocking their view from the people on the other side? Would that encourage more graffiti to go up and crime since people could hide in a corridor?

I've been going to neighborhood council meetings to get the sound wall completed near my apartment. I live near the only section in Studio City near the 101 freeway without a soundwall. It must be because the end of my street is for the poor people of Studio City, only.

As for arguments about whether Boyle Heights is or is not in East LA, really? Is that worth arguing about right now? Knowing whether or not a specific area is part of East LA, I do not think disqualifies someone from knowing about big city life. I have a horrible sense of direction and still get lost in the area I lived the first 16 years of my life (and yes they said "y'all"), so I guess that means I know nothing about living, right? Please try to put this into perspective. I don't even know where the boundaries are for the city I've lived in the past 5 years. I don't know where the boundaries are for the city I work in even though there are supposedly signs at every entrance of the city telling you all of the unique parking rules since it is a separate city from LA. I don't know where the boundaries are for the different city that I bike to every weekend to do my errands and yet somehow I seem to know more about what is going on in LA and can easily move around LA without a car than many of my friends that have lived here their entire lives.

[Damien Goodmon]

Good point.

Point #1: People who profess that "at-grade works" elsewhere need to stop using their feelings and start using data. If someone told you SF at-grade rail were safe in San Francisco discussion board you'd be laughed out of the place. They've had a flurry of accidents and there, as opposed to here, the public's instinct it to first blame the MUNI operator. That's because the accident reports there are public, and the experience of at-grade rail trains there is far more expansive than here - people see the operators doing stupid things.

Point #2: Several studies clearly show that red-light cameras have been shown to cause more severe and at times more frequent accidents, primarily because cars are coming to sudden stops and racing through the light to avoid getting flashed. This has led to several cities and states outlawing the cameras. And those studies are at intersections that haven't been turned into Rube Goldberg-like complexity with multiple signs and signals that often fail and/or give false signals. Just sit on Washington Blvd for a hour with a pair of binoculars and see how often the "Train LED" sign false flashes. (This is just one example - I have countless others). Inconsistent and false messages lead to drivers uncertainty. Simply, inconsistency is exactly what you don't want with 225-ton trains barreling down the middle of a busy street.

Point #3 - the big one. The entire Eastside extension was originally designed to be an eastern extension of the Red Line. Then westside politicians led by Zev and Waxman came together to ban money going towards the project (both local and federal). Now these same people are the leaders for a subway extension to the westside. That's the story everyone should be writing.

[Damien Goodmon]

******
You mean Metro listened to poor people of color and redesigned the light rail?! Gasp!
******

Actually, the engineering challenges of the area should have required the section to be placed underground. Instead they created what they do have now, and as a consequence a near majority of all accidents on the 13 mile Gold Line occur in this short 0.8 mile section in minority Highland Park. Not that I don't disagree that they made it prettier and less disruptive than it would have been Spokker. But a pig is still a pig even if it in expensive red lipstick.

And ultimately that community was forced to chose between two unreasonable options, because the one that actually made sense was seen as infeasible because the money was busy being spent elsewhere. Same thing with the Eastside Extension, which begs the question, what does the Gold Line have against brown people?

[Rich F]

Why is it that anytime that trains are built, the reason for at-grade separation is called for it is called racist?

Build the damn trains and just let the smart people live. If you're that stupid to not realize that the train will more than likely kill you, then don't go asking for a bridge over the train cause you're brown!

[browne]

Rich, Goodmon gave some very good reasons as did I in my post, so if you want to be an asshole and think it's totally cool to have one set of safety considerations for one neighborhood and have another for a different neighborhood then go ahead and think that.

@M This isn't about a wall. It wasn't just the wall in South Pas, click on the hyper link above that says South Pasadena. Do you know when I tried to compare the Gold Line in Highland Park to South Pasadena by walking along the tracks in South Pasadena like I did in Highland Park that I was unable to walk along the tracks in South Pasadena because in South Pasadena that was viewed by Metro as unsafe.

Spokker came over here with some "soooo racist" bullshit. I won't let people get away with that kind of crap, because then you have the teabagger type assholes taking over your blog. Now I could have deleted the offending comment, but instead I responded? Do you think I should have deleted the offending comment instead?

Spokker is from LA I know this. I'm insulting him (BusTard and I are from small towns though I was raised here,) because he comes to this blog and tries to be funny. I have no problem with disagreements, but he has a tendency to be disrespectful and I will not let that go. People who are smart asses (ONLINE) think they can just say shit without people saying anything back and that doesn't happen on this blog, especially if you're not using your real name, especially if I've never seen you. I will curse you out if that is the best way to communicate to you (everyone doesn't understand being reasonable,) I’m just a writer and artist I don't care about the rules, the rules of how you are supposed act. The rules in general are tied to getting paid since I have money and want nothing from anyone involved in the transportation, environmental, political, or alt transit communities then I have absolutely no motivation to even pretend to be civil to assholes, why. If someone is an asshole why should you be nice to them? That's weird.

Also for reference this is not an advocacy blog, this is an editorial blog, meaning I'm not advocating for a particular political agenda. In general I've tried to bring on writers who have a variety of opinions, but more conservative people aren't as open minded, so when I bring on conservative writers they can't handle my opinions and instead of writing a rebuttal or commenting they stop writing, even though I give them full autonomy to do what they want.

And I know you think what is the big deal about the neighborhoods, the big deal is that it's the lack of consideration that people have for the eastside and southside of Los Angeles that allows those neighborhoods to be treated like shit. The "I don't care what neighborhood this is" or "those people aren't really people" or just this disconnect that the mainstream media and the blogosphere has in regards to working class neighborhoods, poc neighborhoods is why these neighborhoods are treated so shabby. It doesn't start with one action by Metro, this is something that builds from lots of little things. Lots of little things like confusing Boyle Heights with East Los Angeles.

And there is plenty of space here. I can talk about the main issue but I can also talk about tangent issue and you are free to do that too. This isn't debate class you don't have to stick on topic. If something here makes you think of another topic feel free to bring that up.

Browne

[Boyle Heights Man]

The Cameras are going to be a big revenue enhancer for local government. 14 intersections with Red light cameras!

http://www.metro.net/news_info/press/Metro_128.htm

"Metro Installs Traffic Enforcement Cameras at 14 Eastside Intersections Along New Metro Gold Line Extension to East L.A.

"Metro has begun installing traffic enforcement cameras at 14 intersections along the light rail alignment of the new extension of the Metro Gold Line to East Los Angeles to help promote safe driving habits and reduce accidents caused by motorists illegally crossing the tracks against signals...

"The current fines for a photo enforcement violation are $445 for adults and $435 for legal motorists under age 18.[ouch!]"

Somebody had a question: "Why does East LA get a 1.8 mile tunnel and South Pasadena gets at-grade light rail? What's up with that?"

No tunnel in East LA. East LA begins at Indiana Street where the City of Los Angeles ends and Unincorporated East Los Angeles begins. The East Side Gold Line runs at grade though East LA right down the middle of Third Street. The tunnel is under Boyle Heights beginning at Gless Street and ending before Lorena.

The tunnel under Boyle Heights escaped Zev Yaroslavsky's ban on LACMTA subway construction because it was built with the federal money earmarked for the Eastside Redline extension that was killed by Zev and Richard Riordan in 1998. Use the federal money for the ELA Gold Line or lose it. It would have been much better if the tunnel had been extended through to Third Street so that the line would emerge to street running in a much safer place.

The original Eastside Redline extension would have been entirely underground all the way to Atlantic Blvd. But that alignment was killed by certain Westside politicians.

South Pasadena allowed an at-grade rail line to go through their city because they don't want an at-grade freeway bisecting their little municipality. Allowing the Gold line to go through South Pasedena was to mitigate against a freeway going through.

[Boyle Heights Man]

"Point #3 - the big one. The entire Eastside extension was originally designed to be an eastern extension of the Red Line. Then westside politicians led by Zev and Waxman came together to ban money going towards the project (both local and federal). Now these same people are the leaders for a subway extension to the westside. That's the story everyone should be writing.

Posted by: Damien Goodmon | 08/20/2009 at 10:46 AM"

Interesting how the Westside Power Elite was adamantly opposed to the Wishire (Beverly Hills) Subway all those years when an Eastside extension was a possibility. Now that the Goldline prevents any direct "seamless" line from the Eastside to West LA from even being considered due to system incompatabilities, the Westside Power Elite want a multibillion dollar Westside Subway built. It wasn't about methane gas all these years.

[Spokker]

The plan to keep brown people out of West LA hinges on Hispanics not wanting to transfer at Union Station. That is diabolical!

[Erik G.]

The Racist and Class-ist Henry and Zev had to ban all tunneling in L.A. in order to kill the Subway trough Hancock Park.

No, it wasn't the magic methane, it was a "need" to keep "Those People" away from the Westside. Unfortunately Henry and Zev are still employed.

[M]

Browne, I urge you to take a step back and think about what you are saying. By making these clear line and distinctions everyplace of this is this place and that is that place, you some somewhat perpetuating any problems. Honestly, the thought of "those people aren't really people" never entered my head until I read your words. People that treat the city like crap, trash it and otherwise disrespect those in the city all fall into the same category to me. LA has some major problems, one of which is a language barrier. Does this blog come in a Spanish edition? Why not? If this information is so important for everyone, I don't understand why it isn't available. Does it come in an edition that is easily accessible for people not on a computer? Those simple things are much more isolating in terms of getting certain communities to understand one another and getting to know people than trying to argue about the border of Boyle Heights and East LA. I don't think I've ever randomly stumbled upon or been linked to a Spanish (or any other language besides English) blog on these types of issues related to public transportation.

In general I am trying to say that there are huge communities that are isolated in LA, despite living only a few miles from one another, because of language. There are times I've tried to talk to people on the train and they stare at me as if they aren't understanding a single word that came out of my mouth. In some instances, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't. One day a guy got on the train and asked me in broken English why I didn't speak Spanish as well as English. Should I have asked why he didn't speak English as well as Spanish? California does honestly have an official language of English and it's not uncommon for many people in LA to speak a minimal amount, if any, English. When people can only gesture or are simply trying to understand what the other is saying, there is going to be disconnect between communities.

[browne]

M,

I'm not making clear lines society did that. I'm simply recognizing the identities that people have embraced for themselves.

And I don't know what you are implying with your "people who trash the city" comment, because from what I have seen humans aren't all that different, just some parts of the city has more people cleaning up after it than others. The Eastside have people who walk on the streets so it's not going to be as sparkly as the Westside or the Valley where last Saturday I walked two miles up Cahunega in the Valley didn't see one bus stop or a single person walking around. I can't walk two blocks on the Eastside without seeing a person and someone telling me hello. The city needs to come down and clean the Eastside more, because I never see them down here and the people actually use the street more.

California was stolen from Mexico by the US.
Then people from the all over the US moved here and made laws. Those laws said that black people could only live here, Latinos can only live here, Asian people could only live here and not only that people had to go to different schools owing to their "race". This is a personal anecdote I had a from a friend that is quite a bit older than me, she is Latina. She said while she "looked" black and her sisters "looked" white that they were forced to go to different schools owing to the unspoken laws of Los Angeles.

I'm not for lines. I'm for recognizing everyone is human, but who in LA doesn't notice people's ethncities and make assumptions. I go to liberal things all of the time and I never bring up my ethnicity, but someone white (which is usually the ethnicty of most of the people at these kinds of events) always does and that happens with everyone that is an ethnic minority. People just randomly bring up they speak Spanish or eat collard greens or like Japan what is that? People keep asking me about African-American food after I told them (after the asked where I was from) I'm from Canada that I'm Nigerian and Honduran (also after they thought I was Jamaican because I have dreads, I don't offer info I just correct,) but this doesn't matter they see one thing and they can't let it go. It doesn't bother me it's just weird to me that there are very strict boxes in LA.

I have an Asian-American friend and people randomly will start talking about Japan, she's Chinese from Taiwan, but that doesn't stop them from asking her about Kimchi and just going and on and on...it's insane, neither of us are offended by it, we just are amazed. LA is an amazing place. I think it's a mixture of sexism and racism that makes people not hear what you are telling them.

This all points to me that the lines in LA, California, America came way before this blog and will continue way after this blog goes away.

This blog doesn't come in Spanish yet until I find a program or a blogger who is willing to translate it, but I'm looking or I want a blogger who will post in Spanish, that would be even better. We could have my English speaking perspective and someone's Spanish speaking perspective. I don't have to run everything. I'm totally cool with working with people who want to reach out to the demographic that speaks Spanish, Korean, Tagalog, Armenian,Vietnamese Chinese, Igbo, ...I had this dream that I finally learned Spanish fluently and then I had this interview at this big event and I refused to speak English, because the organizer had forgotten the Spanish translator as they often do, so out of protest I only spoke Spanish. It was a great dream.

People who speak Spanish have no problem with me. They ask me questions and I figure it out. I live in LA I am not fluent or even kindergarten level, but since I have a vested interest in understanding everyone I can figure it out. I think they are surprised at you, because maybe everyone else who takes public transit tries and can sort of understand each other.

I have this odd skill of being able to sort of understand every language simply looking at facial expersssion and gestures. I was hanging out with my Thai-American friend and everyone was speaking Thai and I was answering and she was like, "You understand Thai?" And I was like, no, but I understand people.

Once at the bus in downtown I had a conversation with two older women one spoke Spanish and minimal Enlish, the other only spoke Cantonese and minimal English and me English can sometimes understand Spanish can speak a bit of Igbo, a bit of Mandarin, but yet we all were able to make fun of this crazy homeless guy...the irony of that situation, hey we're taking the bus, but at least we're not that guy. That isn't right, but you know to be human you don't have to be perfect it is just about trying. I think sometimes people feel that language is a barrier, it can be, but really if you truly don't want it to be a barrier it does not. This guy who only spoke Spanish thought I was cute, dude used to hunt me down and give me pastries everyday on the Blue Line. He was a baker. It would have been a great French movie. He described where he lived, where he was from, what he wanted to do, how he wanted to learn English, how he liked my eyes, dude figured out a way to overcome the barrier.

I respect who you are and I'm sure you respect other people, but before you talk about lines and division you really have to think why those lines and divisions are there and who put them there and who keeps them there and it certainly isn't me.

Here are some of my ideas of who it maybe

The City and the LAPD, the enforcement of laws in certain part of the city and the overenforcement of petty bs in other part of the city while ignoring mass murders

The economy, no jobs.

The education, the separate but equal education given out in LA.

All of this is still going on, me acknowledging this is not making this continue. You can't solve a problem if you don't acknowledge that it's there. These lines are real. People are treated differently because of these lines. Me ignoring it because I happen to have learned the game is a disservice, because I know how I got here and it wasn't because of all of the things they tell you in school.

If you feel language is your barrier why don't you learn Spanish? You probably have alot more time and resources as an English only speaker than the traditional person who comes to the US only speaking Spanish. If people are already trying to speak to you on the bus and train that's a good sign that you seem open to people.

But you know you are right. I will make an effort to find spanish language media that talks about social justice that I can link to or reference. I never thought of that, but that would be a very good idea.

I have a French one, but that is more literary based: Marie-Laure Dagoit
http://mots.extraits.free.fr/marie_laure_dagoit.htm

Browne

[Spokker]

"No, it wasn't the magic methane, it was a "need" to keep "Those People" away from the Westside. Unfortunately Henry and Zev are still employed."

Yawn. The subway is pretty much being embraced by Beverly Hills these days and the tunneling ban wasn't about racism, but cost overruns and sinkholes. I love the Red Line but it was a PR disaster and I get why the tunneling ban passed, even if I disagree with it.

[Dudeinho]

all theses at grade fanatics would run rail at grade accross a freeway if they could. Just grade seperate the damm things where there are high concentrations of vehicles crossing the tracks. You can bring charts and figures and claim all this safety nonsense but it still wont prevent delyas and accidents when these things are built at grade. Want to know what the best light rail lines are in LA. the Green and red line. Why Speed, and they arent crashing into drivers who make stupid decisions. forcing Angelinos to slowdown and have them sit in traffic because a train is crossing isnt going to magically make them jump on a train that isnt going to be any faster if they are queing for lights as well. THe option needs to be speed. Especially when LA is so Spread out.

By the way the Pheonix light rail line had its first accidecent a week ago a car slammed into a train knocking it off its tracks, Again that doesnt take long. Id rather ride a bus it all our rail lines keep being built this way. funny though how the westside can get its grade seperation but south central doesnt get considered. It isnt racism its money.

[Art]

Spokker,
The reason why Boyle Heights has a 1.8 mile tunel and southpas doesnt is because of several reasons (a few already mentioned in terms of history), they are:

-Boyle Heights has a population density several times greater than southpas (18k+ vs. 7k per square mile)
-The alignment was bult on an existing right of way thru southpas, in Boyle heights it is built along dense busy corridors that share traffic with cars, bikes and pedestrians
-Boyle Heights is also more heavilly built up than south pas from a physical perspective
-the esgl passes several major activity centers in boyle heights that have been around for half a century or longer, in southpas it passes one that has received a tremendous boost of vibrancy because of the goldline and was previously kind of dead
-the goldline in southpas does not run along any major corridor connecting the central city to rest of the country and sgv, the esgl passes through several(1st, 3rd)
-few big rigs pass through southpas
-There are far less pedestrians in southpas than boyle hts or eastlos
-BH and ELA have much higher rates of transit dependancy, which will be illustrated when we compare ridership per mile stats once the esgl opens
-The old eastside rail plans called for total grade seperation, the same old plans for the goldline alingment in southpas always called for at-grade since the alingment is there