....© 2000, Kimit A. Muston
Ed Note: Kimit Muston lives in North Hollywood. Inditer.com comes out of Victoria, Canada. Kimit writes a lot on local issues (LA and environs [no, we don't mean LaLaLand for LA]). That means we are both on the West Coast of North America, both on Earthquake Faults, and both a little weird....according to some of those from the 'Mysterious East'. Kimit says,"This one is on a local issue, but I have been tyring to come up with a title that would have a national/international import. I guess we could call it, "Investment in the Future."
I changed the my signiture, hoping to encourage folks ticked off at my stuff to go to inditer.com to blow off steam at me. I hope the Daily News prints it and we can get a judge on how many folks are really reading us. (you and me, both.) Kimit"
Our egos depend on it! so I hope so too Kimit. And you, dear readers, write to editor@inditer.com , or directly to Kimit Muston
"Investment In The Future"
I drove by the North Hollywood Red Line station the week after it opened. According to the Los Angeles Times the parking lot was half full. My estimate was more like darn near full. The comics over the hill used to joke about the Red Line and call it "the train to nowhere". I guess The Valley was the "nowhere" they were joking about. Which makes it now the train from nowhere.
But I didn't hear any of the merchants down on Olvera street laughing on the opening weekend. The restaurants and shops were jammed with folks carrying MTA bags and maps. And NoHo was crowded with folks from the other side of the hill, enjoying our festival. Doesn't sound like nowhere to me.
"The Most Expensive Subway Ever Built." Well, next year prices will go up and something new will be the most expensive thing ever. Until the year after that. The other way to look at it might be to say that if we start building it this year it will be cheaper than if we wait to start building it next year.
Buses are cheaper than subways, of course. Of course, bicycles are cheaper than busses. Maybe we should sell the busses and hand out bicycles. That might work over the hill, but not in The Valley. We're too spread out.
Still the Bus Riders Union wants more buses. Somehow I don't think putting more of anything on city streets is going to cut down on traffic. A bus in a traffic jam doesn't move any faster than a car in a traffic jam, no matter how long the light stays green. And what is the average life span of a bus? Ten years? A twenty year old subway car is just entering middle age.
Busses are efficient at moving people over distances of less than a mile or two. But beyond that they become part of the problem. And they are not good neighbors. Their noise and fumes are created fresh every day, not just during construction. Still busses are the instant solution. Grid lock in the streets? Add more busses. It's easy. It's quick. And it's wrong.
What we need in The Valley are new traffic corridors. What we need is a valley solution to The Valley's traffic problems, and a solution that will be running a century from now, like the 150 year old subway in London and the one in New York, and in Paris and in Moscow and in Boston. What is The Valley going to look like one hundred years from now? One big bus lane? If we don't start investing in the future this city isn't going to have one.
Since City Hall is opposed to all future subway construction the only future offered the Valley is either "light rail" or "dedicated bus lanes." Both are cheaper up front than a subway. And both systems have the same long term cost to the communities they pass through.
A surface line is either left open (like the Blue Line) and people keep dieing to beat the train (or the bus), or you fence off the line (as they are belatedly doing with the Blue line) and then you cut neighborhoods in half. Boston is spending a couple of billion dollars right now trying to fix the same problem city hall wants to create all the way across The Valley.
A subway doesn't cut anything in half. A subway doesn't hit cars and or run over children. It doesn't block intersections as it passes. A subway is not bothered when a truck jackknifes on the 101 and traffic is thrown onto surface streets. And, as the BART system in San Francisco showed, it isn't bothered by earthquakes as much as freeways.
And yet the powers that be have decided that there will be no subway line running west from North Hollywood to Warner Center,(a 30 minute subway ride) and no second line running from No Ho north to Burbank Airport (10 minutes) and then west to Northridge and Chatsworth (a 30 minute ride). The decision is that subways are too expensive to build, and the future can be bought on the cheap. Let our children deal with the mess we leave them. The politicians have decided that the public wants instant solutions.
And yet subways are the only long term solution which would allow people to move quickly, quietly and efficiently over the long distances in The Valley without destroying even further the quality of life here in The Valley.
The subway was never popular over the hill. They regarded it as a train to nowhere from day one and they still do. And the media echo that idea without question. But have you ridden the Red Line? When you do ride it you will be amazed.
Take your kids to a show at the El Capitan in Hollywood, a 6 minute ride by subway. You won't have to fight the Cahuenga Pass and you won't have to pay for parking. Or take the Red Line to Universal, (2 minutes) and catch a free tram up to Citywalk and have lunch. You won't have to pay for parking there, either. Or ride all the way down to City Hall and pay your tax bill, do your jury duty, or stop off to have a little talk with your city council representative. It's only a 30 minute ride. No traffic, no parking fees, no hassles. Quick, quiet and energy efficient. If you've lived in The Valley for very long, it almost sounds like magic.
The Red Line is going to be great for North Hollywood. But the rest of The Valley is still "no where." Which is just the way the basin has always seen us.
Kimit A.Muston is a writer living in North Hollywood. He may be contacted at www.inditer.com or email the editor. His work may be also be read in the Los Angeles Daily News