Los Angeles Mayoral candidates and transit policy

[pithecanthropus]

What with the mayoral election coming up, who would be best with regard to the issues we focus on here? From what I've heard, Kevin James is presumably opposed to major transit investments, but what about the other candidates? Is there any particular reason to favor or disfavor any of them? For me, at least, none of them is particularly distinquished or remarkable but then mayoral candidates rarely are, with some notable exceptions.

Come to think of it, does it matter all that much who the mayor is? The City doesn't really run Metro, although the Mayor does sit on the board, and one can't forget what an effective advocate for transit Villaraigosa has been.

I'd be interested in what others have to say.

[masonite]

Feb 17, 2013 17:58:03 GMT -8 pithecanthropus said:

What with the mayoral election coming up, who would be best with regard to the issues we focus on here? From what I've heard, Kevin James is presumably opposed to major transit investments, but what about the other candidates? Is there any particular reason to favor or disfavor any of them? For me, at least, none of them is particularly distinquished or remarkable but then mayoral candidates rarely are, with some notable exceptions.

Come to think of it, does it matter all that much who the mayor is? The City doesn't really run Metro, although the Mayor does sit on the board, and one can't forget what an effective advocate for transit Villaraigosa has been.

I'd be interested in what others have to say.

I was all set to vote for Perry, mostly for fiscal reasons, but at a forum about a month ago, she said she supported Beverly Hills in their quest to reroute the subway. Garcetti was the only one who said he would unequivocally support the route as is. Gruel didn't give a definitive answer and James said he supported Beverly Hills.

Apparently, Perry is friends with the Beverly Hills school board president. I mentioned to an LA Times reporter that I couldn't vote for Perry because of this and he said he was at the forum and was shocked at her answer. To me it just shows poor overall judgement and the LA Mayor controls 4 seats on the MTA Board so it is a major area of influence.

Anyone I feel Garcetti has the transit vision. Gruel seems similar on transit but she always gives washy wash answers compared to Garcetti.

Of course this is just my two cents

[LAofAnaheim]

I was initially going to support either Gruel or Garcetti, however, Gruel's dialogue in the last 2 weeks has made me now a much stronger Garcetti supporter. First, she basically caved in to Beverly Hills and says "more dialogue should continue" on the subway route under Beverly Hills. Then, she blamed Garcetti of "development and traffic" in Hollywood. Gruel comes from the Valley; and over the 10 years Garcetti took over Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, etc...look at the areas that have gentrified and thrived and is now every urban Angeleno's cityscape...compared to the Valley which still has a bad connation. Garcetti has been an urban pioneer's wet dream.

Agreed with masonite on Perry....I live in downtown and am happy with the developments, but once I learned that she is good friends with Lisa Korbatev and her opposition to the subway under BHHS, well, I will make sure every Perrry supporter is aware about this because the majority of Angelenos want the Westside Subway Extension more than anything else.

Read this article: www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/06/westside-subway-la-mayoral-candidates_n_2420480.html

The Mayor is an important position for Metro, I feel. Look at Tom Bradley and his vision that was laid out when he became Mayor. As mentioned previously, Mayor Hahn caved into BRU pressure and we had the 10 year consent decree. Antonio Villairaigosa, who in my mind is the best Transit mayor LA has ever seen, who 1) convinced Waxman to get the federal ban on drilling and funding overturned (not a small feat, this was huge and goes unwarranted) and 2) promoted Measure R. Without Measure R, we wouldn't be talking about the Crenshaw Line, Westside Subway Extension, Regional Connector or Foothill Extension....all projections breaking ground within the year or already have.

So the Mayor is a very important position in LA! Vote smart!

[masonite]

Yeah, it was political suicide for Perry to support BH. She is running for mayor of LA and the vast majority of LA residents don't support the BH position and want the subway to go to the heart of Century City and to the Westside as soon as possible.

As someone else said, it was not Hahn who caved into the BRU, it was actually Riordan, who said it was the biggest mistake of his tenure as Mayor.

[pithecanthropus]

Thanks, this is what I was looking for. I was more or less leaning towards Garcetti anyway.

[pithecanthropus]

In the interest of fairness, it turns out that James is fairly strong on transit infrastructure, at least according to his campaign website.

Based on my own political outlook, there are other substantial reasons to vote against him, but it's good to know that if he does somehow win it won't be a total disaster.

[LAofAnaheim]

By Monday, we'll have a new Mayor in office. Mayors don't always have a darling reputation as everybody would rather focus on negatives than the positives. But in a transit environment, without the elecion of Antonio Villairaigosa as Mayor in 2005, where would we be? Extending the Purple Line would still be a non-starter as there was nobody to push Waxman to get the federal drilling ban overturned. Politicians are sometimes scared of putting new taxes on ballots, especially with the emergence of anti-tax sentiment since 2008, but Antonio did it. Withour Measure R, the only rail project we would see under construction would be Expo Phase 2 today and nothing else?

Luckily, I think, we lived through one of the best transit mayors for LA ever. I know Bradley continues to get a lot of credit for kick starting rail, and he deserves it, but I would place Antonio just as high. He got our federal drilling ban overturned by convincing Waxman that drilling is safe, found funding for rail projects, got behind cicLAvia, which is now LA's most popular public event, and has been developing a decent bike network over the years. Antonio was just as transformative as Bradley and his recognition for change will grow greater in the future, like Bradley. Antonio changed LA's culture from auto-centric development to public transit thinking. We will have 5 Metro rail projects under construction next year thanks to Antonio....can any other Mayor attest to that statement?

To the end, I just want to say, thank you Antonio, for changing LA.