L.A. City Council District 5 election

[tonyw79sfv]

KABC just aired the city council debate earlier today and I'd thought I share this link since one of the issues debated is transportation. Watch part 2 (of 3) of the debate. I'm not in district 5, but I'd go for Robyn.

L.A. City Council District 5 Debate

Map of District 5

Note that district 5 is mostly on the Westside, interestingly, it includes a lot of the southern San Fernando Valley; the only Metro rapid transit currently operating in this district is the Metro Orange Line from Valley College station to Laurel Canyon station. Future rapid transit in this area is the Metro Purple and Expo Lines.

[James Fujita]

I don't live in the 5th District, but I must admit they do seem to have interesting choices.

According to the map of the district, it looks like it includes Cheviot Hills, so this district does have serious Expo Rail implications.

Assemblyman Paul Koretz seems to be the one with the most political experience, although that doesn't necessarily make him the best candidate....

I was looking at each of their Web sites, and pretty much all except Ron Galperin express support for rail transit (he doesn't specifically mention if he supports or opposes?), and several mention the Expo Line and the Subway to the Sea specifically. Robyn Ritter Simon seems to be strongest in favor. Meanwhile, David T. Vahedi includes this statement:

"On June 9, 2008, the MTA announced that regardless of the route chosen, all crossings by the train along major streets would be at grade in our area. This means that mechanical arms would block traffic for up to a minute, 24 times per hour during rush hour.

While we all agree that we are in dire need of immediate mass transit, we must not sell ourselves short by rushing to build a line that is unsafe and ineffective due to insufficient funding to build it properly.

Simply, the residents of the Westside pay more than their fair share of property taxes and income taxes compared with residents in other parts of the state. We should not be ashamed to demand that the trains either go over or under major streets such as Overland, Westwood, and Sepulveda."

so, I'm hoping for Simon, predicting Koretz, and hopefully not Vahedi (despite his clever graphics - on his home page, he steps into the picture and starts talking at you)