On the station both received grades of “A-”, while on the tunnel Greuel received a “B+” and Garcetti a “C.”

It is important to note that: 1) this is not an endorsement of either candidate (we are a 501(c)3 organization and thereby prohibited from endorsing candidates for office); 2) both candidates could be more vocal “champions” for the Park Mesa Heights tunnel; and 3) regardless of who is elected the next Mayor, our community will need to remain diligent in this battle to secure the Park Mesa Heights tunnel and Leimert Park Village station.

The Process

Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti separately participated in a closed-door interview with about 20 of the core members and key advisors to the Crenshaw Subway Coalition, including former elected officials, former candidates for public office, economic development professionals, transit development professionals, business leaders, civil rights leaders and activists. The group included people who had already made up their mind and endorsed one of the candidates and people who remained neutral. All were united on the community’s demand for a subway station at Leimert Park Village and an 11-block tunnel in Park Mesa Heights from 48th Street to 59th Street. After each meeting correspondence was sent to the candidates to follow-up on what was discussed, and to request written clarifications/confirmation to serve as a document that the community could use as a basis of accountability. The letters by both candidates and their verbal statements are below.

Both Committed to LPV Station – But Their Positions on Station May Be Moot

Garcetti’s letter states: “As Mayor, I will continue to aggressively fight for the rail stop in Leimert Park…”

Greuel’s letter states: “I commit to…[c]hampion the effort to ensure that the Crenshaw/LAX Line project includes a station at Leimert Park Village…”

And both candidates’ written words correspond with their public statements on the station.

However, it is important to note that the MTA board is currently scheduled to decide the fate of the Leimert Park station at their June 27 meeting, which is before the next Mayor takes office (July 1). Thus, the candidates’ positions on the station may be moot. But if the MTA does not agree to add the station to the project both appear committed to ensuring it.

The Real Metric is the Park Mesa Heights Tunnel

The more revealing question regarding the candidates’ willingness to put their political capital on the line for the Crenshaw community is: where do they stand on the 11-block Crenshaw Blvd tunnel in Park Mesa Heights? We know that MTA has the resources today to add the Park Mesa Heights tunnel to the budget. The question is who is actually willing to fight to secure those resources for the Crenshaw corridor? On this matter there are distinct differences between Garcetti and Greuel.

Greuel Commits to Champion the Community’s Effort

Wendy Greuels Crenshaw Line Commitments – February 27, 2013 by Crenshaw Subway Coalition

Greuel’s full commitment to “champion” is actually:

“I commit to…[c]hampion the effort to ensure that the Crenshaw/LAX Line project includes a station at Leimert Park Village and an underground tunnel along Crenshaw Boulevard from 48th Street to 59th Street.“

Greuel also commits to tackling the administrative hurdles that are currently challenges for implementing the tunnel:

“I commit to…[a]s soon as possible upon taking office as Mayor, direct staff to review the design options in the EIR/S as well as funding opportunities for undergrounding portions of the Crenshaw/LAX line, including the section of Crenshaw Blvd between 48th and 59th streets.”

These strong written commitments to put capital on the line and pursue overcoming the administrative obstacles are the primary basis for Greuel’s “B+” grade. She also performed very well in the closed-door interview.

Garcetti Adds Unfounded Conditions to His Support for the Tunnel that Read as “Out-Clauses”

In statements at public forums Garcetti has been a vocal supporter for “undergrounding the line.”

Eric Garcetti Crenshaw Line Statement – May 1, 2013 by Crenshaw Subway Coalition

Garcetti’s letter states:

I have always supported under-grounding the line from 48th Street to 59th Street, and just as I have regarding the Leimert Park station, I have advocated for this throughout my campaign and as a longtime policy priority of my Council office. Under-grounding, however, is unfortunately not part of the current EIR. I will continue to advocate for under-grounding the line, and if elected will immediately confer with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and carefully assess new options to see how we can achieve this goal without delaying Line construction or impacting the completion of the Leimert Park station.

As we articulated in our letter to Garcetti after our meeting, past support for the tunnel is significant, but the candidate’s current position is far more relevant. In this regard Garcetti’s choice and manner of conditioning his “advocacy” for the tunnel is concerning. This is not a matter of simple semantics. Garcetti’s “conditions” read as “opt-out clauses” and are particularly troubling because they are identical to the unfounded excuses the community has received for nearly two years by Mayor Villaraigosa and other politicians on why they won’t move forward on the Park Mesa Heights tunnel.

Before we explain this further it is critical for us to underscore that Garcetti was offered multiple opportunities to clarify his written statement, but he has refused to do so. Should Garcetti modify his position we will be the first to report it, and if his clarifying written commitment is substantively different we will update his grade accordingly.

Garcetti’s Conditions are Unfounded

It is important to expand on Garcetti’s “conditions,” because: a) they are unfounded and the public/politicians need to know exactly why they are unacceptable; and b) they are largely the reason Garcetti received a grade of “C” on the tunnel. His interview performance was also less than good. In summary, Garcetti’s statement pits the Leimert Park station against the Park Mesa Heights tunnel and makes delay appear as a valid concern, when in fact this is solely an issue of political will – nothing else.

1. Pitting the Leimert Park Village Station Against the Park Mesa Heights Tunnel

Judgment of Solomon (1 Kings 3:16-28)

Since the moment the May 2011 motion to fund both the Leimert Park Village station and Park Mesa Heights tunnel failed, MTA has sought to make it appear as though the community should be happy to receive just the Leimert Park station. Asking the Crenshaw community to accept either the destruction of the last black business corridor and imposition of a major safety hazard in front of community schools, or not having rail access to Southern California’s African-American cultural district is akin to asking the community to be happy to receive half a baby. This is not an either/or choice, and we have zealously made this point in our advocacy over the past 2 years. This is a matter of ensuring that after decades of taking South L.A. tax dollars that MTA finally builds a rail project for a South L.A. community, instead of simply through a South L.A. community.

As we’ve seen repeatedly, this is not a matter of resources, as Villaraigosa/MTA proposed a $90 billion sales tax increase on last November’s ballot that didn’t have a penny for the Park Mesa Heights tunnel, Leimert Park Village station or any rail project or extension in any part of South Los Angeles. And MTA is at it again, proposing to bond against $10.2 billion in future sales tax revenue to accelerate transit and highway construction projects in every part of the county EXCEPT South Los Angeles.

Furthermore, there is the context of the either the station or tunnel claim in the overall transportation decisions being made by the MTA. There is just one South LA rail project to be funded by MTA’s 30-year expansion plan (the Crenshaw-LAX Line), at an investment total of $1.75B. Comparatively, in Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s district there are three: Wilshire subway extension, Sepulveda Pass rail tunnel, and Expo Phase 2 to Santa Monica which the MTA board has collectively dedicated nearly $7 billion in taxpayer funds towards building (and the projects will collectively cost even billions more).

Villaraigosa, Yaroslavsky, Garcetti, nor MTA has ever claimed one of the projects in Zev’s district is more important than the other. The reverse is actually true: each wants them all built and they want them all built much faster. That’s what Measure J was about, which our organization strongly opposed, along with black community leadership. And with respect to Measure J, Garcetti is a proponent of putting another Measure J on the ballot in the future, only this time with a reduced voter threshold. Greuel also supports putting another Measure J on the ballot in the future with a reduced voter threshold, but as specified above she is committed to championing a Crenshaw/LAX Line with both the station and tunnel, not attempting to pit one against the other.

We are remaining consistent with the position we took on Measure J: if South L.A. residents are going to be asked to pay additional taxes to improve and expedite tens of billions of transit and highway projects in every other part of the county, then at a minimum Crenshaw should receive an 11-block tunnel and station at Leimert Park Village.

2. This is a Matter of Political Will – Nothing Else
Given that sufficient resources exist today, and more are being sought in the future, it is clear that the only thing lacking in the effort for a Park Mesa Heights tunnel is political will. No other person on the 13-member MTA board controls 4 votes, which is a lot of clout. In fact, in the 7 years that we have been monitoring the agency we can recall only once that the Mayor’s block was out-voted. The point is clear, as goes the Mayor so goes the board. The community expected Villaraigosa to stand with it and champion the efforts on the Crenshaw Line, and they expect the same from the next Mayor.

3. Delay is Not a Legitimate Concern & Any Potential Delay is Not of Our Making
The reality is changing the rail from street-level to underground for 11-blocks would modify less than 20% of the project’s length. The remaining 80% of the line could proceed simultaneous to the administrative and design process necessary to implement the tunnel in Park Mesa Heights. And the bulk of time for that administrative process (composition of a modified environmental study for the 11-blocks) would take just 6 months. We must also point out that this environmental process could have been concluded a long time ago if MTA had began the process back when we first publicly requested it in January of 2012. Furthermore, this project has been delayed by MTA staff multiple times for reasons that have nothing to do with changing the street-level segment in Park Mesa Heights to underground. Beginning construction in some portions of the project, and delivering the project somewhat later to save lives and save the last black business corridor is entirely rational and overwhelming supported by the community.

This is a literal gamechanger. Four votes on the 13 member body will change. The ramifications for our issue and South Los Angeles transportation in general are HUGE! In May of 2011, Villaraigosa used his four votes to oppose the effort to add money to underground the Crenshaw-LAX Line on Crenshaw Blvd and add a station at Leimert Park Village. Those votes WERE the difference, as the motion failed 3-10.

Your willingness to continue standing up in our battle to change the street-level segment on Crenshaw Blvd to underground & return the Leimert Park Village Station to the project has made this a key issue by which candidates are judged in South LA and throughout the city.

What are their stances on this key issue? Attend our community organizing meeting at 6:30 pm on Thursday, May 2 at Christ Temple Church at 54th Street & 10th Ave to find out, and to help prepare for the MTA contract award decision, where the board will vote on whether to include a subway station at Leimert Park Village. Download and distribute the flyer

(We encourage you to liberally distribute the flyer at worship services this weekend and hand out the flyer to neighbors and business owners in your community.)

Black Talkies On Parade and the 7th Annual Leimert Park Village Book Fair present
Leimert Park: The Story of a Village in South Central Los Angeles
Saturday, April 27th 2013 at 4:00 pm
Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum, 4130 Overland Ave, Culver City, CA 90230

Black Talkies On Parade presents a very special afternoon celebrating one of L.A.’s most colorful communities. This month the Mayme A. Clayton Library and Museum will be screening the documentary film Leimert Park: The Story of a Village in South Los Angeles directed by Jeannette Lindsay. The film explores the neighborhood’s vibrant culture with thriving art, music, and poetry scenes. After the film there will be a panel discussion and Q&A with filmmakers Jeannette Lindsay, Zan Zetina, and Steve Isadori. Other featured guest will be author Cynthia E. Exum and co-author Maty Guiza-Leimert who together wrote a comprehensive book detailing the history of Leimert Park since it’s conception in 1927 by Walter H. Leimert Sr. Autographed copies of Images of America: Leimert Park will be made available during the event or advance copies may be purchased at Eso Won Book Store located in Leimert Park, 4327 Degnan Blvd, LA., Ca 90008, (323) 290-1048. Join MCLM and share your own stories of L.A.’s one of a kind neighborhood, Leimert Park!

A key item on today’s MTA board meeting is the acceleration of all MTA transit and highway projects currently on track to be built in the 2020s and 2030s by bonding against future tax revenues. By using this financing plan the MTA board would make available $10.2 billion in public funds to build transportation projects. Not one penny of the $10.2 billion would go towards the Leimert Park Village station, or tunnel in Park Mesa Heights. At the MTA board today, we’ll both highlight this injustice and suggest a remedy. The following is our email to MTA Board sent this morning:

Members of the MTA Board:

As you are well aware, a key item on today’s MTA board meeting agenda is an plan to accelerate the construction of transit and highway projects by bonding against anticipated future revenues (Prop A, C, and Measure R among others). Page 28 of the staff report (pdf) specifies the total amount of funding made available through bonding at $10.2 billion. And as specified on page 12 & 13 NOT ONE PENNY of the $10.2 billion is dedicated to undergrounding the Crenshaw-LAX Line on Crenshaw Blvd from 48th-59th or adding a subway station at Leimert Park Village. In fact, of the $10.2B NOT ONE PENNY is to be spent in any part of South L.A., and the project that will be the biggest single recipient is the SUBWAY extension in Zev Yaroslavsky’s Westside district.

It is proposed actions like this (which comes just a month after the L.A. City Council allocated $354 million of Measure R local return dollars for the Downtown LA Party trolley) made in the context of our struggle on the Crenshaw-LAX Line that feeds the passionate distrust, overall sense of disrespect and perception of inequity that frankly has led to the horrid perception of Mayor Villaraigosa and the MTA board in the South LA and Black LA community. It is why we scoff when continually told, “There’s no money” for what the Crenshaw community requests on the Crenshaw-LAX Line.

How does our community and our interests – which are undoubtedbly unique and critical – the preservation and enhancement of the LAST black business corridor in the region – continue to get left out of these MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR discussions?

How does this board, which is filled with people who stand on the shoulders of giants in the civil rights movement, continue to perpetrate such injustice?

As I’m sure you recall, a large segment of Los Angeles County’s African-American community and leadership opposed a similar, but far more costly bond-to-accelerate plan in the recent election, Measure J. We opposed the measure not because we were against transit expansion – not by any stretch of the imagination – but rather because we were being cut out of a $90 billion dollar allocation of public funds, despite our clear and vocal request for resources to underground 0.9-mile on Crenshaw Blvd and add station at Leimert Park Village – the African-American cultural center of Southern California. The highest estimate for these two additions to the Crenshaw-LAX Line would have amounted to less than 1/2 of 1% of $90 billion, yet we still were ignored, we were left out – so we voted no, we told our people to vote no, and in collaboration with other disaffected communities and groups we helped defeat the measure.

I write this email this morning to each of you, and will be present at this morning’s board meeting to request from the podium, a solution to this unfortunate problem: amend the motion/pass the motion contingent on an additional $300 million being directed to the Crenshaw-LAX Line for both undergrounding the rail line from 48th to 59th Street on Crenshaw Blvd, and adding a station at Leimert Park Village.

At worst this is a 3% re-allocation or increase of the $10.2 billion. Given that South LA taxpayers will be required to pay for the costs of these bonds, South LA should see a direct benefit in the form of a Crenshaw-LAX Line that is completely underground on Crenshaw Blvd and with a subway station at Leimert Park Village. These two changes will transform the Crenshaw-LAX Line into an asset to the community by spawning the economic revitalization sought for generations and dating back to leaders such as Julian Dixon and Tom Bradley. Clearly far more is due to our community, which has a high transit dependency rate, a large segment of transit riders, and is in its condition today because of historic public disinvestment.

If the language of the motion can’t be worked out at the horseshoe today, I recommend you delay this item to the next MTA board meeting on May 23rd, where hundreds of my friends will be present to see your discussion in person.

Finally, in full disclosure, the attempt by any of you (or NONE of you) to amend this gross inequity today, and to right the greatest threat to the economic present and future of Los Angeles’ last black business corridor will be widely circulated (beginning first with the Crenshaw Subway Coalition multi-thousand person newsletter) and I’m sure will affect the sentiments conveyed by the bus loads of people who are preparing to #SwarmMTA on May 23rd when the contract for the Crenshaw-LAX is awarded. I’ll be sure to video record your decision on my iPhone and upload it to our YouTube page and where possible tweet the conversation at CrenshawSubway on Twitter so that we can highlight it for the community at our May 2nd meeting at Christ Temple Church – 3125 W. 54th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90043.

Thursday, May 2, 6:30 – 8:30 PM
Christ Temple Church Auditorium
3125 W. 54th Street
(Two Blocks East of Crenshaw Blvd)

The Next 90 Days are Critical

The last 6 months have been an active time for the Crenshaw Subway Coalition. We helped lead a collaboration of community groups and leaders that defeated MTA’s $90 billion sales tax increase. We added to our legal representation, and have had our lawsuit against MTA moved to a new judge. And we have established our issue – the complete under-grounding of the Crenshaw Blvd portion of the Crenshaw-LAX Line and the addition of a Leimert Park Village station – as a metric by which the Mayoral candidates are judged.

But few moments will be as critical in our righteous cause as the next 90 days and we need your help.

On May 23rd, the MTA Board is scheduled to select a contractor to build the Crenshaw-LAX Line. At that moment, the board will also decide whether or not to build the Leimert Park Village station.

And on July 1 we will see a change at the MTA Board as the new mayor and their three new appointees will take seats currently occupied by Antonio Villaraigosa and his appointees. This change in administration can be key towards making the Crenshaw Blvd tunnel a reality.

Picture in Nov. 29, 2012 NY Times of a Crenshaw Blvd Business Owner

Tomorrow morning the struggle of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition will hit newsstands across the world. In addition to posting the New York Times article in it’s entirety below, here are a few critical updates about the status of our effort to make MTA underground the rail line on Crenshaw Blvd to protect and preserve the future of Los Angeles’ last black business corridor, and build a stop at Leimert Park Village to serve the center of African-American culture in Southern California.

The three primary focuses of our organization currently are our legal challenge, our efforts to pass The People’s Motion, and ensuring that the Crenshaw-LAX Line issue is a key barometer for evaluating the 2013 L.A. Mayoral candidates in South L.A. and beyond.

1) Our Legal Challenge: Crenshaw Subway Coalition v. MTA & FTA

Our organization remains engaged in a well-grounded legal battle against the MTA and Federal Transit Administration that challenges the approvals granted by the agencies to build the Crenshaw-LAX light rail line. Our lawsuit states that by building a train line to run at street-level down Crenshaw Blvd and without a stop at Leimert Park Village the MTA has violated over a dozen state and federal environmental laws and the California civil rights law. If the federal judge who will hear our case in March of 2013 finds that MTA has violated just one of the laws, it would very likely halt construction of the line.

2) Passing The People’s Motion at the MTA Board

Currently, the ONLY major impediment to permitting the four joint ventures that are seeking the billion-dollar Crenshaw-LAX light rail contract to submit a supplemental bid that includes a Crenshaw-LAX project with a tunnel the entirety of Crenshaw Blvd and station at Leimert Park Village is the MTA board. The MTA board currently refuses to even ask the contractors to bid the project with the tunnel. Until a bid is received the true cost of the tunnel cannot be known. However, preliminary analysis by several contractors indicate the additional cost will be minimal or could be absorbed within the existing project budget. We remain committed to addressing this major administrative hurdle by advocating for passage of The People’s Motion by the MTA board.

3) Making This Issue a Key Barometer in the Mayoral Discussion

Placing the Crenshaw-LAX line underground for 11-blocks on Crenshaw Blvd is simply a matter of political will NOT resources. MTA has always had the money, but Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has lacked the desire to direct it towards the Crenshaw-LAX Rail Line. We believe that if the current mayor is uninterested in protecting Los Angeles’ last black business corridor, the South LA black community remains committed to ensuring the next mayor will be.

A few months ago we very quietly convened an invitation-only meeting that was characterized by several attendees as the most powerful assemblage of black Los Angeles leaders in a generation:

This meeting had about 50 key stakeholders that get it done in every industry and every generation. I haven’t been a part of such a meeting since the early 90s. The young lion who called the meeting made his appeal and the community bought in solid. A community that rarely agrees on anything came away agreeing on three things:

1) Crenshaw Blvd. will not have a rail line running up the middle of it – killing off what little commerce the community has left;

2) the community will vote solidly for the Mayoral candidate that delivers the Leimert Park stop and the underground tunnel – and that person will find the money for it – if they want to be Mayor;

3) the Black Community is prepared to vote against Measure J if it can’t get what it wants on Crenshaw.

Building the powerful coalition of black leaders that helped defeat Measure J was a direct product of the collective understanding and commitments made at the leadership meeting. Fresh off the Measure J battlefield, we will continue to collaborate with community leaders to strategically engage current and future decision-makers on this issue.

The Struggle Continues,
Damien Goodmon
Chair & Executive Director, Crenshaw Subway Coalition

Rail Plan Stirs Distrust Among Black Angelenos

New York Times
November 29, 2012
By Ian Lovett

LOS ANGELES — The story of major transit projects in the 20th century here was the story of black neighborhoods carved into pieces. One freeway after another forced families from their homes in South Los Angeles, the core of the region’s black community. Walls of concrete were erected through their neighborhoods, which they said cut them off from wealthier parts of the city.

The Crenshaw rail line was supposed to be different. The line, a crucial link in a planned rail network that will span Los Angeles County, promised to right that historical wrong by connecting South Los Angeles to the city’s business hubs: downtown, the airport and Hollywood.

Instead, the Crenshaw line threatens to become yet another insult to South Los Angeles and a burden for businesses, some residents and community activists have said.

The Leimert Park neighborhood, the heart of black culture here, may be left without a stop on the rail line, a victim of limited money. And the train will run at street level through part of the area, which business owners fear will cut them off from their customers during years of construction.

The prospect that the train will bypass the neighborhood has stoked distrust among South Los Angeles residents who feel that they are being shortchanged, as power brokers try to save money for other projects in wealthier parts of the city.

Tonya Anthony’s family has owned and operated a hair salon on Crenshaw Boulevard since 1959. She was initially excited about the Crenshaw line. But once she learned that there would be no stop in Leimert Park, a few blocks from her shop, and that construction would take away half of the parking her customers used, she worried that the train might drive the salon out of business.

“Leimert Park is one of the major cultural areas in the city,” Ms. Anthony, 44, said. “For traffic to be diverted past it, I think, would be very detrimental to this area and the businesses here.”

Tom Bradley, this city’s first and only black mayor, was also the mayor who brought modern rail lines to Los Angeles. Before serving as mayor from 1973 to 1993, he lived in Leimert Park. And, for some, the Crenshaw line, which will cover 8.5 miles through South Los Angeles to the airport, has become part of an effort to extend his legacy.

Mark Ridley-Thomas, a Los Angeles County supervisor who represents South Los Angeles, put forward a plan last year to allocate money for a Leimert Park stop and to keep the line underground along Crenshaw Boulevard. The city’s black political establishment — religious and business leaders and elected officials who have often clashed on other issues — lined up behind the effort.

“It was a salute to Tom Bradley, who said this was his vision for his city,” Mr. Ridley-Thomas said. He added that the Crenshaw line and a Leimert Park stop had become “emblematic of a struggle for progress.”

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the city’s first Latino mayor, has also positioned himself as a successor to Mr. Bradley’s transit legacy: the rail lines that will span Los Angeles County in the coming decades will be a major piece of his own legacy, after he leaves office next year because of term limits.

Yet Mr. Villaraigosa and his allies blocked Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s plan. Instead, a Leimert Park stop will be included only if contractors can squeeze it within the existing budget, and the Crenshaw line will run at street level for part of its trip through the area.

Like just about everyone else, Mr. Villaraigosa agrees that Leimert Park, home to cultural festivals, jazz clubs and a host of black-owned businesses, deserves its own stop. Contractors will submit their proposals for the project within a few weeks, and the mayor said he was “fairly confident” that a Leimert Park stop could be done within the $1.8 billion budget.

But Mr. Villaraigosa also emphasized the benefits that the rail network — including a recently constructed light-rail line that carries passengers through the northern parts of South Los Angeles — would offer the area even if a Leimert Park stop was not built. He also noted his efforts to expand the Crenshaw line, which was originally designed as a bus line with a fraction of the money it now has.

“All of that happened because I drove it,” he said. “This was a busway before I made it into a light rail.”

Still, some Leimert Park residents remain convinced that the rail line has been nickel-and-dimed to save money for other projects in wealthier parts of the city, like the “Subway to the Sea,” which will extend the subway line from downtown through affluent communities in West Los Angeles. The budget for that project stretches to an estimated $6.3 billion, and the entire line will run underground, sparing businesses from surface-level construction that could drive away customers.

“In this community, we don’t have money,” said Theodore Thomas, the president of the Community Council in the Parker Mesa neighborhood, where the Crenshaw line will run at street level. “The majority of people think we’re a pass-through on the way downtown.”

Lisa Schweitzer, a professor at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California who studies social justice and transport, said that the congested corridor on the West Side was the best place in Los Angeles for a subway line, while Crenshaw Boulevard was better suited for an above-ground light-rail line, which is less expensive to build but carries fewer people.
Crenshaw Boulevard was the site of a streetcar line, before that rail system was ripped out more than half a century ago.
But Dr. Schweitzer said she understood the frustration that residents and small-business owners along Crenshaw Boulevard had expressed.

“It comes out of this history in which the answer is always no,” she said. “When it comes to requests from South L.A., the answer is always no, we can’t afford it. And, conversely, when it comes to the West Side, the answer is always yes, because they’re so politically empowered and so wealthy.”

Tavis Smiley, the television and radio broadcaster, has lived and worked in Leimert Park since the 1980s, when he started as an intern for Mr. Bradley.

“This is an old story,” he said. “I detest when government gives short shrift to people of color. If they don’t figure out a way to make sure this stop is included, there’s going to be outrage in this community.”

BETTY PLEASANT – Wave Newspaper Contributing Editor:

“Absolutely not! NO, NO and NO. We voted a tax increase for this not so long ago and now the county is asking for some more?! With none of it going on the Crenshaw Line?! NO.”

MARK RIDLEY-THOMAS – L.A. County 2nd District Supervisor & MTA Board Member:

“In an environment where … people are asking, ‘Why are we being hit by so many different tax proposals?’ Measure J is nothing more than a distraction.”

DR. ANTHONY SAMAD – Urban Issues Forum & Past President of 100 Black Men of Los Angeles:

“Villaraigosa has the audacity to float another half cent tax bond to complete current projects—not including the Crenshaw/LAX project. Let’s me get this straight—you want the black community to tax itself, until the year 2069, for transportation projects that won’t impact nor improve our community? Well, that’s straight-up JACKING.”

LARRY AUBRY – LA Sentinel Columnist & Former Inglewood School Board Member:

“The bottom line is the Black community is getting screwed again by MTA.”

DR. SANDRA E. THOMAS – Former California State Director of NAACP:

“Measure J is filled with FALSE PROMISES of job creation and accelerated traffic relief. It manipulates voters into paying more taxes without accountability…”

MIKE DAVIS – CA 48th District Assemblyman & Chair of Assembly Select Comm. on Rail Transportation:

“Since previous promises still go unfulfilled, can we really trust this proposition?”

REV. LEWIS LOGAN II – Co-Founder of Ruach Christian Community Church:

“This is principled opposition based upon the fact that Measure J is as old as this republic and as unfair today as it was in its origins: ‘Taxation without representation!’”

BERNARD PARKS – Los Angeles 8th District City Councilman & Former MTA Board Member:

“Although I fully supported the passing of the original Measure R, this particular rendition of a tax extension, [Measure J], is not in the best interest of the community.”

DR. MELINA ABDULLAH – Activist & View Park Prep Parent:

“We refuse to pay taxes to a system that has said we are expendable.”

CAROLYN FOWLER – Past President of New Frontier Democratic Club:

“I fail to understand how Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa thinks he can so publicly oppose the South L.A. community and black community efforts for a station at Leimert Park and underground rail on Crenshaw and then turn around and expect us to vote for his vanity transportation tax that has nothing for us. Our community is politically smarter than that. Not just ‘No,’ but ‘HELL NO’ on Measure J.”

NAJEE ALI – Director of Project Islamic Hope:

“Measure J is a slap in the face to South L.A. residents. It is a form of economic apartheid.”

DR. DAVID HORNE – Council of Black Political Organizations:

“[L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa] and Metro have consistently ignored the will of the Crenshaw residents regarding the Crenshaw Light Rail project. There is nothing in the narrative of Measure J to prevent that from happening again. We supported the original Measure R, and got nothing out of it. We are being asked to blindly support another fiscal measure that will be used for the benefit of other communities, but not ours. Fool us once, and that’s enough of that.”

CELES KING IV – Vice Chair of Congress of Racial Equality-California:

“This black leader is not going for the hokey doke.”

BARBARA LOTT-HOLLAND – Co-Chair of Bus Riders Union:

“Measure J is a racist regressive sales tax that will have our grand children paying for it for the next 60 years.”

ADDITIONAL BLACK COMMUNITY VOICES AGAINST MEASURE J

NATE HOLDEN – Former Los Angeles 10th District City Councilman & Former MTA Board Member
BOB FARRELL – Former Los Angeles 8th District City Councilman
Our Weekly Newspaper
New Frontier Democratic Club
California Democratic Voting Guide
California Friends of the African-American Caucus
Black Community Clergy & Labor Alliance
L.A. Community Action Network
South L.A. Power Coalition

Every South L.A. voter must ask, how much of the $90 billion will come back to the South L.A. community?

Nearly 1 million of L.A. County’s 10 million residents live in South L.A. and adjacent unincorporated areas. That’s ten percent. 10% of $90 billion is $9 billion. Thus, a fair return to South L.A. of Measure J equates to about $9 billion.

Measure J doesn’t return anything close to $9 billion. In fact, of the $90 billion not one penny is proposed for South L.A. projects. $90 billion and not a single penny.

Call it what it is: taxation without representation. Reverse Robin Hood.

To be clear, the decision to “JACK South L.A. with Measure J” is not a product of Mayor Villaraigosa and the MTA not knowing the transportation needs of South Los Angeles. To review:

1) Just since Measure R was passed over one million hours of bus service has been cut.

2) The Blue Line is America’s deadliest light rail line at over 105 deaths and 1,000 accidents, mostly in the communities of South Central L.A., Watts, Willowbrook and Compton.

3) The Expo Line continues to lack basic safety features requested by internationally-renowned safety experts, and sound mitigation to allow residents to sleep at night.

4) Building the Crenshaw Line at street-level on Crenshaw Blvd will kill the last African-American business corridor in the region through the elimination of over half the parking spaces, chopping down all of the mature median trees, ruining traffic, and putting the lives of pedestrians, many of them school children, in danger.

South L.A. leaders have stormed the MTA board on multiple occasions over the past 3 years to: a) protest cuts in bus service; b) appeal for safety upgrades on MTA’s Blue Line; c) demand legally mandated mitigation on the Expo Line; and d) request additional funding on the Crenshaw Line to add a station at Leimert Park Village and to put the rail underground on Crenshaw Blvd.

Each time the MTA board voted to ignore the calls of the South L.A. community they claimed their decision was done in the name of financial limitations. “We don’t have the money,” was their patronizing excuse.

And now with Measure J, the MTA expects South Los Angeles voters to believe that even with an additional $90 billion – more than four times the annual budget of NASA – they still don’t have the money to address the transportation requests of the South L.A. community.

Folks are smarter than that. This is not about lack of resources. This is about the perception of power.

By voting No on Measure J, South L.A. citizens can personally protect their economic interests, and collectively send a message to MTA, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the many who are watching that the requests of South L.A. must be respected. On November 6th voters can officially say: the days of South L.A. being cut out or settling for crumbs at the table are over.

Vote No on Measure J.

WHEN YOU VOTE ON TUESDAY REMEMBER MAY 26, 2011. 600 black leaders of the civil rights, faith, nonprofit, political and residential communities swarmed the MTA board room. It was a show of political unity unseen in a generation. The “black community had finally come together.” With one voice we respectfully requested our tax dollars be added to the Crenshaw/LAX Light Rail Project to: 1) underground the line on Crenshaw Blvd for 11 blocks to protect the last black business corridor in Southern California, and 2) add a station at Leimert Park Village to assist our revitalization of “Little Africa.”

Under the leadership of MTA Board Member/Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, prior to the meeting the money and three of the seven votes needed for passage had been identified. The other four votes were controlled by the then-MTA Board Chair the Mayor of Los Angeles. All eyes were on Antonio Villaraigosa.

Before the meeting, the Mayor very publicly sat down with the L.A. Sentinel and said to them he wanted to help. Mayor Villaraigosa had lied.

Villaraigosa began his statement that brisk Thursday morning admitting that the only reason any MTA projects in L.A. County were possible – including his pet project, the Wilshire Subway to the Sea – was because South L.A. voters had repeatedly gone to the polls and voted for them.

He and his lieutenants on the MTA board then went on to display palpable resentment that the community that had been making deposits into the MTA account for decades would dare attempt to make a withdrawal. Our signature was no good the Mayor told us. We were not joint owners of the account. The check, he said, was to be marked “INSUFFIENT FUNDS,” and he voted against funding the 11-block tunnel and Leimert Park Village station.

FAST FORWARD TO TODAY.

On Tuesday, ballots throughout L.A. County will feature Measure J – another one of those taxes for MTA. It’s a half-cent sales tax increase until 2069, projected to generate $90 billion and it was concocted by none other than Antonio Villaraigosa.

The Yes on J campaign television ads prominently feature images of black construction workers. Imagery is apparently supposed to be satisfaction for us, because of the $90 billion projected to be generated by the Measure J sales tax increase, not one penny is to return for transportation projects in the South L.A. community.

NOT ONE PENNY! is to add a station at our region’s African-American cultural center – Leimert Park Village.

NOT ONE PENNY! is to underground the Crenshaw/LAX Line in Park Mesa Heights to protect the last black business corridor in Southern California and the lives of our school kids.

NOT ONE PENNY! is for Expo Line safety improvements and community mitigation.

NOT ONE PENNY! is for safety improvements on the deadliest light rail line in America – the Blue Line.

The Broader Implications of Voting No on Measure J

By now it should be clear that MTA and Mayor Villaraigosa are making their decisions based on their perception of South L.A. power.

By voting No on Measure J, South L.A. citizens can personally protect their economic interests, and more broadly, collectively send a message to MTA, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the many who are watching that the requests of South L.A. must be respected. By refusing to be bamboozled by empty promises and slick ads featuring black construction workers, South L.A. can officially end the days of being cut out.

On November 6th by exercising our democratic right (a right gained through the ultimate sacrifice of giants in the civil rights movement) to say NO to Measure J, we in South L.A. can usher in a new day and reclaim our rightful place as an equal partner.

Supporters of the November ballot measure Measure J, which is led by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and others who have ignored the requests of our community with respect to transportation, have reached out to African-American opinion leaders. They are in search of black faces to support their unjust, unfair, and unacceptable proposed sales tax increase that provides NOT A PENNY for our community to address the outstanding issues on the Crenshaw-LAX Rail Line, which is soon to begin construction.

The proposed countywide sales tax increase Measure J will tax South LA communities until 2069. It is projected to generate an additional $90 billion dollars for MTA, on top of the $40 billion already dedicated to transit expansion through Measure R, which was passed in 2008.

There are many arguments for opposing Measure J, including the insufficiency of the projects to meet our region’s transportation needs for the next 57 years, the inability of the MTA to manage so many projects simultaneously, the lack of sufficient funding to operate the projects and accompanying bus service that is constantly being cut, and the simple truth that you cannot trust Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and this MTA board.

For me, a left-of-center voter, who almost always votes for infrastructure improvements, I simply can’t get past the inequity of taxing Black people, Brown people and poor people in our community to give MTA a $90 billion check, while not receiving a single penny in return to address the issues on the Crenshaw-LAX Line.

$90 BILLION AND NOT A PENNY FOR CRENSHAW!

The highest estimate of the additional cost to add a rail station at Leimert Park Village and underground the Crenshaw-LAX Rail Line for just 11 blocks on Crenshaw Blvd is less than 1/2 of 1% of $90 billion. Let that sink in: the MTA/Villaraigosa want us and our great grandchildren to sacrifice, and they don’t even want to return less than 1/2 of 1% of the proceeds to address the Crenshaw Line issues.

Where I grew up the kids have a phrase for this type of action: “STRAIGHT GANGSTA!” 

Said simply, Villaraigosa is trying to Jack us with Measure J.

HISTORY PROVES IT IS WHO THEY ARE.

For years we have witnessed this level of arrogance and disrespect of our community by the Villaraigosa-controlled MTA. Many of you witnessed it personally just a little over a year ago when over 600 of us packed that board room and asked MTA to appropriate the money for a station at our African-American cultural center and to underground the line for 11 blocks on Crenshaw Blvd to preserve our community, defend our children’s lives and position us for an economic revival that we have awaited for generations.

It is instructive to remember Villaraigosa and the MTA’s board response to that level of unity unseen in our community in my young lifetime. It’s a familiar cry whenever we attempt to demand adequate return for our investments: “We don’t have the money!”

Even though South LA voters overwhelmingly helped pass the first sales tax increase for MTA that generated $40 billion (Measure R), with a straight face and a crooked smile Villaraigosa said to us they didn’t have the money. And as Mayor Villaraigosa with his close friend in Sacramento, Assemblymember Mike Feurer (who will be on the LA City ballot for City Attorney in March 2013), composed Measure J they still “couldn’t find the money” for Crenshaw.

OUR COMMUNITY HAS HAD ENOUGH. WE ARE TOO SMART TO BE PLAYED FOR A FOOL.

Before we consider sacrificing $90 billion of our hard earned tax dollars to MTA, there must be a change in the manner that the MTA and this Mayor considers our community. That change will NOT occur before election day. Accordingly, we do not want, and we cannot trust, this cast to make decisions about how to spend $90 billion of transportation funds for the next 57 years. They have promised to leave us out, and should Measure J pass we should expect them to keep their word.