By HAROLD L. KATZ
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority still wants a subway to the sea and I believe it must be built.
Let us deal with where the money is going to come from. There are billions of federal dollars available to build subways. The question is how the Westside gets that money.
The key is to get the entire Southern California congressional group to support the subway. In time that will happen in the same way that the Bay Area Rapid Transit system was built in San Francisco. The San Francisco BART backers asked the outlying cities to support the basic BART line, and they promised that every year they would build five additional miles of track; ultimately all communities would benefit from BART. They have done that, and San Francisco has a wonderful system.
We have to do the same thing, only on the Westside it is harder to do. We have to first build the Wilshire line so we can follow it with a line running north to Santa Clarita and south to who knows where along the 405 Freeway.
It is important to remember that the subway to the sea is not being built for the benefit of the people who live on the Westside, though they will benefit and will use it. The primary beneficiaries are going to be those who live in the tremendous population growth areas to the east and in other suburban areas. That is where the people live and the Westside is where they work.
Another important point is that the subway to the sea, even if it could be built in one day, is still not being built to benefit the people of today, or even 2030, which is the year the MTA is using to measure future ridership numbers. It is being built for 2050, 2075 and 2100. The London Subway was built in the 1860s and is still going strong. People have to start thinking long range, especially columnists and reporters, then maybe elected officials will begin to think long term (though I doubt it, since it isn’t in their DNA).
Eastside presence
The Westside is only 60,000 jobs behind downtown Los Angeles, and downtown has every railhead as its destination. The Westside has zero. No wonder traffic is constant gridlock. As the population grows, we are going to be hard-pressed to attract people to work for us if we can’t offer them a subway that connects with other rapid transit systems, and I don’t mean buses that are stuck in traffic.
The owners of individual small businesses must involve themselves in this battle. The chambers and other business groups are hard at work, but elected officials are only moved by the faces and bodies of their constituents. So if you think you are too busy running your business to participate, you are making a major mistake, and you will pay a terrible price when you cannot hire people to work in your company.
The subway to the sea must be built as the Westside is a key part of the economic engine that makes California the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world. Jobs will continue to grow on the Westside as that is where the people who create jobs live, and they want their offices and businesses near where they live.
The money will be found, but we will have to fight for it as other cities want subway money also. Who gets it will depend on how well we fight for it, so jump aboard the band wagon.
I don’t think I will live to board the subway at Wilshire and Westwood, but I sure as hell am going to die trying to see that it is built.
Harold L. Katz is a partner in a CPA firm in Los Angeles and a citizen activist. He lives on the Westside.
