RESCUE Muni listserv - Transit Politics
Thomas Schlegel (thansen@well.com)
Mon, 22 Dec 1997 19:54:52
I have just been a week in Southern California and with daily reading of
the LA Times have gotten caught up with trials and tribulations of the MTA
down there. What has happened is that the political fixes have fallen
appart around the whole LA area transit policy. Probably the critical
event was the settlement of a lawsuit that was brought on behalf of bus
riders. The suit claimed, and no one could really deny, that bus service
(mostly serving poorer communities) was wildly under supported while subway
and rail projects were spinning out of control sucking huge gobs of money.
The suit was settled with a consent decree with MTA promising to get its
act together RE buses. But, like MUNI it really doesn't have the $ or
expertise to do this. Meanwhile the politicans really don't know what to
do. Their old model, not unlike the Bay Area model, of keeping
construction interests happy with big spending, middle class people happy
with visions of subways that will attract other people off of the freeways,
and minimal bus service to get the maids and janitors to work, has fallen
appart. But what is the new model?
The reason this has happened in LA but not up here is probably that LA has
a more unified tranit system. In the bay area the many different transit
entities make it hard to make the connection (pun if you like). What
happens at BART and MUNI and A/C and County Connection, etc. can be
presented as separate events.
My question is, should it be our goal as transit activists to try and
make the connection? I ask the question in the political context. In LA
it seems right now that the end result of the mess may be less transit and
less vision than anyone wants. I'd hate to see that in the Bay Area. On
the other hand it is tempting to have a way attack such boondoggles as the
BART to SFO project that seems destined to draw a good portion of loose
transit $ for the forseeable future.