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Subject: Protesters disrupt Pasadena lt rail meetg
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 1999 14:36:40 -0800
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Los Angles Times
Thursday, February 25, 1999
6 Arrested as Protesters Disrupt Rail-Line Meeting
PASADENA--Calling the Pasadena light-rail line's construction
racist and illegal, more than 50 protesters Wednesday night
halted a meeting of the line's new governing authority before
police broke up the demonstration and arrested six people.
More than a dozen Pasadena police officers took the leaders of
Bus Riders Union, a passenger rights group, away in handcuffs
after members, chanting and banging drums and tambourines,
forced the Pasadena Blue Line Construction Authority to adjourn
for 20 minutes.
Bus Riders leader Martin Hernandez called the five-member board
an "illegitimate body" and demanded it be dismantled.
The group contends that the newly formed Blue Line Authority
was designed to circumvent a consent decree the group signed
with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to reduce
overcrowding and improve bus service.
A new state law stripped the MTA of the responsibility for
building the Pasadena rail line and gave it to the Blue line
authority. The MTA now plans to give the authority more than
$300 million, money the Bus Riders Union wants spent on buses.
Authority Chairman Paul Little and other officials contend that
most of the Pasadena line users will be minorities. The 13.6-mile
line will run from Union Station through Chinatown, Lincoln
Heights, Highland Park, South Pasadena to Pasadena.
--Adrian Brandt (408) 565-7291 / abrandt@nortelnetworks.com
Andrew Sullivan s u l l i . o r g andrew@sulli.org - www.sulli.org
1668 Grove, SF CA 94117 - 415 673 0626