How livable do you want both Los Angeles and California to be in the years ahead? On Tuesday, you can have your say.
Two ballot items -- Measure R and Proposition 1A -- will, if approved, redefine transportation in L.A. and throughout the state, giving us viable alternatives to our cars and helping wean us from our oil jones.
But it won't be cheap. It'll almost certainly cost many billions of dollars more than the roughly $50 billion foreseen by the two initiatives.
"Budgets are set to make projects more palatable to the electorate," said James Moore, a professor of urban planning and civil engineering at USC. "I always multiply by a factor of two or three."
But you know what? Even if these projects topped $200 billion, they'd still be a wise investment in our future. More on that in a moment.
First the local angle -- Measure R. It would impose a half-cent sales tax increase in L.A. County in order to raise during its 30-year life span $30 billion to $40 billion, depending on how consumery Southern Californians feel over the next three decades.
Those funds would be parceled out to a slew of transportation projects, including an extension of the Green Line light rail to Los Angeles International Airport and a widening of the traffic-choked 5 Freeway near where L.A. bumps fists with the O.C.
But the biggie on the Measure R wish list is making some progress on the long-delayed Subway to the Sea. About $4 billion would be dedicated to extending the Purple Line from its terminus at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue to Westwood.
The remaining five miles to the shore would come later.
As a Westside resident, I'm astonished that there's no way to get around town that doesn't include rubber and a road. I take the bus to work as often as possible, but it's inconvenient and still leaves me stuck in traffic.
Marnie O'Brien Primmer is executive director of Mobility 21, a Southern California transportation advocacy group. She lives in Costa Mesa and works downtown.
"The other day, it took me 2 1/2 hours to get to work," Primmer told me. "Things are pretty bad."
Until we offer people a viable alternative to their cars that also gets them off the road, we aren't doing enough to improve the quality of life of local residents. Subways, monorails, jet packs -- take your pick. I go with subways.
