Light Rail

Satoru Uyeda has lived through Little Tokyo's shifting fortunes for six decades. In the 1940s, the removal of Japanese Americans from the entire West Coast after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor emptied out Little Tokyo. But when the war was over, his father opened the S.K. Uyeda Department Store on 1st Street to sell bedding, clothes, kitchen supplies and other goods needed for returning families. Eventually, the community rebounded. In the 1950s, the city took a key block away from Little Tokyo for the Parker Center police headquarters.

From the MainPlace/Santa Ana mall to the Artists Village, the City Council is looking at possible routes for a light rail system. The city still must wait for an extensive study to be completed, but a majority of council members expressed a preference for a light rail system that would boost the city by stopping at major business and tourist areas. Main Street, already a major north-south thoroughfare, was the principal choice.

In the Dec. 6 op-ed piece "Where's Debate in the Planning of Light Rail?" writer David Mootchnik questions the need for a light rail system and speaks disparagingly of the efforts of the Orange County Transportation Authority to bring the matter to the public for debate. Having attended OCTA board meetings and community meetings on light rail, I want to answer his question: Yes, participants were told about the cost and ridership of a projected 28-mile rail system. We were told those facts, and we are aware of the difficulties of changing from a one-person, one-car system to mass transit.

The Alhambra City Council has endorsed a Los Angeles County proposal to build a mass-transit rail line in the San Gabriel Valley. Council members hope such a line will help reduce air pollution and ease freeway congestion. The proposed rail system would consist of a light rail, or trolley-type service, from Los Angeles to Pasadena, and a commuter rail service running between Pasadena and San Bernardino.

I had to laugh when I saw the letter from Susan Brown giving her lame defense of the fairness of her so-called "Light Rail Forum." Here's my view of her highly orchestrated non-event: The "forum" was promoted only in the neighborhoods along the Exposition right of way. Brightly colored posters lined the streets within a block or so of the rail line. I also received a definitely one-sided sheet announcing the event from her group, the Cheviot Hills Homeowners Assn. The notice presented none of the alternative information available from other groups.

The Los Angeles City Council, which this week will receive a report recommending two San Fernando Valley rail routes, is far from a consensus on which is the better proposal and also is split on how to go about choosing a final route, a poll of council members shows.

The last battle line in the effort to build the Expo light-rail system has been drawn at Farmdale Avenue and Exposition Boulevard — a small intersection about 20 yards from Susan Miller Dorsey High School in central Los Angeles. If state regulators sign off on a grade crossing and station there, it will clear the way for completion of the first modern rail link between downtown Los Angeles and the bustling Westside. But the plan to lay track at street level by Dorsey has run into intense opposition from neighborhood associations, students, teachers, Dorsey alumni and community activists who have fought for almost four years to change the project's design.

Transportation planners have approved a $300,000 study on the potential for building a light rail line from the western San Gabriel Valley to downtown Los Angeles. The study, approved last week by the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission, will consider a line to serve commuters who use the Pomona and San Bernardino freeways. Streets under consideration for the route include Las Tunas and Huntington drives, Garvey Avenue, and Valley, Beverly, Whittier and Olympic boulevards.

At the very end of the long news story hyping light rail, Bill Hodge, an Orange County Transportation Authority spokesman, was quoted as saying "In 20 years, [light rail] may be the only way to get around quickly in this area" ("New Legs for Light Rail," Dec. 6). Anything is possible, but Hodge's hyperbole is not supported by the facts. Over the last 10 years, the OCTA has spent more than $10 million on rail studies, and in every case, light rail would not reduce traffic congestion and its collateral effect, air pollution.

A new coalition backing a San Fernando Valley light-rail line will stage a rally Monday to kick off its campaign for a trolley linking the Valley's east and west ends. The gathering, at which representatives from business, homeowner and civic groups will speak on behalf of rail transit, will begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Airtel Plaza Hotel, 7277 Valjean Ave., Van Nuys.