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Archive for April, 2009

Save the Date: Thursday, May 7, 2009: Gold Line Foothill Extension Rally at Citrus College

Posted by Albert

On May 7, supporters from several college campuses along the Foothill Extension route will join together with college/university presidents, school administrators and community leaders to show their support for the Foothill Extension. Once completed, the Foothill Extension will connect the dozen colleges and universities in the San Gabriel Valley.

Make sure your school is represented! Attend the rally and tell Metro to fund the Foothill Extension in 2010 so it can be operating in 2013.

Gold Line Foothill Extension Rally at Citrus College
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Meet and Greet: 10:30 a.m.
Rally: begins promptly at 11 a.m.
Campus Center Mall
1000 West Foothill Boulevard
Glendora, CA 91741
Map

Volunteer today to represent your school at this important rally.

RSVP Now to info@IWillRide.org.
Need a ride? Buses to the event are available, call (888) 977-2269, or e-mail us at info@iwillride.org for more information.

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April 30th, 2009 | No Comments

Friend to the Gold Line Foothill Extension

Posted by Albert

Fresh off the heals of our report on the derailment (no pun intended) of Duarte Mayor John Fasana’s noble attempt to expedite funding for the Foothill Extension at the April Metro Planning & Programming Committee meeting, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star News, and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (all owned by the Los Angeles Newspaper Group) carried an editorial welcoming Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky as a friend of the Gold Line Foothill Extension.

If you don’t remember, Mr. Yaroslavsky at that meeting said this about the Foothill Extension:

“The Foothill Gold Line is well positioned – better positioned than any other single line right now with the possible exception of the No. 1 priority project of the agency, which is the completion of Phase 2 of Expo – to move, and move quickly. It’s going to happen. I’m going to support it.”

While the editorial, posted on April 28th in the Daily Bulletin and over the weekend in the other papers, offers a bit of reciprocation to the supervisor by reiterating support for Los Angeles city light-rail projects – including the Expo Line and Subway to the Sea – the paper is quick to give a reminder of the “economies of scale” for each rail project:

Expo Line Phase I, Downtown LA to Culver City:
$120 million per mile

Expo Line Phase II, Culver City to Santa Monica:
$120 million per mile

Subway to the Sea:
$700 million per mile

Foothill Extension, Pasadena to Claremont:
$30 million per mile

All of this money (except for the already under-construction Expo Phase I) will come from Measure R, the countywide, half-cent sales tax increase Metro will begin collecting July 1st.

In the current and un-finalized state of Metro’s Long Range Transportation Plan, the Foothill Extension is slated to receive $735 million in 2014-15 and finish construction by 2017. That timeframe is too long for those who have to suffer through the 210 freeway every morning and every evening.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star News, and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin offer a remedy to that problem: Metro ought to “include the Gold Line in its long range plans at its May meeting and guarantee funding starting in 2010.” Such a feasible and sensible idea would enable the Foothill Extension’s first phase, Pasadena to Azusa, to open in 2013.

Link to editorial: Our View: Welcome ally for Gold Line

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April 28th, 2009 | No Comments

Tomorrow’s Metro Board Meeting

Posted by Albert

Metro’s regularly scheduled board meeting takes place tomorrow at the MTA Building at 9:30 AM. Our good friend Damien Newton of LA Streetsblog has taken the sometimes-cryptic Metro Board agenda and has churned out his always-excellent preview of the issues to be addressed. Heavy on highway issues and light on the Gold Line Foothill Extension itself, the agenda does contain an item that concerns the Foothill Extension corridor.

The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority has recently received approval from Metro staff to start the process to environmentally clear and possibly acquire land for a rail maintenance facility to be located in the city of Irwindale. The facility is a high priority for Metro because the agency doesn’t have enough space to store and maintain cars from several planned lines (including the Foothill Extension). Duarte Mayor and Metro Board member John Fasana is set to introduce a motion seeking confirmation from the Metro Board on its support for the Authority to start this process as well as confirmation that they will reimburse the Construction Authority for the cost of conducting the necessary activities. Of the $735 million in Measure R allocated to the Foothill Extension project, more than $200 million is earmarked for the maintenance yard.

Once again, for those not able to attend we will be covering the Metro Board meeting on Twitter @iwillride.

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April 22nd, 2009 | No Comments

20 Days Later: A Conclusion to John Fasana’s Attempt to Amend Long Range Transportation Plan

Posted by Albert

Last month’s Metro Board meeting started out abuzz over Duarte Mayor and Metro Board member John Fasana’s proposed motion to include all Measure R projects (including the Foothill Extension) into the existing Long Range Transportation Plan (approved in 2001), but it ended when the board decided the motion should be discussed at its Planning and Programming Committee.

This past Wednesday, the Metro Planning and Programming Committee met and continued the debate. Long story short, the Metro Board failed to act on Fasana’s motion – bringing an end to an attempt to fund the Foothill Extension and other ready-to-go projects that started 20 days earlier. This leaves us looking forward to a May or June date for the Metro Board to consider the 2009 LRTP. Perhaps they are thinking, you’ve waited eight years, what’s another 30-60 days?

At the Planning and Programming Committee meeting, LA County Supervisor and Metro Board member Zev Yaroslavsky made some enlightening comments about the Foothill Extension, including:

“The Foothill Gold Line is well positioned – better positioned than any other single line right now with the possible exception of the No. 1 priority project of the agency, which is the completion of Phase 2 of Expo – to move, and move quickly. It’s going to happen. I’m going to support it.”

More here:

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April 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment

The Health Question: Would Foothill Extension Riders See More Health Benefits?

Posted by Albert

One of the biggest and most touted health benefits of electric-powered light rail systems – like the proposed Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension – is the decrease in air pollution. It’s a no-brainer. A viable transportation alternative leads to less cars, which means less smog going into our immediate atmosphere, thus increasing the amount of clean air we breathe and improving our quality of life. And obviously, as we face our century’s newest challenge of global warming, public transportation agencies and advocates have been touting these same benefits. It’s a meaningful argument, because unfortunately there are those who can attest to the impact of pollution on their health.

But what about the impact of vehicle dependency on our lifestyle? The modern day obesity epidemic can certainly be attributed to several different lifestyle factors, one of which is the inactivity that comes with a reliance on personal transportation. So would public transportation riders see any improvement in this aspect? Most likely.

From Science Daily, the Journal of Public Health Policy recently published findings that people who take public transportation were three times more likely to meet the US Surgeon General’s recommendation of 30 minutes of physical activity per day – an amount that (even in short bouts of activity) is considered enough to reduce “obesity levels, coronary heart disease, and hypertension.” The reason is simple: people who use public transportation have to walk more than their auto-dependent counterparts. And these “short walks throughout our day are historically how we have gotten our activity,” which unfortunately have been phased out of many people’s daily routines.

While the study found a positive correlation between public transportation use and meeting the daily physical activity recommendations to starve off obesity, it also found (obviously) the exact opposite negative correlation for car use.

So to correct the question in our headline: Would we see a positive correlation between the health of San Gabriel Valley residents and the opening (and operation) of the Foothill Extension?

Link to study/findings: Journal of Public Health Policy: Transit and Health: Mode of Transport, Employer-Sponsored Public Transit Pass Programs, and Physical Activity

Link to story: Public Transit Users Three Times More Likely To Meet Fitness Guidelines

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April 10th, 2009 | No Comments

Update on Gold Line Bridge Design: Submission Deadline Extended

Posted by Albert

Earlier this week we posted a story from the Pasadena Star-News about an open design bid for an “iconic” bridge over the 210 freeway in anticipation of the construction and opening of the Gold Line Foothill Extension. We recently received an important update from Habib Balian that all artists who are submitting design bids should be aware of. The email is pasted below. Important information in bold.

In case you didn’t get a chance to see it, the Pasadena Star-News on Saturday ran a story, along with a photo gallery on the website, featuring the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority’s plans to build an iconic, gateway bridge over the 210 Freeway in Arcadia. We invited artists to examine the site – which will span the freeway, high above the roadway – so they could get a feel for the magnitude of the project.

Since the article appeared on Saturday we have received numerous inquiries, and we have decided to extend the submission deadline one month to May 26. For more information, please see the request for qualifications.

To accommodate what we expect to be international interest in shaping this landmark, an additional Pre-Qualification Conference was scheduled for April 24. The Authority is seeking to conduct a live feed video teleconference for the benefit of the many out of the area artists that have expressed interest.

This is a milestone moment in our progress. We are continuing to do everything we can to be ready to turn dirt when funding from Metro comes through.

The Journey Continues…..

Habib F. Balian

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April 3rd, 2009 | 1 Comment


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