The following excerpt appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune on March 22, 2016. To read the other letters to the editor, click here.

Build the Gold Line east to Montclair: Letters – San Gabriel Valley Tribune

March 22, 2016

[Excerpt]:

East with the Gold Line

I was disappointed that the recent editorial “Another tax for transportation? Will it be fair?” did not specify completion of the Foothill Gold Line to Montclair as a key priority for the paper. The Los Angeles County Metro Board identified completion of the project as a countywide priority in 2009 and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments included the Foothill Gold Line as one of only two priority rail transit projects to be completed in the San Gabriel Valley through the potential new tax measure.

The Foothill Gold Line corridor cities are expected to represent 44 percent of the total population and 49 percent of the total jobs in the San Gabriel Valley by 2024, adding more than 50,000 new residents and 15,000 new jobs to these cities during the next eight years alone. Of course, more growth is anticipated in future decades. With that growth and the tens of thousands of students, faculty, staff and visitors that travel to and from the more than one dozen colleges and universities located within walking distance to a Foothill Gold Line station (not to mention the millions of visitors that travel to the Los Angeles County Fairplex each year, located adjacent to the future La Verne Station), it is critical that the Foothill Gold Line be extended as soon as possible.

The draft expenditure plan for the new sales tax measure was released following your editorial. I am pleased to see that Los Angeles County Metro has included funding for extending the Gold Line to Claremont as part of its draft plan.

— Sam Pedroza, Claremont

To read the other letters to the editor, click here.