MTA Headquarters: Have the deciders decided?

Photo: Dave Parker/Wikipedia

Damien Goodmon, South L.A.'s indefatigable public transportation activist, is sounding an alarm about the possible shelving of rail projects in his heavily African American community. Goodmon's group, the Citizens' Campaign to Fix the Expo Rail Line, is accusing the Metropolitan Transit Authority of using the recession as an excuse to not use Measure R sales-tax monies, whose increase was approved by voters last November, to complete the planned light-rail Crenshaw Line by its targeted 2018 date. Instead, the MTA is now drafting a proposal to extend the deadline by 11 years. Likewise, MTA is now thinking of putting off extension of the Green Line to LAX from 2015 to somewhere between 2018 and 2022.

On Wednesday an L.A. Times feature described the proposed delays, while a Long Beach Press Telegram article

highlighted the concerns and frustrations of area elected officials,

including new County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, regarding the MTA's

new plans.

The irony is that most South Los Angeles voters

supported the passage of Measure R, yet are seeing the chance of its funds

being used for local transportation projects diminish. In the

meantime, Goodmon, a Leimart Park resident and longtime thorn in the

MTA's buttocks,  and his activist colleagues will hold a community

organizing meeting tonight.

“It ain't like these officials have the community in mind when they make these plans,” Goodmon told the L.A. Weekly.

Meeting: Thursday, 6:30 p.m., at the Foshay Learning Center Auditorium

3751 Harvard Blvd., three blocks east of Exposition and Western. Info: (323) 761-6435.

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.