Speaker Boehner Ignores L.A. Mayor in Capitol: Villaraigosa's Big Plans for Westside Subway Fade Further Into Oblivion

By Simone Wilson Wed., Sep. 21 2011 at 2:05 PM

How do I get this fool back to L.A.

Can L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa just admit the pending Westside Subway extension, formerly known as the "Subway to the Sea" (or, even more optimistically, "the most utilized subway in the nation, maybe the world"), is permanently on hold?

Every time he visits Washington, which is likely more than he visits South L.A., Mayor V makes this warm fuzzy speech about our city's cutting-edge public transportation plans --

Namely, the Westside Subway extension. Meanwhile, here at home, Beverly Hills residents would rather feed their princess chihuahuas to mountain lions than let that beast of a hobo-mobile come through, and L.A. traffic experts/bus riders aren't so much buying his spiel, either.

So the mayor runs back to Washington for more warm fuzzies. But as of yesterday, even his fallback seems to be crumbling:

The Republican majority of U.S. legislators are completely uninterested in hearing his plea for federal money -- cash he's long assumed to be in the bag, under subway-happy Obama.

"Unfortunately, after a few weeks of trying, we were unable to get a meeting with Speaker Boehner," Villaraigosa told the Los Angeles Times yesterday. "They couldn't find time to meet with America's mayors."

What did he expect? A surprise party with a jumbo blank check?

Unless Villaraigosa can rally right-wing support for this 30/10 plan -- the only plan in which the subway will be completed within roughly the next decade -- his hugely touted modern masterwork won't be completed until 2036.

And given the Republican stance on rampant spending and green granting right now, even if Boehner was giving him the time of day, Villaraigosa's request that the feds front the money for his pet project is a serious long-shot.

So can we stop parading this $9 billion beached whale around like some kind of beacon of hope for economic recovery? If we're waiting on the Westside Subway as the big genius answer for unemployment, might as well just descend into our porn bunkers now and wait for the end.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

Tags:

Boehner, federal grants, public transportation, Subway to the Sea, Villaraigosa, Westside Subway

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roylee

we need the subway to santa monica how we it is vote them republican out of office mr boener in anti rail he'll to the nation backwards to horse and buggy days repuclican's want to keep money so they can have controll over it and starve out every one they will cheat us out now lets take this email across the usa and let people see how republicans liegaly steal our rail contuction money all they want to do he not help president obamha becuase the president is trying to help bring jobs-jobs-jobs-jobs

JOHN WALSH

EXCELLENT. JOB OF REPORTING THE FACTS,MS. WILSON.DON'T LET THE NASTY PERSONAL ATTACKS BY TRANSIT NERDS GET YOU DOWN.IF THEY DON'T LIKE THE L.A. WEEKLY,THE TRANSIT NERDS CAN CANCEL THEIR SUBSCRIPTION. IF THE PAPER WASN'T FREE ALREADY. INCIDENTALLY, EVERY ONE OF YOUR DETRACTORS HERE ARE MALE.

TAPman

Too bad I can't exactly boycott the LA Meekly. But if I was an advertiser, I would!

Hey Meekly writer: Take a drive up to the Griffith Observatory and have a lookie-see at the clumps of highrises that stretch from Downtown, to Koreatown, to Century City to Westwood.

Its an F-ing no-brainer!

Joe

Another biased and destructive bit of reporting(?) by the LA Weekly. Who is paying you extra to write such garbage. LA needs the lobbying efforts to get funding for the 30-10. Legislators blocking it appear to want the economy to fail. they don't care about jobs, only a change in the administration. This writer feeds on all the bad negative stuff. The Tan Man doesn't care about liberal voting L.A.

paul

The author is more concerned about including randon news references (ooh, look at all the hyper-links!) and biased opinions rather than real journalism. What a waste of time piece. Now I regret even taking the time to comment.

Rartounian

I hope the author of this article gets stuck in westside traffic like tens of thousands of us do every day and then we'll see if he'd still ridicule mayor's actions. As far as I'm concerned, this mayor is more visionary than any other in the past. All other mayors failed to do something about this and that's why we are in this situation right now.

Simone Wilson

that's the thing: he's all vision. how much better is he than "all other mayors," if his visions go nowhere?

guest

that's the thing: He's not all vision. He passed sales tax increase in the middle of the recession and already things are being built w/that sales tax money. He revoked the ban on tunneling which allows LA to built more subways. Past mayors were hiding behind rich homeowners scared to death to mention anything about subway around Beverly Hills.

jennix

You know, those of us who actually *live* in LA would love to have transportation options, and we don't give a flying toot whether a subway has ANY impact on traffic patterns at all - because some of us want OUT of traffic.

Yuri

Yet another LA Weekly right-wing hit piece on rail transit. Who's behind this periodical? Rupert Murdoch? The Koch brothers? Big Oil?

JS310

Simone, I'm going to ask you straightforwardly and honestly: What is it that you want?

Since you seem to know exactly how the world ought to operate, just come out with it. All these snide psueo-news pieces are getting tiresome. They were tiresome from the start.

Dan W.

Bad journalism by a biased reporter.

Another anti-transit hit piece by the no longer relevant L.A. Weekly

CarltonGlub

LA Weekly continues its unrelenting trolling on behalf of the gridlocked, polluted status quo.

ChrisLoos

What this hell is wrong with the LA Weekly? Los Angeles must be the only city in America where the alternative weekly paper takes a far more conservative stance towards transit than the paper of record.

As riddled with inaccuracies as this article is, the sad part is that people that don't get their news about transit from other sources (LA Times, Streetsblog, Curbed, the Source) might actually believe this stuff.

LAofAnaheim

You still keep repeating this $9 billion figure for something Metro has not even identified. This project is going to cost $4.1 billion from Wilshire/Western to the VA. Plus cite your source for the $9 billion figure. Or are you just building up public anger and hatred towards Metro (like the Tea Party and government)? This project HAS funding. If American Fast Forward doesn't pull through, we still have $4.1 billlion ready in Measure R funds over the next 30 years; something that wouldn't have happened without Mayor Antonio Villairaigosa!

Roger

LA Weekly transit riders are a bunch of assholes.

anonymous

Maybe, if it was anyone other than Mayor Failure who went to DC, we'd get the funds.

LAofAnaheim

How is Antonio a failure? He made subway development LEGAL again and got $4.1 billion in funding that 68% of Angelenos supported in 2008. Now, how is that a failure of leadership? Or are you just using talking points?