Are Antonio Villaraigosa and Beverly Hills Mayor William Brien Breaking Ground Too Soon for Westside Subway?

William Brien

With Metro facing two lawsuits over the Westside Subway, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and his apparent buddy Beverly Hills Mayor William Brien decided yesterday to break ground anyway for the controversial Subway-to-Brentwood -- once known as the Subway-to-the-Sea.

It was an odd, even surreal, photo op that seemed to ignore all realities facing the troubled subway line, which includes that fact that Measure J was voted down last week and, as a result, there's a question if Metro will have enough money to finish the Westside Subway.

Beverly Hills Mayor William Brien, who's own city has filed one of the lawsuits against Metro to stop the Westside Subway from going underneath the Beverly Hills High School campus, seemed to be especially living in an alternative universe.

At a press conference with Brien sitting nearby on a stage, Villaraigosa touted that Los Angeles is building a "world-class" transportation system that will ease congestion on the gridlocked streets of the Westside.

It's a line Villaraigosa loves to push whenever cameras around, even though a Metro report found that traffic will barely be improved by the subway. But that's only one of oddities that took place on Wednesday.

The "groundbreaking" celebrated not the start of subway tunneling but the relocation of telecommunication lines at Wilshire Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, where the first new Westside Subway station is planned to be built.

But even that minor construction project seems premature since the city of Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Unified School District have sued Metro, charging that the transportation authority violated the California Environmental Quality Act.

When those lawsuits go to court, a judge can find in the favor of the plaintiffs and order Metro to rewrite the Westside Subway environmental impact report. It would be a time-consuming process that could alter the route of the subway.

With such a possibility, legal and transportation experts we've talked with say that it would be most unwise of Metro to build anything until its legal problems are resolved. Otherwise, if Metro board members such as Villaraigosa and L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky go ahead with construction and things need to be changed, they could end up wasting millions of taxpayers' money.

So why break ground for any kind of Westside Subway construction project now?

The other weird thing was the presence of Brien at Villaraigosa's photo op. With his city locked in a major legal battle with Metro, the Beverly Hills Courier justifiably takes the mayor to task.

The spunky newspaper writes: "Brien's appearance and remarks confirms The Courier's reporting over nearly two years that Brien has worked against the interests of the City and its school district to support the project that will impair and threaten the Beverly Hills High School campus."

Then, in the pages of the Courier, Beverly Hills officialdom turns on Brien -- he not only sat on the stage with Villaraigosa but spoke in favor of the Westside Subway at the event.

Beverly Hills City Council member John Mirisch says that Brien's action was a "slap in the face."

Former Beverly Hills Mayor and City Council candidate Nancy Krasne says "anything that would undermine that combined voice is not acceptable."

City Council Candidate and Planning Commissioner Brian Rosenstein says he does "not believe that participating in the groundbreaking ceremony sends the message to Metro that our community is emphatically opposed to their current plan."

And Beverly Hills Unified School District President Brian Goldberg says, "Publicly praising a plan that is designed to disrupt the educational process of our students in Beverly Hills is not helpful and is contradictory to all of the public comments that the elected officials in Beverly Hills have made."

Wonder if Metro's lawyers will try to use Brien's appearance against the city of Beverly Hills and the Beverly Hills Unified School District when all sides go to court? The Source, Metro's official blog, is already featuring Brien's remarks in a video, who said the groundbreaking was "tremendous," it was an "honor" for him to be at the event, and the subway is "so dearly needed for so many people."

He also added, "We're going to move this forward. This going to be a great line to the Westside, and I'm looking forward to visiting USC for my roots for football." He also promises to go to a UCLA basketball game with Villaraigosa, and they'll both take a subway ride over to Brentwood.

What?????

Some important questions clearly need to be put to Brien, who has long been reluctant to fight Villaraigosa over the subway. For example, did the Beverly Hills mayor ask city lawyers if his appearance was legally prudent? If so, what did they tell him? And who asked Brien to show up at the photo op? Villaraigosa? Metro? Did they tell him to say certain things? We smell a scandal brewing.

Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.

Tags:

Antonio Villaraigosa, Beverly Hills Courier, groundbreaking, John Mirisch, Patrick Range McDonald, Westside Subway, William Brien

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LAofAnaheim

Patrick - you need to do a little more research before writing. The defeat of Measure J has not prevented the construction of the Westside Subway Extension. The defeat of Measure J just prevented the subway from opening in 2023 and moved it back to 2036. So, the point the subway may no longer be funded is absolutely false. Measure R provides $4.1 billion for the subway.

Also, this subway is not just Antonio's dream, but the dream of thousands of Angelenos who want an alternative commute between the Westside and Downtown LA. This rail project will be the most important transit project in Los Angeles ever as now we can ride a subway commute 18 minutes from Westwood to LA's financial district. Your continued attack and hatred on a crucial transportation project that will benefit millions served throughout the year is very disheartening. Ride the Red Line during rush hour and you'll see how people enjoy the ease of commuting with little to no stress.

abramsrl

Beverly Hills has always understood the real agenda behind both the Beverly Hills Freeway and the Subway to the Sea. Although the projects are separated by more than 40 years, both the dead freeway and the subway pose the same danger to Beverly Hills, where I've had an office since 1978. Both the freeway and the subway are not planned to relieve any traffic. Thus, anyone who supported the freeway in the late 60's or the subway now on the basis that the purpose is to ease traffic was deceived, and their support should cease.

Metro itself admits that at best traffic congestion may decrease by 1%.

What is the subway's purpose? To enhance the real estate values of a few billionaires.

When one adds up the additional condos and apartments which developers plan to line the subway to the sea, we see that they plan to construct the equivalent of 225 linear miles of new homes in the few miles between downtown and the ocean. That figure is based on an average 60 ' wide lot with each lot placed side by side and it works out to 225 linear miles of homes.

The concept of linear miles helps people understand the horrendous density increase which is the true objective of the subway. Per Google maps, Las Vegas is 282 miles from the ocean -- that means the subway's purpose is not to relieve any traffic congestion but instead the objective is to increase the residential density along Wilshire Boulevard through Beverly Hills. If they were R-1 homes, they would stretch from the ocean almost to Las Vegas. What do you suppose will be Beverly Hills' share of that 225 linear miles of new homes? These new residents will NOT use the subway since the subway will go from downtown to the sea (if it ever gets there) and basically nowhere else.

Even if the subway stops at the VA, Beverly Hills will still get its share of the 225 linear miles of condos and apartments. West LA will be spared. Look at the N/W corner of Oakhurst and Wilshire and envision twin 55 story towers like the Millennium Towers for Hollywood. Then add a tower at Oakhurst and Wilshire and one at Swall Dr and Wilshire, etc. Watch all the apartments south of Wilshire be razed in the next ten years for mixed use projects. Don't take my word for it. Look at the DEIR and do the math for yourselves.

LAofAnaheim

@abramsrl What is the subway's purpose? To give you a 18 minute subway ride from Wilshire/Westwood to 7th Street/Metro Center between 7 - 10 am and 4 - 7 pm. Rail is an alternative and never replaces traffic. This is proof from every subway system in the world. There will always be traffic, as long as there is roads. But, with a subway system, you now have an alternative means of travel.

abramsrl

@LAofAnaheim Subways are far more complicated than your statement implies. Subways serve a very limited geographic area -- a 1/2 mile radius around a subway station -- that is one fact on which the 1915 Transportation Study and Metro agree. http://bit.ly/cJh5BP

The only way for a subway to financially operate is to have very dense population concentrations within a few blocks of the stations. Otherwise, the subways require city subsidies forever. More unions with more pensions is not what the public favors at the moment.

If we were to add enough highrises along Wilshire to make a subway financially viable, we would be adding so many cars along that corridor that traffic congestion would surpass gridlock. As was known in 1915, geography determines the functionality of a subway system. Manhattan is 2.5 mi vs. 11 miles. In a rectangle, a subway lines run parallel to the width of the city. If there is one line running up and down the westside and one up and down the east side with a huge park in the middle, those two lines serve substantially the entire population of Manhattan.

On the other hand, LA is a huge circular area. As two subway lines move from the hub towards the rim, the land between the two subway lines becomes greater and greater so that after 5 miles, the subway ceases the serve the vast majority of the population in between. Just draw concentric circles and then add subway lines like the spokes of a wheel and you will see the inherent non-functionality of a subway system in Los Angeles. Just try to devise a system that satisfies the requirement that everyone lives within 1/2 mile of a subway station -- not just 1/2 mi from the subway tracks, but 1/2 mile from a station.

Even people who live on top of subway stations need their own cars. That is why only 29 out of 143 condos in Hollywood's W Hotel have sold. Although it caps a subway station, the subway reaches only 5% of LA. Subways bring more density and more density brings more cars and more gridlock, which then sets up a reaction, where people move away from density making it impossible to sell the condos. This is where Accounting Control Fraud enters the picture, but that subject is for another day.

Thus, assuming Wilshire Corridor added 40,000 more people in high rises, they would need cars if they wanted to reach the other 95% of the Los Angeles area.

Subways are not intended to be a viable mode of transportation for Angelenos but as another way to fleece us out of billions of tax dollars to go into the pockets of the 1%, who use limos and not subways.

noboy

1 Like

By "spunky" do you mean right wing garbage?

greenbareknuckle

Along with the Courier, Mirisch and "Dr" Goldberg are embarrassments to the city of Beverly Hills.

joehill

@greenbareknuckle And you, Sir, are an embarrassment to Humanity.

greenbareknuckle

The Beverly Hills Courier is a joke of a paper. The idea that a subway under Beverly Hills High puts the school in any danger is laughable.

More Beverly Hills residents voted for measure J than against it. The idea that Brien is acting against the majority of his constituents is also false.

joehill

@greenbareknuckle Brien supposedly opposes the tunnel under the high school, so your comments make no sense.

celesking

It seems that Brien has an agenda that is not comensurate with the City of Beverly Hills and has joined forces with another duplicitious politicious politician who has demonstrated on many occassions that he cares little about reality and continually promotes illusions and figments of his personal quest for a legacy of a transportation guru. In reality he is at the helm of a tax and spend government body that lives in a fantasy world thinking it can reach deeper and deeper into the pockets of it s citizens. A city with one of the largest poverty rate in America when using real inclusive numbers that tell the truth in regard to cost of living. Further, this city puts an onerous burden on business and has caused an unprecedented flight thereof. July can not come quick enough and Brien should be looking at RECALL by the citizens of Beverly Hills. How do you praise the very system you are suing for improprities.

greenbareknuckle

@celesking Over 50% of Beverly Hills residents supported Measure J, the metro, and Dr Brien. Hopefully Mirisch gets kicked to the curb when he comes up for reelection and civic minded people like Dr Brien don't get tired of the joke that is the Bev Hills Courier and stop participating in public office.

joehill

@greenbareknuckle @celesking Uh, it was a 2/3 vote. Measure J lost in Beverly Hills, despite being outspent one hundred to one. Celes King is right on.