SUBWAY TO THE SEA (and Pie in the sky):
Steve Hymon says in LA Times, "City Hall sources say the mayor is exploring the idea of a ballot measure next year that could come in the form of a bond measure or sales tax increase."
Zuma Dogg says, 'Heeeeelllll Naaaaaaawwwwww!"
Now with ZD's major case of ADD, and some of the time, not having enough chronic to counter the effect, nobody hates traffic more than me.
However, unfortunately, I have spent some time recently speaking with top experts in the region on the topic of transportation and here are three things:
a) A subway going from Downtown to the beach (east and west) ain't gonna do sh*t. The premise that there is a demand for a subway going from Santa Monica area to Downtown area is based on the premise that people still commute from Westside to Downtown. And that's an outdated premise.
b) And there ain't no mass exodus from downtown to the beach on the weekends, either.
c) a subway going from north to south (the 405 way) would be much more practical when you think about where people live and where they are going. (but that's no fun.)
So if the mayor wants to spend his own money on this...well that's one thing...but when you start talking about more bonds and taxes, that when ZD has to solicit for gas money, put on my hat and glasses and take that subway from Venice to Downtown to stop you from building it with bond money. (that's the point...the only people who will use the subway will be people from ZD's socio-economic income bracket. So let's just call it what it is then. We need to build a subway, so the lowest paid, poverty and below poverty level, workers can hop the subway from their downtown hoods to the Westside area places and people they are serving.
So you need to aks yourself. Is this low-wage, poverty level population going to be such a factor, that we need to build a subway system, just to get 'em off the roads and highways, and therefore help "managing" congestion? Because those are the only people who will use it. (It ain't like NYC where millionaire CEOs take the train in from Jersey or Long Island. Wish it was, it just isn't! NYC is only 7 miles from head to toe.
See, here's the problem with polls and market research. Basically, when you aks someone, "Would you like to see the mayor build the subway from downtown to the ocean, so you can bop back and forth around the city, easily. About 100% of the people would say, "sure, why not." So you get all excited about the deal, except you forgot to mention you were gonna tax 'em for it, along with trash fess hike, gang tax, LAX worker increase (even though not direct to constituents, they will see it that way), got "L" Infrastructure bond passed by council for the ballot, plus state measures...and then they say, "F*ck it, I won't really take the subway anyway, I'll just drive. Cause once you get to your subway destination, then what do you do? Walk another five miles to get to where you want to go in the area. Or maybe you have to jump on the BUS now, with a transfer or two. So unless you're training for ZD's favorite special event fee waiver, LA Marathon, taxpayers are gonna tell you to take that subway and stick it up your short list of preferred contractors asses. And that, Antonio, is on the realest dough. So please don't make Zuma Dogg have to fire up the media blitzkrieg machine on this one...Just jump in you car and drive away from this one. I heard they are building a high-speed magic supertrain that is going to travel across the entire region at 300 miles an hour. So let's just wait and see how that goes first. (LOL!)
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