While “the process” keeps spending money on outreach and studies for a project that most communities don’t want, local groups including the Pasadena & Foothill Chapter of the American Institute of Architects have been learning about a futuristic freight movement proposal that would dramatically reduce truck traffic in Southern California.

Conventional port and freeway expansions are “50-year-old ways of doing things that would be unacceptable in any other industry,” said David Alba, who presented the comprehensive GRID project to the professional group. Several in the audience expressed interest in the grand concept’s urban design and development opportunities.

Other panelists will be California Assembly representative Khatcho Achadjian (33rd District) and KPFK Producer and On-Air Host Maria Armoudian. The event’s sponsor, Analysis Research and Planning for Armenia (ARPA), is inviting youth organizations, university student unions and members of the public interested in this subject.

The program begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be held at Merdinian Auditorium, 13330 Riverside Dr. Sherman Oaks.

Event Flyer

Resident Tammi Relyea spoke at last night’s Glendale city council meeting to alert the public about strings attached to the new magnet school designations for GUSD dual-language immersion programs and the arts magnet school at Keppel. Relyea has obtained this copy of GUSD’s explanation of the Magnet Schools Enrollment Process.

Glendale city council members said complaints they received on this subject recently made it seem as if their “Blackberries had exploded.” All five council members expressed concern about the policy, which could prevent children living within a school’s boundaries from being able to enroll in that school. Laura Friedman and Mayor Ara Najarian both remarked that this was contrary to the city’s goals of reducing congestion, improving traffic safety, and encouraging students to get more exercise by walking or riding their bikes to school.

Relyea has filed a public records request with the Glendale Unified School District, asking for information about the grant application and terms. She asserts that the district did no community outreach before securing the grant, and that the enrollment policy is bound to be a consideration in local real estate transactions, as savvy buyers with or without school-age children pay close attention to local school issues.

The Northwest Glendale Homeowners Association is planning a community meeting to bring this issue to the neighborhood’s attention. It is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, February 23rd, 7:30 p.m., at Brand Library.

Some of Najarian’s comments:

“I don’t think that the 710 Tunnel is a viable project to solve the congestion concerns we have, for several reasons. We talk about a gap, the missing link, and SCAG has referred to it as the only missing link…but there are freeways throughout the county that have not been built. To describe the 710 as “the” missing link is a fallacy…Communities have stood up, and rightly so, against many projects. We are a democracy and we protect and cherish the local voices.”

The other issue I have is the cost…The big problem I have is that there is a ‘tipping point’ for the tunnel. If it gets to be greater than $3 billion (I’ve heard inside the MTA), it will fail. The PPP report says if this cost is higher than $5 billion, it will fail. It doesn’t make sense as a community to spend the millions of dollars on consultants, on the finance people, on the engineers, on the outreach people, who are eating their way through that money by the tens of millions of dollars as we speak, only to find years down the road that this is too expensive a project and isn’t feasible.”

Other elected officials gave their views on the tunnel during introductory remarks, with 44th District representative Anthony Portantino saying, “It’s no secret that I don’t support the 710 Tunnel,” and Duarte City Council member John Fasana stating that voter support of Measure R implied support of the 710 Tunnel project.

Najarian was the only elected official who participated in the program sessions. He sat on the second panel discussing 710 expansion ‘guiding principles.’ Other panelists were Metro Highway Program Director Douglas Failing and Parsons Brinkerhoff VP Dr. Eugene Kim. Dr. Kim surprised the audience with his contention that the 710 tunnel should be built, but shouldn’t accommodate truck traffic.

The earlier session of the morning featured Metro Board member Richard Katz, Metrolink CEO John Fenton, and Transit Coalition Director Bart Reed, and although the topic was ‘a sustainable transportation future’ the 710 controversy came up as a question about ‘NIMBY’ resistance to proposed projects.

South Pasadena resident Janet Ervin commented, “Although it was good to see that many people are interested in transportation issues affecting our region, the apparent insistence to ‘close the 710 gap’ shows that Caltrans and Metro have made their decision. They are simply going to provide that data which supports their predetermined plan. They know that a tunnel will not relieve commuter traffic, nor will it be able to handle the increased freight traffic from the ports.”

The tremendous benefits of the project have impressed groups from Long Beach, where advocates are concerned with the link between pollution and childhood asthma; to East LA, where jobs and urban renewal are desperately needed; to the No 710 Action Committee, whose communities will be affected by a strong surge in truck traffic and who have pushed for “21st century alternatives” to freight transport in Southern California.

The port facility would be the first of its kind in the world with no fossil fuel emissions. The encompassing GRID is a paradigm-changing, futuristic alternative to conventional port expansion and freeway extension projects including the 710 Tunnel. Costs would be shared among many industries and communities benefiting from the system, in contrast to 6 current projects** linked only to future container traffic capacity in Southern California with cost estimates ranging higher than $22 billion.

Rather than a piecemeal approach to infrastructure, the GRID Project links international trade, goods movement, personal transportation alternatives, energy delivery, and extra space for new urban residential developments. New pipes built inside the river levies will be the path for underground rail tracks as well as electricity transmission. The concept requires no property condemnation, and would actually free up land occupied by port facilities and utility towers.

With a trench already in place, other pipes could carry desalinated water upstream. Above the freight lines, a light rail system could be installed following the same river route and providing connections to many intersecting lines, including the Gold Line east extension.

This is a grand scheme, involving the port, major construction and engineering interests, utilities, manufacturers, transportation agencies, and state and federal support. David Alba, who formerly worked at the port of Long Beach, conceived this plan and is promoting it to groups throughout the region with the support of Richard Mueller, President of Ameron International’s Water Transmission Group.

Alba and Mueller believe this is “A Project of A National Significance” that could attract billions in federal funding and assist the Southern California area in maintaining a premier port facility that can compete successfully with the new port Punta Colonet in Mexico and the planned 2014 expansion of the Panama Canal.

The backers believe this grand project could spark a “manufacturing renaissance that we need in this country” and propose that the project require U.S. contractors and suppliers. They also say it could also inspire big projects in other U.S. cities capitalizing on sustainable infrastructure, new technology, and underutilized assets.

Sunroom Desk will be following developments on this dramatic alternative to the 710 Tunnel and conventional freeway and port expansion projects in Southern California. The project may come up at this Saturday’s One Community meeting. 710 Tunnel opponent and Glendale mayor Ara Najarian is one of the panelists.

NOTES:
Thanks to David Alba for the port facility image and PowerPoint slide.

**6 conventional projects currently on the table:
1. 710 Tunnel
2. 710 Widening
3. Union Pacific Intermodal Container Transport Facility
4. BNSF Intermodal Container Tranport Facility
5. Port of Long Beach Expansion
6. Port of Long Beach Midharbor Project

Recent news coverage:
Residents Discuss Alternative to 710 Freeway Projects
A new wave against 710 tunnel

The December 8, 2010 issue of the South Pasadena Review printed a letter the former mayor (and current council member) of South Pasadena sent to Governor-elect Jerry Brown. Councilman Richard Schneider also spoke against the tunnel project at last Thursday’s MTA meeting. Excerpts of the letter below:

Governor-elect Jerry Brown:

I…have great hopes that now a threat posed by a project you eliminated in your first administration (and I thank you for that past protection) will be killed for the last time. Your leadership is necessary to stop this wasteful and obsolete project that once again threatens the public fisc and not only our city but the whole northeast section of Los Angeles and the southwest section of Pasadena… the SR-710 north toll tunnel.

Most immediately, your leadership can finally order the sale of millions of dollars of excess properties that the state has held for more than 40 years-longer than the Soviet Union occupied Eastern Europe-in the vain hope that the freeway you tried to kill in the late 1970s would still get built. Rather than sell our state’s crown jewels–its magnificent State Buildings–hundreds of properties worth hundreds of millions of dollars are now at your disposal to restore California’s fiscal integrity.

Moreover, as Governor you can save tens of millions of dollars in consultant fees and potentially tens of billions of dollars in construction costs by having Caltrans kill the proposed toll tunnel now. The Southern California Association of Governments’ (SCAG) 2007 estimate in the Regional transportation Plan was $11.8 billion for construction of the tunnel. Some people may try to convince you that the tunnel can be financed using “free” money via Public Private Partnerships (PPP). However, the PPP report drafted by METRO’s consultants used low-ball figures from the 2006 ”Feasibility Assessment” and ignored the fact that the public pays through “shadow” tolls and ultimately becomes financially responsible when revenues fall short of expectations.

The original freeway was conceived in the Harry Truman – Dwight Eisenhower era. The City of South Pasadena formally opposed it 61 years ago (in 1949), foreseeing it slashing through and ruining the community. Over the decades, virtually every Caltrans Director has left office confirming that the SR-710 extension will never be built. Since 1973, federal court injunctions have prohibited construction. The project has been administratively dead since both Federal Highway Administration and California Transportation Commission withdrew their approvals in 2003 and 2004. However, in 2003 the transportation agencies (Caltrans, Los Angeles County Metro and SCAG) revived the project by advancing the idea of exitless, 4.5 mile-long twin bored tunnels, 150 feet below ground, which would be the largest roadway tunnel in the world. The project would not resolve the congestion or pollution problems and would prove financially prohibitive.

This new tollway project has engendered widespread opposition in the affected communities. In addition to South Pasadena, the cities of Glendale and La Cafiada Flintridge oppose it. Furthermore, neighborhood councils of Highland Park, EI Sereno, Crescenta Valley, Arroyo Seco, Sunland-Tujunga, Eagle Rock, Glassell Park and Mt. Washington are against it. Attached are resolutions from some of these communities, whose populations total more than a half million.

There are better, more 21st century ways to solve transportation problems than by reverting to freeways or tollways. People can be moved by light rail transit systems, bus systems and bicycles. Freight containers from the ports can be moved by electrified rail. This strategy alone would remove tens of thousands of trucks each day from the Los Angeles County highways, end one of the nation’s most unhealthy air pollution hazards, and be far more cost effective than another tollway or a freeway. These technologies would reduce congestion, improve safety, reduce pollution and greenhouse gases, improve health, and move us away from dependence on oil and diesel trucks. In fact, the South Coast Air Quality Management District has been advocating zero emission technologies for some time, and now they are available–but they would be stillborn with yet more wasteful investment in moving freight by road through exemplary communities.

Assemblymember Anthony Portantino (in the La Canada Valley Sun) has written eloquently on why this project needs to be terminated. I concur in his advice and ask you to work with him to bring the SR-710 saga to a worthy and constructive end

Though this letter is written to express my own opinion, I am the Mayor of a city that has fought the freeway for decades, and now opposes the even more costly tunnel. I am also a health care professional who has reviewed many studies on the devastating health effects and increased cancer risk of vehicular pollution (such as the USC Keck studies that have focused on the SR-710 between Long Beach and Los Angeles). I ask you to have CALTRANS release the corridor properties to sale, and terminate the tunnel proposal forthwith.

Mayor Richard D. Schneider, MD

Najarian’s motion on today’s MTA agenda drew 21 speakers during public comment, 19 speaking in favor and only 2 against. Excerpted comments:

Donald Voss, Mayor, La Canada Flintridge – “Developing a reliable cost estimate will indicate whether it is appropriate to proceed before taking on the great cost of an EIR.”

Dr. Bill Sherman, Chair, South Pasadena Transportation Commission – “How can you buy something if you don’t know how much it costs? PPP [public private partnership] funding is a magician’s trick – the public pays one way or another. This project is just too expensive.”

Susan Boland, La Crescenta – “Give the taxpayers a window sticker.”

Damon Nagami, Natural Resources Defense Council – “Metro is committing its resources to the wrong approach.”

Sherry Stubbs – “This board has already authorized, spent, and will spend almost $86 million on this project. You are gambling with the taxpayers’ money.”

Representatives of both the Eagle Rock and Historic Highland Park neighborhood councils spoke in support of the motion,and also presented resolutions opposing the project.

The two speakers against the motion were Lee Campbell, who claimed that SCAG had already done a cost study which indicated a $4.8 billion cost (a subsequent speaker disputed that and said SCAG’s latest figure was $11.5 billion), and Barbara Massina of the Alhambra City Council.

During the board’s discussion, Najarian noted that the 710 Tunnel proposal is “a significant project – one of the largest in the country. Because of its size, we owe it to the taxpayers to come up with a good cost estimate before spending $80 million on an EIR.” He concluded that the MTA’s practice of developing cost estimates after EIRs are completed is wrong.

No one on the board disagreed, although chair Don Knabe called the motion “another delay.” After a discussion of Fasana’s amendment, the board passed Molina’s substitute motion directing staff to return with a report on which, if any, projects would be delayed by a cost estimate requirement. The report will be presented at the next MTA Board meeting in February 2011.

Gandy, Mobility Coordinator for Long Beach, presented traffic planning and road design changes that encourage bicycling and walking, and urged his audience as “stewards of the community” to advocate them.

Stewardship of the community became much narrower, and another side of “political will” was evident, at Thursday’s MTA Board meeting, when a large contingent of politicians from San Gabriel valley communities appeared to argue for the 710 Tunnel and succeeded in persuading a majority of the board to proceed with an EIR. Among them: Assemblyman Mike Eng, who called it “A win-win situation,” and said “We need to hang tough, we need jobs;” and Monterey Park council member David Lau, who urged moving forward, saying “The impact is strongest in our city.”

While a set number of communities might benefit from an extension of the 710, the tunnel would accomplish nothing in terms of reducing overall numbers of vehicles on Southern California roads. The extension has been debated for more than 40 years, making it a distinctly outdated solution to what is a 21st-century global problem: reducing fossil fuel consumption and pollution. The “political will” San Gabriel communities brought to the meeting doesn’t demonstrate the kind of stewardship needed in this region.

Chairman Ara Najarian, who has taken a strong stand against the tunnel, put forward a motion to have Metro study a range of transit solutions before proceeding with an EIR of the tunnel. A large group came to the meeting in support of Najarian’s motion, and urged the board to adopt 21st century transit solutions such as light rail and “multi-modal” transport, and to consider the evident environmental risks. Trisha Gossett, of the Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, opened with “Due to what we have witnessed in the Gulf of Mexico, it is hard to believe anything can ‘go wrong’ digging the world’s largest diameter tunnel, through three fault lines, under the second-most heavily populated city in the United States…We know that drill baby drill, led to spill baby spill!”

Your Editor chimed in with another reference to the Gulf Coast tragedy: “Day after day, for 30-some odd days and continuing, we are seeing how badly things can go wrong with complicated projects built under the surface.” The proposed 710 Tunnel, justified on the grounds that it will move more freight trucks through the region, represents the same fossil fuel addiction that makes oil spills possible. As lamented in an earlier post, the United States hasn’t mobilized to find a cure for this disease. We needed persistent political will back in the 1970s; we need it more desperately today.

Despite Chairman Ara Najarian’s political will and his motion to have a range of transit solutions considered before approving an official EIR, he and Jose Huizar were the only two to vote against proceeding with the tunnel study.

Sidenote, although it took center stage at the board meeting literally as well as figuratively: The large center seating area of the MTA Board Room was completely taken up by members and supporters of the Bus Riders Union, whose numbers were greater than all of those who had arrived to discuss the 710 on both sides. Tunnel supporters, mostly elected officials, occupied one side seating area. On the other side of the room were tunnel opponents, mainly residents. The Bus Riders Union disrupted the meeting repeatedly with demands for a public hearing on the upcoming July MTA fare hikes, and at one point chanted, “One less tunnel, a thousand more buses!”

While Obama dissembled on the topic, Glendale concluded an outstanding program of events highlighting the importance of human rights and genocide recognition. Its annual April focus on Man’s Inhumanity to Man, and the culminating Genocide Commemoration at the Alex Theatre, was praised by the Armenian Consul General in Los Angeles as a unique civic program in the United States.

More Glendale voices on genocide recognition: In an April 24 KPFA radio interview, Zanku Armenian said that both Turkey and the U.S. need to get past this issue. “In order for a country like Turkey to truly join Western civilization, it will have to come to terms with its history. It isn’t about Armenian rights, its about human rights.” Saturday’s Fox LA news report on the Alex Theatre Genocide Commemoration showed Congressman Adam Schiff at the event, and featured comments from GUSD Board member Nayiri Nahabedian, and Glendale Mayor Ara Najarian.

At Sunroom Desk, notes from the April 22 program on Modern Day Slavery are still on hand. Human trafficking, sex trade victims, and forced labor practices uncovered even in Los Angeles had members of the audience reflecting on similar crimes during the Armenian Genocide and asking, “What can be done?” The CAST representative on hand urged us to look for and purchase “Fair Trade products”. More on Fair Trade practices and products in an upcoming post.

Dissenter Dave Weaver said he needed more information which would be developed as the project took a definite direction. Weaver said Southern Californians have appreciated all area freeways, even though communities opposed each at the time of construction.

Laura Friedman countered that the region is worse off today because before the freeways were built, a light rail system that used to serve many communities here was dismantled. Friedman opposes the 710 Tunnel project proposal as a policy matter, and advocates a rail system for moving freight from the ports through the region.

Council member Ara Najarian, who heads the MTA, was taken aback as Friedman criticized his recent MTA abstention vote on the 710 Tunnel project and questioned why Glendale city council wasn’t alerted to the matter ahead of time. Najarian explained that the vote was combined with another project that he does support, and that he’s made his position very clear and led local opposition to the tunnel well before other council members.

Following council members’ comments, city manager Jim Starbird and city attorney Scott Howard both discussed how staff would proceed to establish Glendale as a leader in opposing the multi-billion dollar CalTrans proposal.