Mobility: Villaraigosa Vows to Fight For Fair Share of State, Federal Funds

I sat on the RTD board some 14 years ago. I was on that board for two years and was an alternate on the MTA board after that. For a very, very short period of time I was chair of transportation in the State Assembly. Always, from those very first days, I've been focused on this issue of transportation – of what we do to move people and goods through the region. This is a passionate issue for me. I didn't talk about it during the campaign just because I was running for office. I understand that our ability to invest in the infrastructure of our city, whether it's transportation or the port or airport, our ability to build schools and all of what it's going to take to provide the opportunity to grow our economic base is going to be critical.

And, frankly, California is a state that's seen better times. It's a state where we still lament Governor Pat Brown, the last governor to really invest in public infrastructure in a way that grows the economy but also creates more opportunity. This is a city and a region that for too long has not invested in public transportation. One of the things that I saw really clearly in the course of the campaign is everybody is looking for easy solutions. They all want to deal with traffic. They all want to clean up the air. They all want to do something to address the congestion and health effects at the port and airport. But they all think it just comes with a snap of the fingers or a magic wand. But none of those solutions has ever come that way.

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Solutions come from bringing people together, and that's what Mobility 21 is all about. It's about engaging all of the stakeholders throughout the region. It's not just about the City of Los Angeles – but make no mistake, we're going to be a key part of that. It's convincing the people of this city that the only way we're going to deal with the gridlock, the congestion, the dirty air, the health effects that come with congestion is to rethink what the city and the region looks like. When I lost the mayor's race four years ago, I went to work in the private sector, and I was a visiting professor at UCLA and UCSD, and one of the things we looked at was what we do in the cities to grow in a smarter way. We did a booklet called "Beyond Sprawl" that looked at the kinds of things we can do in L.A. and in urban cities around the nation to improve the quality of life. We used the metaphor of growing and said that we've got to grow greener, we've got to grow safer, we've got to grow more civic-minded, we've got to grow together, and we've got to grow smarter. When you look at that, that's what we have to do here in this city and region and it's what we have to do here specifically with transportation.

What are some of the things that we need to do? One, we only have one regional planner and decision-maker to set regional priorities, and that's the MTA. When I was chair of transportation, sometimes the city would want to move things along without the MTA, and I said that if we do that, then everybody's going to do that. Long Beach is going to do that, and all of the cities in San Gabriel are going to do that. We've got to have one entity that we go to that addresses the regional challenges that we face, and we've got to engage them. But having 88 cities making those decisions is just not going to work. We've got to do this in a much broader way. The MTA is the way to do that. I said that before I was chair, I say that while I'm the chair and I'll continue to say that when I'm not. It's the only way for us to develop an effort on a regional basis to address the problems that are regional and not just city-specific challenges.

In my campaign people wanted me to stop construction during rush hour, and I did in the first 100 days. But the reason why I didn't make it such a big issue in my campaign was that I knew it was demagoguery. I knew that at the end of the day, we have gridlock 24/7. We can't stop construction throughout the 24-hour day – we've got needs to meet. They wanted me to synchronize the lights, and we're going to do that. We're putting a plan together. We've got a six-year plan that we're going to reduce in three to four years. That's going to mean more money, but it's essential to address the fact that so many of these lights are not synchronized and cause traffic problems. We've done more small things. We've identified the 50 most problematic intersections and put traffic officers on them during rush hour, which we know is much bigger than 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. We did all of this, but at the end of the day, if we want to address gridlock, we're going to have to rethink what this region looks like. We're going to have to grow more vertically. Jerry Brown calls it elegant density. We're already growing two cities the size of Chicago in the next 30 years in this region. Most of that growth will be in San Bernardino and Riverside, but a lot of it is going to be in the urban core. We're only going to get more congested. If you listen to the forecast by SCAG, if we do nothing the average commute is going to be seven miles per hour during rush hour. I think we can do better than that.

So what do we have to do?

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We're going to have to invest in public transit. We're going to have to invest in smart growth. Let me give you an example from the city of Los Angeles – and we're not any worse than any other city – the planning department doesn't talk to the transportation department, doesn't talk to building and safety, doesn't talk to the CRA. And the city doesn't work with the MTA in the way that we could. So the result is that we've built a light rail line, but we didn't do any development for ten years around the transit station; we started developing the transit station but we don't have any parking, and we wonder why people aren't using it the way that they can. We're going to have to make smarter decisions, we're going to have to focus on transit-oriented development along light rail, subways, in downtown, in areas that can demonstrate to people that density is here, so let's make it work. Let's show people that you can make transportation decisions with economic development decisions and planning decisions in a way that is smart, elegant, and that promotes public transit and takes people out of single-passenger automobiles, in a way that makes walking safe. That's the key to our future. There is no way to get out of the gridlock building freeways. There is no way to get out of the gridlock just by putting more high-occupancy vehicle lanes. We're going to do all that, but there is no way to address gridlock without a major effort.

What's it going to take?

It's going to take incredible investment. I know I'm right on this issue, and I know many of the planners in this room know I'm right. I love the way the papers made fun of me when during the campaign I said that we had to have a subway all the way to the ocean. And people looked at me like I was crazy. But I know they're crazy, because I sat on the RTD board, and I've sat on the MTA board, and I know that the one place where a subway in Los Angeles will work is taking it down Wilshire Blvd. all the way to the ocean. It will be the most cost-effective investment in public transit, the highest ridership anywhere in the United States – maybe anywhere in the world! It's the one place where rapid transit has to be, and anyone who's been on the 10 freeway or Olympic or Pico or Washington boulevards can tell you that.

We have to be really aggressive, and this is where Mobility 21 is essential. The Los Angeles region and California haven't always gotten their fair share. The reason why Mobility 21 is so important is that we have to get a consensus of all the stakeholders and the business community – the chambers are critical to that – all the local governments and say to the federal government and the state that we expect our fair share. We have to tell our senators and our Congressional delegation that L.A. is the place with the most gridlock, the most sprawl, and the most people, and just because we get the most money doesn't mean that we're getting our fair share. We have to demand fair share, and we need Mobility 21 and a consensus of leadership to do that. We have an opportunity with this $50 billion bond, and we have to make sure that when they're doing that transportation and housing bond that we have to be at that table negotiating and ensuring that Los Angeles and the Southern California region is getting its fair share. The way this works, this thing will not pass without Los Angeles, and we have to leverage that for fairness and equity. We don't need more than our fair share, but we have to get our fair share.

Right now when you look at the dollars we're getting back, we only receive 57 percent of the state's transportation funding. Since 1992 Los Angeles has only received $88.92 per capita in new start funding. Compare this to $562 per capita in Portland or $264 in the Bay Area. We need Mobility 21 because we need a voice that says "hold it" to the state and the nation. It's outrageous that we're not getting what we deserve, and that's why I've been so aggressive in Sacramento.

What are some of the projects that we have to move along? Obviously the Gold Line to the Eastside; it's one of the most transit-dependent areas; it makes sense, and it's starting to build out a system that works. Then we have new start designation for the Exposition Line. We can finish both those projects in the next four years.

We put together a panel of experts to study the subway extension under Wilshire, and the experts came back and told us what we all already knew. You can build a subway where there is methane gas and hydrogen sulfide. We have that capability. They came back unanimous and very excited. Once Congressman Waxman reviews these findings, our next big push is to get rid of the prohibition against building a subway to the ocean. And once we get that, then we can start telling the federal government that this is one of the most important projects in the nation.

We want to get incentives for smart growth and transit-oriented development, to grow greener and smarter around transportation lines. So those are some of the things that I'm looking forward to doing with all of you. And we want to extend it. We want to bring labor into Mobility 21, because they can talk to a group of legislators that you might not be able to reach. We want to bring neighborhood councils in support of these efforts. This effort is absolutely essential to Los Angeles and the region. I want to work in partnership with you.

Chicago has an event in Washington called "Chicago Day." It is something to marvel at. They bring the chambers, the unions, the businesses, the politicians – they bring the world there – and guess what? Those legislators listen. We're going to do the same thing. We're going to do an L.A. Day where we'll bring the movie stars and the Chamber and all of our assets as well. And we're going to do things like Bloomberg, Daly, and Villaraigosa, who right now don't talk much – we're going to go and advocate for big cities. The urban centers, the engines for economic growth in the nation, who, frankly, under this administration, just aren't getting their fair share.

I want to acknowledge all of you today. I'm excited to work with you. Let's move forward to address these issues.