Opinion
In our area there are 3 unfinished roads. Which are represented in the graphic by the red and white dashed lines. City planning maps also showed a train station at the location of the red dot.
In 2000 the Governor to Gilman connection was taken off the plan in the run-up to the design of the Blue Line Trolley. Without this road SANDAG did not provide a west UC train station with the new Blue Line Trolley. Most trolley stops are a mile or two apart, the distance between Nobel and Balboa is 5 miles.
The Friends of Rose Canyon was created in the run-up to the 2006 Regents Road Bridge vote. This first attempt to remove the Regents Road Bridge failed, largely due to the extensive testimony of fire officials.
UCPG membership then came under the control of well-paid lobbyists and to this day the two thirds of the community who want the bridges built are systematically banned from their local community planning board.
In 2008 two rookie politicians Todd Gloria and Sherri Lightner were swept into office. Both were from districts with a Westfield Mall. Eager to please, the pair got control of a transportation subcommittee that voted against the Regents Road Bridge in 2010. Both Gloria and Lightner sat on the SANDAG board.
Unlike in 2006, public safety officials did not testify in 2016 during the second and successful attempt to take the Regents Road Bridge off the plan. Westfield Mall paid half a million dollars for an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) which excluded ambulance service times (See Link). Ever careful to keep the bridge off the ballot, lobbyists pitted neighbor against neighbor, diverting eyes away from Westfield.
Westfield wanted something in return for agreeing to use union labor for its $600-million-dollar expansion. What they got was all traffic funneled up Genesee to their new stores, cheating the shopping centers on Regents Road. Also, by not building the west UC train station Westfield’s new parking structure will harvest south UC trolley commuters. Not finishing our road system increases driving miles by forcing residents onto freeways to travel within their own community adding millions of pounds of carbon to the atmosphere each year, along with wasted man hours and gasoline. Ambulance service times and risk to first responders are increased, conflagration egress paths removed along with bike and pedestrian access.
Many tell me “Lou University bridges are a dead issue” In one aspect they are correct. Based on county statistics, these missing roads/bridges delay ambulances proving fatal for 7 of us each year.
Unfortunately, we cannot trust a foreign owned corporation like Westfield to put our safety above their profits. We need more transparency and less corporate dominance of government.
Link:
http://www.louisrodolico.com/uploads/7/5/2/2/75221087/dif_exhibits.pdf
