EDITORIAL TUNNEL VISION ROSENDAHL'S SUBWAY PLAN LEAVES MOST OF L.A. COUNTY BEHIND.WESTSIDE City Councilman Bill Rosendahl Bill Rosendahl is a Los Angeles City Councilman, representing Council District 11, including the communities of Brentwood, Del Rey, Mar Vista, Marina del Rey, Pacific Palisades, Palms, Playa del Rey, Playa Vista, Venice, West Los Angeles and Westchester. has a swell idea to inflict on Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County: We all pay higher sales taxes sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. , and his district gets a new subway that its residents fought against for years. What a deal! So while the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. and other transit-starved parts of the region make do with inadequate bus lines, the tony Westside would get the Cadillac of public transportation in a Wilshire Corridor subway to the beach. A half-percent sales-tax hike throughout L.A. County - which already has the highest sales taxes in the state - would help pay for the operation. Not that Rosendahl pushes the idea in exactly those terms. He packages the proposed tax as a way to fund all sort of projects. He just happened to call for the tax hike immediately after the council rubber-stamped a report that would permit construction of a Westside subway. And if, like the half-percent public-safety tax hike that voters rejected in 2004, this tax would generate $560 million a year that wouldn't leave much for anything else after building the subway, at an initial estimated cost of $5 billion. What's funny is that Westsiders could have had a subway 20 years ago, but rejected it for fear of Eastside riffraff riff·raff n. 1. People regarded as disreputable or worthless. 2. Rubbish; trash. [Middle English riffe raffe, from rif and raf, one and all coming into their community. Likewise, Westside NIMBYism previously blocked additional freeways from coming into the region. Now that the community is gridlocked grid·lock n. 1. A traffic jam in which no vehicular movement is possible, especially one caused by the blockage of key intersections within a grid of streets. 2. , its leaders want the rest of the county to bail it out, at the highest price possible. Without a doubt, the Westside has tremendous needs that must be addressed. So does the rest of L.A. County. Rather than going to the top of the list and getting the best kind of transit imaginable, the Westside's needs must be responsibly worked out, while balanced with those of other communities. Before committing to any high-priced project, let alone raising taxes to pay for it, local leaders should come up with a comprehensive growth and transportation plan for all of the county - one that ensures that no communities unfairly benefit at the expense of others. The truth of the matter is that county voters have made themselves clear by passing a law forbidding use of local tax dollars for subways. Let's talk dollars and sense when it comes to solutions to traffic congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. . |
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