EDITORIAL WHITHER THE MTA? PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION POLICY SHOULDN'T BE DECIDED BY JUDGES AND ACTIVISTS.FOR years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time Metropolitan Transportation Authority has sunk millions of dollars into equipment and personnel to comply with a federal court consent decree A settlement of a lawsuit or criminal case in which a person or company agrees to take specific actions without admitting fault or guilt for the situation that led to the lawsuit. A consent decree is a settlement that is contained in a court order. and appease the self-styled Bus Riders Union. And despite years of kowtowing to these activists and the federal court overseeing the decree, it never seems to be enough. Just as the $125 million for 200 new buses that the MTA (1) (Message Transfer Agent or Mail Transfer Agent) The store and forward part of a messaging system. See messaging system. (2) See M Technology Association. 1. (messaging) MTA - Message Transfer Agent. board voted on Friday as part of its consent-decree compliance is not enough. To its credit, the activist group forced the MTA to improve bus service after the transit agency foolishly agreed to the consent decree in 1996 and surrendered its authority rather than actually fix what was broken. Quite simply, for the worst of political motives, the MTA board had spent billions on a subway and light-rail network that served the few instead of on buses that would have served the many. The taste of power has clearly gone to the Bus Riders Union's head. What the self-appointed BRU - a group of people purporting to represent millions of individual bus riders, but truly only representing themselves - seems to want now is complete control of this public agency. The group complains that this new bus-buying plan ``comes up completely short'' and has tried to pressure 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. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. , who is MTA board chairman, to reject it. The group threatens to ask a federal judge to extend the consent decree when it expires next year if it doesn't get its way. If it comes to that and the judge agrees to continue to suspend local rule, here's a suggestion for Villaraigosa and the other board members: Disband dis·band v. dis·band·ed, dis·band·ing, dis·bands v.tr. To dissolve the organization of (a corporation, for example). v.intr. 1. the MTA and reorganize the system on a broader, regional basis. Transit and traffic planning across Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, is long overdue, and is the only way to develop sensible and effective strategies. Ten years after agreeing to this consent decree, MTA officials ought to be able to defend their policies in court, or they don't deserve their jobs. |
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