move
A while ago I wrote a blurb about a group trying to get the current Metro Green Line extended a few feet to reach LAX, and my hope that it might happen in my lifetime. I recently stumbled upon a website for another project that's a lot more ambitious. Get LA Moving is a project by Damien Goodmon, who grew up in Los Angeles but experienced successful mass transit while a student in Boston. His concept is based around social networking, blogging, etc as a modern day grassroots impetus to create real change. It also plays on the recent massive and swift schoolbuilding project that LA undertook to solve an overcrowding problem that had reached huge proportions citywide. Whats most genius about his plan is that it is mostly, as he calls it, "unoriginal." It uses existing routes, existing rail right of ways, existing past research and studies, existing building techniques, and existing funding methods. And most importantly, his plan does what the MTA's doesn't: it has stops that make sense and motivate ridership. Destinations like LAX, Dodger Stadium, malls, museums, theme parks. Go figure. His plan accounts for this all to be built in thirteen years. Getting that past the MTA and government officials is probably the most insurmountable goal. But we can hope. And here I was hoping for only a few feet of track to be able to be built to make it to LAX. Wouldn't it be something to go down in history if public advocacy actually brought rail transit back to Los Angeles.