WRITTEN PUBLIC
COMMENTS RECEIVED
Review subcommittee, where such applications would be processed. Once tentatively approved, the application would be forwarded to the Architectural Commission for formal approval.
This would be a variant of the existing Architectural Commission subcommittee for Restaurant Design.
The Design Review subcommittee could be administered by a rotating set of three former Design Review Commissioners.
Steve Mayer
(310) 275-8423
Samuel Blum
T: (646) 875-8679
half up to a point.
I also know that you are also aware of the safety and other issues that a “southonly portal” would bring to the residential area to the south. These are some of the concerns that residents have and that MUST be dealt with to preserve safety and the quality of our residential life:
[1] We are all aware of the safety and criminal issues that have plagued the Metro system in recent months. Our City cannot allow those issues to be transported into the adjacent residential areas. I believe that whatever resolution is adopted by the City must include a pledge to devote specific police resources to and around the south portal residential area for some specific period of time until it’s clear that the persons entering and exiting the south portal have not caused safety concerns to the nearby residents. [2] The decision to implement the south portal without a north portal needs to be accompanied by a well-thought out parking plan. Numerous patrons taking the subway downtown to work or to entertainment or whatever will be seeking a parking space for their vehicle. Even more importantly, cars waiting to pick up an exiting passenger in the evening or otherwise will be looking for a parking space to wait. All of that will cause disruption to the residents, to their homes and to their families and guests. There needs to be a definitive and workable plan as to how these parking issues are to be resolved if no north portal is built.
[3] There also needs to be a definitive and workable plan for the passengers to travel from the Triangle and north to the southern entrance portal and vice versa. A bridge? A crosswalk with lights? A crossing guard? All of the above need to be a definitive and workable part of whatever plan the City Council adopts.
Thank you for your consideration of these important issues.
Ken Goldman
Tel: (310) 508-0049
Email: [email protected]
May 1, 2024
The Hon. Lester Friedman & Members of the City Council
City of Beverly Hills
455 North Rexford Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Re: Discontinuance of the North Portal Project
Dear Mayor Friedman and Members of the City Council,
The Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce supports the staff’s recommendation to discontinue the North Portal Project.
It would be terrific to have an additional entrance and exit to the Subway on the northwest corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Beverly Drive, but it is simply not smart business decision.
Clearly, the current cost estimate of $134.2M makes it obvious the hopes of building a North Portal to the Subway should be abandoned. There are far higher priorities for the City’s limited resources.
The Chamber concurs with the Staff’s recommendation to discontinue the North Portal Project.
Sincerely,
Todd Johnson
President and CEO
Beverly Hills Chamber of Commerce
9400 S. Santa Monica Boulevard, Second Floor, Beverly Hills, CA 90210 (310) 248-1000 | www.beverlyhillschamber.com
Use this opportunity well.
Steve Mayer
Los Angeles Metro board member says she’s ‘afraid,’ will not ride alone
by: Tony Kurzweil
KTLA5
Posted: Apr 26, 2024 / 07:41 AM PDT
Updated: Apr 26, 2024 / 07:44 AM PDT
A Los Angeles Metro board member says she is “afraid” and would not ride on the city’s public transportation system alone.
The comments were made during a board meeting Thursday where the transit agency’s Board of Directors declared a public safety emergency.
“I will not ride our transit system by myself. I am afraid and I sit on Metro, but I will not ride it,” Board Member Kathryn Barger said.
The comments come as a series of violent attacks this month have left a trail of bloodied victims hospitalized and one woman dead on Monday in Studio City.
In that incident, 67-year-old Mirna Soza Arauz was stabbed in the throat by a man with a pair of kitchen knives. The suspect, 45-year-old transient Elliot Tramel Nowden, has been charged with murder and is facing life in prison if convicted.
Earlier this month, on April 13, a bus driver was stabbed by a passenger in Willowbrook on the same day another man was stabbed in the Silver Lake neighborhood in unrelated incidents.
These violent attacks prompted the emergency meeting by the Board of Directors Thursday, where officials agreed to retrofit its buses with shatterproof glass barriers around the transit drivers.
Several other safety measures were also approved, including an increase in the number of security cameras and implementing facial recognition technology.
The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/los-angeles-metro-official-says-shes-afraid-will-not-ride/ LA Metro's Board Green Lights $7.1B Southeast Gateway
Line
By David Aragon
May 1, 2024
The Los Angeles Metro Board of Directors unanimously approved a plan for the for the first leg of the $7.1-billion Southeast Gateway Line, a light rail line that will stretch 14.5 miles to Artesia.
With the final approval of the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment by the board on April 25, Metro can move forward with efforts to secure federal funds for the project. The Southeast Gateway project's current estimated capital cost is estimated between $4.9 billion and $5.1 billion and service is slated to begin in 2033.
Metro officials anticipate receiving a Full Funding Grant Agreement with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) next year. Approximately $2 billion in local and wtate funds already committed to the project.
The board’s approval covers the first leg of the Southeast Gateway Line, that will link the A Line’s Slauson station in unincorporated community of Florence-Firestone in South Los Angeles to a future Pioneer Station in the City of Artesia The project is part of a larger $7.1-billion, 19.3-mile LRT corridor slated for completion by 2053. A study to evaluate options for connecting from Slauson/A Line to Union Station is still in development.
“No more waiting and wondering, this project will go forward,” said LA Supervisor and Metro Board Vice Chair Janice Hahn, in a statement. “The era of Southeast LA and the Gateway Cities being left behind by new Metro rail projects is over. The cities along the line are ready, future riders are ready, and now we can finally get to work building this transformational project.”
Work on the project is expected to begin this year following an approval of the FTA this summer which will allow design and acquisitions to move forward, and construction utility relocation to begin.
In tandem with the EIS approval, Metro released a RFP on April 25 seeking a contract manager/general contractor to provide site clearance and demolition works, hazardous soil abatement work, utility adjustments work, and freight relocation and grade crossings work along the Right-of-Way. According to RFP documents, Metro officials expect to award the contract in November.
The RFP is one of several contract packages Metro expects to execute to deliver the project.
Others include design engineer, program management support and the design and construction of the light rail system itself. In the case of the latter, the delivery method has not been determined.
The selected route will run along the historic West Santa Ana Branch (WSAB) corridor within Los Angeles County, connecting to the Metro Green and Blue lines and bringing lite rail to an area not well connected to the regional Metro system.
When complete in 2033, it will include nine new stations, with six at-grade and three aerial, five park-and-ride facilities, and a maintenance and storage facility. More than 12.1 miles of the route will be at grade, requiring 30 crossings, and 2.4 miles will be elevated with 15 crossings.
Metro says this new transit service will increase mobility and connectivity for several historically underserved and transit-dependent communities, and improve travel times on local and regional transportation networks. Construction and operation of the Southeast Gateway Line will create between 37,000 to 46,000 jobs and generate $5 billion per year in economic activity for the region, say project officials.
When the 19-mile Southeast Gateway Line is fully completed, it will serve 1.4 million residents between Union Station in Downtown LA and Artesia, running through the cities of Vernon, Huntington Park, Bell, Cudahy, South Gate, Downey, Paramount, Bellflower, and Cerritos.
https://www.enr.com/articles/58564-la-metros-board-green-lights-71b-southeast-gateway-line