Los Angeles, CA – Last week the South Los Angeles community non-profit, Crenshaw Subway Coalition, filed a lawsuit in Superior Court against the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for violating environmental and civil rights laws in approving the Crenshaw-LAX light rail project. The lawsuit names the Federal Transit Administration as a party in interest. The legal challenge was filed just 10 days after President Barack Obama picked the Crenshaw-LAX line as one of 14 projects of national significance and directed the administration to fast-track review of the project.

“We’re going to court to preserve the environment, to protect the future of Crenshaw Blvd, and to defend our civil rights,” said Damien Goodmon, chair of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition.

Every October over 100,000 people enjoy good food, good music and safe fellowship on Crenshaw Blvd at the L.A. Sentinel’s Taste of Soul. Volunteers for the Crenshaw Subway Coalition were out in full force collecting petitions and distributing information about how MTA’s proposed plan would affect our community and wonderful festivals like Taste of Soul.

Less than 48 hours after the Obama Administration announced they will be accelerating review of the Crenshaw-LAX final environmental document, our attorney sent our Notice of Intent to Sue the MTA and FTA for violating environmental laws.

Last week MTA and the Federal Transit Administration released for public review the Final Environmental Impact Report/Statement (“FEIR/S”) for the Crenshaw-LAX Line. The next step is for the MTA board to vote to certify the document at their Thu, Sept 22 board meeting at MTA headquarters.

Our team of experts has already started identifying major deficiencies in the FEIR/S, including outright omissions and violations of environmental and civil rights laws, which have led to the current design of the project. The current design lacks a station at historic Leimert Park Village and has no tunnel for the middle mile (between 48th to 60th) in Park Mesa Heights. Neither the station nor tunnel is currently funded in the project’s projected budget.

Changing the Centinela/Florence crossing in the City of Inglewood from street-level to underground fell just one vote short of passage at the Inglewood City Council meeting. Councilmembers Stevens and Dunlap voted “Yes,” while Mayor Butts, and Councilmembers Franklin and Morales voted “No.”

The LA Wave covered the story, which is below.

On Sunday, July 24th Crenshaw Subway Coalition chair Damien Goodmon took to the NBC 4 airwaves to talk about the need for a Leimert Park Village station and Park Mesa Heights tunnel. The full video interview is below.

In Friday’s Los Angeles Times, Hector Tobar, who attended our emergency meeting on Monday, highlights our movement to shift the scales of power and persuade the Metro Board to build the Crenshaw-LAX Line correctly through South L.A. The full article is below.

The full text of Ari Noonan reporting on Monday’s Emergency Meeting in The Frontpage Online is below:

With the steam of disgust from South LA still smoking, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and wanna-be Mayor Zev Yaroslavsky now appear ready to reveal the real reasons for their opposition to the Leimert Park Village subway station and Park Mesa Heights tunnel: they want to spend the money for their pet projects to connect Downtown to the Westside.

EMERGENCY MEETING:
PREPARING TO SUE MTA

Crenshaw Subway Coalition Community Meeting

Today Monday, July 18 6:30 – 8:30 PM
US Bank Community Room on Crenshaw/Slauson
5760 Crenshaw Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90043

[PLEASE BRING YOUR CHECKBOOKS]