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Here at 1st and Alameda in Little Tokyo, here's a Metro conceptual of how trains, vehicles and pedestrians will come together | Video via blogdowntown on Vimeo.
An option for Metro's Regional Connector in downtown won't be officially chosen until sometime next year (probably summer or fall), but Little Tokyo community members are severely concerned over one of the proposals that would bring some major changes to the neighborhood.
The regional connector would connect the Blue, Gold and Expo lines into a more seamless system. Trains would travel from Culver City to East LA and from Long Beach to Pasadena making Metro's rail system more efficient. Currently, the Blue Line and future Expo Line end at the 7th Metro Station and the Gold Line circumvents the eastside of downtown through Little Tokyo.
Two build ideas are on the table: underground and on the streets. In order for the less impactful-to-street-traffic underground option to work, it will have to transition to the Gold Line above ground in Little Tokyo, therefore changing the neighborhood's infrastructure. Last week's meeting with the Little Tokyo community proved Metro has a long way to go to win their support.
The construction period is of major concern, but also the long term effects of local traffic, the concept of a pedestrian flyover structure, access to local businesses and more. Question and answer periods reportedly "got very intense," according to Little Tokyo unBlogged.
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Not a bike to be seen or included. Anywhere
For the rail system to work-those lines *have* to be connected. No other major city has the serial misadventures of disconnection as the rail and transit system of Los Angeles.
Surely, the best doable alternative should prevail - yet change is essential for transit progress, all the NIMBY stuff must evolve.
(Ironic that every time they want to widen a freeway or expand an airport, they seem to have no problem strong arming those residents.)
This isn't "NIMBY" in the truest sense of the term. What Little Tokyo residents and business owners are concerned about is the fact that Little Tokyo has been carved up by several interests over the years, including the City of Los Angeles, corporate interests from Japan and others. Did you know that the City kicked all the residents and merchants out of the block that Parker Center sits on? That was once part of Little Tokyo. Nothing was done to help them relocate, either. They were simply out on their asses. Same for those who got kicked out of the shops, restaurants and hotels on Weller Street, which is now the Weller Court shopping center. In short, a sizeable chunk of Little Tokyo has already been taken by government or corporate interests and most of the promises made to the community to make up for that have been broken. This goes way back and is why folks in Little Tokyo are so concerned.
Amen. The comment of "not a bike to be seen" is laughable beyond comment. As far as the Parker Center, gimme a break. Little Tokyo is an area in name only (I lived there a long long time; it never was "Little Tokyo"). Were it not for the [outstanding] Museum and pathetic shopping mall, it is but an adjunct to the Arts District. That having been said, it is a valuable and historic part of downtown LA, which will only benefit from this project (maybe someone might actually go to the museum), as well as LA as a whole. This is a rare opportunity to construct a small but critical missing link in LA's transit system. The project design, by its very nature, isn't ideal--but for its time, place and function, it is absolutely necessary.