For too many years cities have been paying for transportation projects with their hands out to Congress, lobbying for dollars even as funding bills grow moss stuck in the sluggish legislative process. It’s time to stop all the bellyaching! There are good reasons to push for funding, but sitting back and waiting for the federal government to cough up the money isn’t going to fix infrastructure very quickly. There is however, an excellent model of innovative transportation funding that we can all learn from if we look to our friends on the West Coast, where Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is championing the 30/10 Initiative. His funding plan to extend light rail, subway and rapid bus lines promises to change the face of his city and the rest of Los Angeles County. With the support of Congress, the initiative has the potential to be one of the most transformative transportation programs for cities since President Dwight D. Eisenhower fathered the Interstate Highway System.

The 30/10 Initiative is essentially a plan to use funds raised through a half-cent sales tax increase to secure federal loans for transit projects to pay for 30 years worth of construction in 10 years (hence 30/10). The first part of the plan, known as Measure R, required a public referendum whereby a two-thirds majority vote was needed to levy the tax. Mayor Villaraigosa launched a herculean lobbying effort convincing 68% of the voters to pass the tax and improve the Los Angeles transportation network. The mayor was successful because he pushed for a countywide plan, rather than one focused his city or a particular county neighborhood. The vote showed that Angelenos, tired of bottlenecks, recognize the need for transportation improvements and are willing to tax themselves for transit, not roads, to get there – no small feat in the region known as the car capital of the world. But the projected 30-year construction plan for the transit projects wasn’t fast enough for the mayor, so he proposed the 30/10 Initiative to leverage the tax revenues in order to build a dozen critical transit projects in a decade rather than the projected 30 years.

This bold initiative promises to revitalize Los Angeles, create jobs, reduce greenhouse gases and traffic congestion, and save money. The plan has won over important supporters including California’s United States Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. During the mayor’s campaign for Measure R, he put together a broad coalition of business, labor and environmental leaders, a testament to the initiative’s broad appeal. Officials estimate some 166,000 jobs will be created by the projects, a promising lifeline in this sour economy. By speeding up the construction schedule, officials have estimated they can cut the construction costs to $14 billion from $18 billion, and the savings could be higher. With construction work at a snail’s pace right now, bids are coming in at 5 percent to 25 percent below original estimates, according to transportation officials. And when it comes to the environment, the project’s annual impact on traffic and pollution could be dramatic according to official estimates: 77 million more transit passengers; 521,000 fewer pounds of mobile source pollution emissions; 10.3 million fewer gallons of gasoline used and 191 million fewer vehicle miles traveled.

To properly appreciate Mayor Villaraigosa’s vision calls for a trip back in time. His city, now famous for its highways and car culture, was once considered a transit Mecca. In the early half of the 1900s, the Pacific Electric Railway’s “Red Car” system of streetcars, light rail and buses connected Los Angeles to Southern California cities in Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. The system inspired some memorable dialogue in the 1988 film “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” when a child asked the character Eddie Valiant “Hey, mister. Ain’t you got a car?” to which Valiant replies: “Who needs a car in L.A.? We have the best public transportation system in the world.” That famous system, however, was slowly dismantled, and tracks paved over to make way for superhighways where people could travel faster in their cars, until there were so many vehicles, the city became infamous for its traffic jams.

Today, some may wax poetic about the Red Cars of yesteryear, but Villaraigosa isn’t exactly lobbying for a journey back to the future. His ideas for transit are rooted in his experiences growing up poor with a single mother and taking public mass transportation, by rail and bus, to get around the city. Later in life, during his three campaigns for mayor, he would crisscross his congested city, becoming even more familiar with the transportation system. He sits on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which recently posted his comments from a city hall meeting where the mayor, who has three years left in his term, indicated that the 30/10 Initiative could become his legacy. “I’ve got three years left, I’m not going out on a cot here,” the mayor said. “I want to go out on a train.”

Among the dozen projects that would be on the fast track include light rail extensions to Los Angeles International Airport; a long-envisioned subway extension to the city’s Westside providing a high-capacity, high-speed alternative for the 300,000 people who travel to the L.A.’s “second downtown” every day from throughout the county; the Crenshaw Corridor light rail line; a Metro Green Line extension in the South Bay; an Eastside extension of the Metro Gold Line from East Los Angeles; and transit projects serving the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valley.

The mayor has done a terrific job building support for such a creative plan. Now it’s Congress’ turn to come up with a novel way to help fund it. There’s no reason to hesitate. The mayor’s bold plan is a bargain and comes at a time when transportation funds are dwindling due to a reduction in gas tax revenues. Under the mayor’s initiative, the Measure R sales tax would generate $5.8 billion over the next decade, but another $8.8 billion is needed for the total cost of the 12 projects. The mayor wants to use the future sales tax revenue as collateral for low interest loans or long-term bonds, and then repay those debts over the next two decades. One way Congress can step up is to support a national infrastructure bank to make federally funded low-cost loans available to local governments for transportation projects. President Barack Obama recently revived the idea as part of his plan to spend $50 billion next year on highways, airport and railway construction. What better project to invest in than the 30/10 Initiative? This is a county that is trying to help itself! Another way Congress can step up, a potentially faster way considering the opposition that the infrastructure bank idea is up against, is to support the use of Build America bonds for Los Angeles’ transit projects. These special municipal bonds, created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provide a federal subsidy of 35% of the interest paid on the bonds to the issuer.

The 30/10 Initiative may be a gamble, but it’s one worth taking. Los Angeles has the opportunity to create a new model of transit funding as our country careens toward a crossroads on transportation. Metro areas that are car-centric risk eventually choking themselves to death, both economically and environmentally. As Christopher Steiner discussed in his new book, “$20 per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better,” gas prices are bound to rise dramatically based on a gas supply and demand relationship where demand is directly tied to the size of the middle class. The world’s middle class is expected to quadruple by 2020 largely due to China’s emergence into the consumption world. Gas prices may quadruple themselves to $20/gallon by 2020. Cities that have modern mass transportation transit infrastructure in place are sure to have a competitive edge in the future. We applaud Mayor Villaraigosa’s efforts to make sure Los Angeles is among them and to track the way for a new model to get there.

KCET –- With the one-year mark of President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan approaching last month, the White House selected 13 passenger rail corridors in 31 states to receive funding. High-speed rail projects in Florida, Illinois and California were the big winners.

KCET public television in Southern California — as a part of Blueprint America — reports on California’s plans to build a high speed rail system connecting major metropolitan areas in the Golden State. On one side, supporters say it will reduce gridlock (on the road and at the airport) and change travel in the state by moving commuters between Los Angeles and San Francisco in just 2 hours and 40 minutes. On the other side, detractors, increasingly worried about cost (to the state and riders), say the project is on track to build a very big and very fast white elephant.

KCET — No longer is the argument for investment in renewable energy just about climate change. As America’s economy is in rescission, renewable energy could create a boom in good paying jobs — ‘green jobs’. KCET public television in California — as a part of Blueprint America — reports how some untypical students at an East Los Angeles school and an economically hard hit community in the Antelope Valley are hoping to make it in a green economy.

Blueprint America has found that communities — big and small, urban and rural — are, for the first time, rethinking their purpose. Is a city a place where people live, a place where they go to work, or both? What about after work, between home and the grind — is it a half hour by car or an hour by bus?

Do these questions even matter given the state of the national economy?

The thing of it is that the majority of our money goes to where we live and how we get from here to there and back again. Addressing those costs is the same as addressing the Recession.

PBS stations are producing radio and television segments, hosting discussions between policy makers and their communities, and offering further content online, all as a part of Blueprint America.

Measure R, which barely passed the two-thirds threshold needed for approval, could fund the city’s “Subway to the Sea.” However, the money to begin the subterranean route – probably along the Wilshire corridor – will not be available until sometime between 2013 and 2015.

THE BIRTH OF RAIL
1873	Main Street Railroad Company The Los Angeles City Council authorized the maintenance of two railroad tracks. The Main Street Railroad Company began, but nothing ever came of the project.
1874	Spring and West 6th Street Railroad The Spring and 6th Street franchise started, serving the downtown Los Angeles area. This single track horse car line began public transit in Los Angeles.
1874-1875	Main Street & Agricultural Railroad The Main Street and Agricultural Railroad was the first suburban line in Los Angeles.
1875	East Los Angeles & San Pedro Railway Company Due to low patronage, the railway company went under in just four years.
RAIL EXPANSION and MODERNIZATION
1875-1899	Los Angeles & Aliso Street Railroad Company Regular service began in 1877 and as ridership increased a second line, the East First Street line, was built. In 1899, it became a cable railway.
1883	City Railroad Company The first line dedicated exclusively to public transit; other lines had been largely focused on real estate promotion.
1885	Second Street Cable Railroad Company Operated on a single track system.
1886	The Central Railroad Company Developed in 1883 to be a part of the Los Angeles & Aliso Railroad. It eventually merged with City Railroad.
1886-1888	Temple Street Cable Railway Company Carried more passengers than any of the other lines at the time.
1896-1897	Many of the major horse and cable cars operating in Los Angeles converted to electrical power.
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DEATH OF THE TROLLEY
1911	Pacific Electric Railway Company Eight separate companies merged into the Pacific Electric Railway Company.
1925-1955	Pacific Electric Subway The Subway opened on November 30, 1925, running 1,045 feet underground. In 1955, the last line using the subway was converted to buses. By 1933, Pacific Electric and Los Angeles Railway also began bus passenger service, but patronage of both rail and bus had been hurt by the wide-spread use of the automobile.
1945	Los Angeles Transit Lines The controlling interest in the Los Angeles Railway was purchased by National City Lines, which was run by the five Fitzgerald brothers and had support from the oil industry. They renamed it the Los Angeles Transit Lines, substituting buses on most of the street car lines. Further reading on the death of the trolley in L.A.: “Did Auto, Oil Conspiracy Put the Brakes on Trolleys?” (Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2003) “The Fitzgeralds Go. West.” (Time, December 18, 1944)
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FROM PRIVATE TO PUBLIC TO TODAY
1953-1958	Metropolitan Coach Lines Pacific Electric sold its passenger rail cars and buses to the Metropolitan Coach Lines bus company.
1951-1964	Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority This agency was created by the California Legislature to develop a monorail system along the Los Angeles River. In 1958, the Transit Authority purchased Metropolitan Coach Lines and Los Angeles Transit Lines. Paid for with state dollars, operation of transportation in Los Angeles was public for the first time.
1964-1993	Southern Rapid Transit District Mandated by the legislature to improve bus systems, and design and build a transit system for Los Angeles.
1976-1993	Los Angeles County Transportation Commission The California legislature created the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission (LACTC) to oversee public transit and highway policy in the nation’s largest county.
1992-present	Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Metrolink operations began. The new MTA was created by Legislature, merging the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and the Southern California Rapid Transit District.
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Sources: Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Electric Railway Historical Association of Southern California

Photos: Courtesy of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Archive