MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA’S 30/10 INITIATIVE WILL BRING MORE HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES TO LOS ANGELES

By Jodi Summers

What causes the most pollution in Los Angeles? Vehichles. How do we solve that issue? Better mass transit. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s latest solution for greening Los Angeles is the 30/10 initiative - the mass transit financing method that the mayor proposed to the federal government so that Los Angeles can build their 30-year mass transit model in 10 years’ time.

Montiel believes that the 30/10 initiative can transform public housing by creating projects such as Jordan Downs, a 700-unit, 103-building public housing apartment complex in Watts, and one of 14 sites citywide that have potential for improvement through transit-oriented and vertical development.

The 30/10 proposal would allow Metro to construct the full Westside extension, but also two easterly extensions of the Gold Line, two new branches for the Green Line, several busways in San Fernando Valley, a link along I-405, and new light rail lines downtown, along Crenshaw Boulevard, to Santa Monica, and via the West Santa Ana branch corridor. The West Santa Ana branch corridor would be served by commuter rail. All by 2020. Green multiunit complexes would dot the new transportation lines.

"We are trying to define density not as a bad word, but as a word that can have elegance to it, and be green, and be smart," the mayor said. “Yet the city needs to change even more, and the 30/10 plan is one of the routes to that change.”

The 30/10 proposal that went to Washington looks something like this:

o Current long-range transportation plan assumes $18.3 billion in transit expenditures over 30 years. 65% of funds would come from Measure R, with 23% from New Starts and 12% from other sources.

o The 30/10 Initiative would allow total expenditures to be reduced to $14.7 billion because of avoided inflation, since projects would be completed in ten years, twenty years ahead of schedule. More cost savings could also be possible because of a cheaper construction market.

o Of that $14.7 billion, $5.8 billion is expected to be available from existing sources, with around $8.8 billion still necessary, which could be provided through a loan from the federal government.

o Measure R would then pay back its $8.8 billion in debts for projects completed between 2010 and 2020 with $10.4 billion in tax revenue received between 2020 and 2040.

In Washington, Mayor Villiarigosa got support Oregon Democratic Representative Peter DeFazio, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer also supports the effort. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood signaled that he was open to the opportunity in a meeting in Los Angeles

"Four years ago, when I talked about the subway to the sea, people laughed,"

Villaraigosa recalls. "But we are going to build it. All of these transit plans will happen."

Initiatives like the 30/10 plan are part of a way of thinking that cities must pursue in order to remain successful, the mayor concludes. "Continue to think through what cities need to do to be more sustainable, to develop their assets, and to leverage the many important components of what a livable city should be like."

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