Hijacking the Public Good

by Gary Toebben

Carmaggedon isn’t a Hollywood movie, but it is sure to be this summer’s blockbuster – literally. Block by block, streets all over the Westside will be jammed this weekend due to the closure of the 405 freeway between the 101 and the 10 so that Caltrans can take down the Mulholland Drive Bridge for the 405 widening effort. An effective public awareness campaign has been in the works for months – flashing freeway signs as far south as San Diego, news reports and newspaper articles have all warned drivers to steer clear of this area, lest they want to crawl to their destination.

Too bad this public awareness campaign didn’t exist to rally Angelenos when a small group of residents thwarted an alternate plan that would have saved taxpayers millions of dollars and significantly reduced traffic jams for the entire City, not to mention the potential cost to thousands of businesses, hospitals and other emergency services. Citing aesthetic and design reasons, this small group of residents took a plan that made engineering sense, saved taxpayer dollars, and would have caused much less disruption for community members, and threw it out the door. Unable to afford delays and a lawsuit, Caltrans had little choice but to acquiesce. Now millions will suffer at the hands of a few hundred.

Unfortunately, in Los Angeles, there are many examples of a small group of like minded people influencing public decisions that adversely affect millions. Two cases in point, the modernization of Los Angeles World Airport and the expansion of Providence Holy Cross Hospital.

For years, residents adjacent to LAX sued the City to stop the reconfiguration of the airport runways that would have created a safe and efficient airport to handle the new group of larger and more environmentally sensitive aircraft. The entire Los Angeles region was a loser because of this delay. Customer service, civic pride, jobs, and economic activity from tourism and trade suffered.

A similar protest by a group of activists delayed the expansion of Providence Holy Cross Hospital and the construction of badly needed hospital rooms in the San Fernando Valley for nearly a year.
We agree that adjacent stakeholders to big projects such as the 405 widening and LAX should be an integral part of the public outreach process – but they should not be the only voice heard at the table. Projects of this scale affect millions and deserve input from the entire community.

Let Carmaggedon be an example of what happens when the threat of a lawsuit is used as a tactic to prevent strategies and plans that are in the best interests of the majority of the community. We must prevent future hijackings of the public good in Los Angeles.

And that's The Business Perspective.