L.A. Light Rail Changes Sought Due to Safety Concerns

"A grassroots political organizer who oversaw the youth vote for Wesley Clark in 2004, he insists that he's not out to derail light rail. But his critics believe that his tactics could kill the Expo Line project. He wants to halt the project in its current form and place the L.A.-Culver City line underground. Along the way, he's aligned himself with remnants of some of the same ugly forces that have impeded mass transit since racism and fears about people of color flooding into Westside neighborhoods stopped the Red Line subway in the 1980s."

"Whatever is going on here at the corner of Farmdale Avenue and Exposition Boulevard, it threatens to get messier for the first phase of the line already taking shape downtown, from the Seventh Street station, where it will share tracks with the Blue Line, to Culver City, roughly following the Exposition right-of-way used by freight trains starting in the late 1800s."

"Goodmon is getting some traction with at least the part of his spiel that pertains to Dorsey. People in power are listening to him. He got L.A. Unified to take a stand against the crossing, and says his strongest ally is school board member Marguerite LaMotte, who calls the crossing a case of environmental racism. Goodmon says he has no allies on the Expo Line governing board, though the board last week approved a $250,000 study to examine ways to redesign the Dorsey crossing. The least expensive option calls for walling off the entire street and building a pedestrian bridge over the tracks. Also to be considered are a tunnel and an overpass. Of course, none of those alternatives will satisfy Goodmon, who wants the entire project built underground."