Josh Stephens describes the fierce battle raging between Beverly Hills and Metro, the region's transportation authority, over the proposed route of the long-planned westward subway extension.
Beverly Hills' concerns focus around the proposal to tunnel underneath the city's high school to accommodate the 9.6-mile westward extension of Metro's Purple Line subway towards (but not to) the sea.
According to Brian Goldberg, president of the Beverly Hills School Board, local concerns focus on two issues: "The potential that the excavation would cause a dangerous explosion, and potential that the tunnels would prohibit future construction on the site."
"Metro officials say that they are more than willing to collaborate with the school district to try to accommodate future development and to ensure that the place doesn't blow up. If only the district would collaborate with Metro," notes Stephens.
"I'm sure we could and I'm sure we would be willing [to collaborate], but we're in a situation right now that makes it difficult because we were told some time ago that all communications between Metro staff and school district staff had to go through attorneys," said Jody Litvak, community relations manager for Metro. "There's been a fair amount of saber-rattling leading one to infer the likelihood of lawsuits."
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