Last week, Santa Monica residents turned out for a meeting to talk about Expo Line route options, reports the Lookout News, and it seems the general consensus is that this leg of the light rail should take Colorado Avenue into the downtown area. Via the Lookout News:
All four options explored in the report have the train entering Santa Monica through an existing right of way near Olympic Boulevard and stopping at Bergamot Station before continuing west. The question is -- should it keep going down Olympic or jog over to Colorado Avenue?...Those who spoke Tuesday gave a number of reasons why Colorado is better – it would run at grade and save the iconic coral trees along Olympic. One objection to the Olympic route is that it would require a 50-foot-high elevated rail structure that swoops into Downtown Santa Monica – something critics call a disconnected eyesore.
According to the paper, the City Council is expected to recommend the Colorado option, although the MTA has the final decision. Meanwhile, one issue worrying some residents: Expo Authority plans to build a maintenance yard on the site of the Verizon building, right across from apartments (pictured) on Exposition Boulevard. Via another Lookout News story: "Longtime community activist Michael Tarbet described the proposed maintenance yard and the noise that would emanate from it as an environmental crime against the Latino families who live in the apartments along the south side of Expo."
