A day before an important vote on a plan to extend a subway line to Los Angeles' westside, a labor group rallied Wednesday in support of the project, which could cost nearly $6 billion and provide thousands of jobs.
About 200 workers came to the noon rally, held at the site of a proposed Century City subway stop. The Los Angeles/Orange Counties Building and Construction Trades Council planned the event to voice support for the long-discussed project.
"Los Angeles is desperately in need of a subway extension," said Robbie Hunter, executive-secretary of trades council, which represents 140,000 union construction workers.
"Our members are ready to work, and are highly skilled in the demanding construction that a subway requires," Hunter said in a press release promoting the rally.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority project would extend from the end of the existing Purple Line at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, heading west underground for 9 miles to the Veterans Affairs hospital in Westwood.
Often referred to as the “Subway to the Sea”— though the planned line doesn’t quite make it to the Pacific — the proposed subway route would include seven new stations.
The trades council chose Century City as the site of the rally because the location of the proposed subway stop there has been opposed by Beverly Hills residents who don't want the Metro line to tunnel under Beverly Hills High School to reach the station.
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"We have issues with methane, old oil wells, and it's and 80-year-old school. We aren't sure it will hold up," said Brian Goldberg president of the Beverly Hills school board, in an interview.
Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz was at the rally and voiced support for MTA's proposed Century City station.
"This is the biggest no brainer in the history of mankind," Koretz said. "This is a subway system that needs to be built now and it needs to be built in the right place. And this is the right place."
Supporters said 28,000 of Century City's 40,000 employees work within 1/4 mile of the proposed station. That makes it an attractive option for commuting by public transit in an area that's often clogged by automobile traffic, they said.
Beverly Hills critics of the stop say they want an alternative station location along Santa Monica Boulevard, but backers of the MTA plan say those spots would be too far for Century City workers to walk to and from.
At a Thursday meeting, Metro’s Board of Directors is set to consider the subway extension and a related environmental report that’s been four years in the making.
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