Overview:
In a panel hosted by Fresnoland, Former L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former Santa Monica Mayor Denny Zane, along with Fresno City Council Vice President Miguel Arias, discussed the steps taken to expand transit in Los Angeles and what Fresno could learn from L.A.’s expansions.
As funding ebbs and flows across California, two Los Angeles leaders said investing in transit and transportation is possible for Fresno County, even during financial uncertainty.
Former L.A. Mayor and current California gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa and former Santa Monica Mayor Denny Zane recalled their efforts to pass Measure R, a half-cent sales tax to fund transportation projects in L.A. County. Despite the intensification of the 2008 financial crisis in September, voters passed the measure in November of 2008.
For Villaraigosa and Zane, the path to investing in transportation in Fresno starts with getting everyone on board with a promise of a better tomorrow.
“It’s developing more walkable neighborhoods, it’s bikes, it’s buses, it’s light rail, subways and high speed rail; it’s all of the above,” said Villaraigosa, adding, “we sold a vision to improve mobility.”
Villaraigosa and Zane were joined by Fresno City Council Vice President Miguel Arias for a panel discussion hosted by Fresnoland on Thursday at Tioga-Sequoia Beer Garden. The panel discussed what Fresno could learn from the transit expansions made in Los Angeles County.
Investing in transportation in Fresno
When elected to serve as mayor, Villaraigosa said he wanted to reimagine the city with more accessible transportation that would bring improvements to infrastructure wherever it went. Before he could do that, however, he explained that he needed to get support to bring his vision to fruition.
According to Zane, getting the support to pass Measure R relied upon a strong coalition of government and community organizations. To get them on board, Zane credited Villaraigosa’s pitch to local officials for a “subway to the sea,” an extension to the metro system which would connect to Santa Monica.
“We’ve got to get two thirds vote, how do we do that in Long Beach or the San Fernando Valley for a Wilshire subway? We’ve got to think bigger, we’ve got to have projects in every part of the county, and that’s when [L.A.] Metro, under his leadership, brought together Measure R and voted to put it on the ballot,” explained Zane.
Villaraigosa expanded on this, explaining that his pitch for a “subway to the sea” was when the vision began to resonate. He also explained that the jobs created through investment into transportation projects as well as the reduction to motor traffic and improvements to infrastructure near public transit were integral to getting the community on board.
How success can be measured when investing in public transit
Though Villaraigosa and Zane’s efforts proved fruitful in getting investment into public transit, they also noted some of the realities that come with it: project construction can be slow, prone to changes or delays, and even after it’s done, they might not have an immediate impact.
“The heyday is ahead of us is what I believe,” said Zane, explaining that the positive effects of investing in transit will take time to make themselves apparent. VIllaraigosa concurred, saying that “it hasn’t really helped the traffic yet.”
However, both say that the positive impact of their investments in transit will grow with time. Arias noted that Fresno needs to make an investment now so that it can reap the benefits in the future, arguing that everyone can benefit from public transit.
Arias also said that investing in transit would mean investing in pedestrian infrastructure. He described how constituents voice concerns over road maintenance, lowering street speed limits and pedestrian infrastructure that is too dangerous for children to use and how investing in transit can pave the way to improve other infrastructure.
“I think we’re at a pivotal point in our city [and] in our county that we’re ready to make the next leap to be a big city and to be the largest urban center in the valley, and that means acting differently,” Arias said.
Moreover, Arias noted how the high-speed rail project brought more than just construction and tracks to Fresno and actually improved local infrastructure, stressing the importance of investing now so that Fresnans of tomorrow can enjoy the benefits.
“What we don’t talk about is that high speed rail replaced a billion dollars worth of bridges in downtown Fresno that we would have never replaced ourselves,” Arias said, adding, “we can’t just insist on immediate gratification.”
