Metro thinking of stopping at UCLA
This is in response to Natalie Hein’s article “Viable Public Transit is L.A.’s ticket to decongestion” (May 8). The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is taking action to improve public transit on the Westside.
The agency is now evaluating high-capacity transit improvements in the area, including a possible “subway to the sea” as part of its Westside Extension Transit Corridor Study. More than 1,000 community members have already provided their input at 13 public meetings throughout the area, including three meetings held in Westwood. The Metro Board still must decide, however, if a full environmental study of a Westside transit project can move forward. The project will need to be incorporated into the region’s Long Range Transportation Plan as a priority, and funding to build and operate the new service will need to be secured. None of this is certain and takes a long time, but Metro’s efforts today are readying the project for the future.
Improved transit options for the Westside have been studied as far back as the 1920s. Will it finally happen now? With a possible stop in Westwood, UCLA students have much to benefit from the project. Students need to rally behind this project as students from a dozen San Gabriel Valley colleges have done in advocating for an extension of the Gold Line Light Rail Line. If UCLA students want something to happen on the Westside to reduce congestion, they should get involved and make their voices heard.
Jody Feerst Litvak
Community Relations Manager
Metro Westside Extension Transit Corridor Study
Integration, not recognition, is needed
I find Brett Noble’s article (“Asian Alumni, Proud Bruins,” May 13) to be a huge disappointment.
I know Noble and his editor meant well when they, in the spirit of Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, mentioned some of the highly achieving Asian UCLA graduates.
However, I cannot help but feel that Noble singled out Asian Americans as “different.” If this article was published by a small liberal arts college from the East Coast, it deserves some merit, because there wouldn’t be much diversity there, and Asians ““ and other minorities ““ have to be recognized first by whatever means necessary.
But this is UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles ““ one of the most diverse cities in the States. We don’t need recognition. We need integration. We need to work toward identifying Asian Americans as not Asian Americans, but Americans, period. What university other than UCLA has more capacity ““ and responsibility ““ to lead the nation in obliterating the racial gap? Noble’s article only accentuated it.
Yung H. Yoo
Los Angeles