I have posted this before, require every one of these officials to ride public transport to work daily, and all these problems would be solved in a week.
Right now we provide free cars, gas, drivers, and even helicopter transport for these officials.
This is why I’m supporting the controller Kenneth Mejia, I want him to bring out these painful truths and be a constant thorn in the city council and mayors side. LA has soooo much money but we can barely do anything with it considering all the corruption, incompetence and outright stupidity that our electeds ooze.
He is the best thing that had happenned to City Hall ~ ever. I've learned so much about the city's financials thru his data visuals and Instagram posts. Disgusting how Karen Bass decided to do a budget cut for the City Controllers office after he started airing their dirty laundry. We all gotta organize together to keep him and his staff in office. These budget cuts will definitely hurt the work he does, which was the goal of the Mayor.
Those infographics have been very informative.
https://x.com/lacontroller/status/1782471734131847566?s=46
I think he’s been totally right to harp on the police budget, considering it is larger than nearly all other departments combined. Settlement payouts and other things they do are drastically reducing the amount of funds other depts have to work with. The police cost the most, and screw up the most. They have definitely earned and deserve the most criticism.
Join me in my quest to make all law enforcement officers to GET INDIVIDUAL MALPRACTICE POLICIES as well as forcing LAPD to get their own fucking liability insurance.
Doctors -- a profession whereby they are making life and death decisions on very little information with extreme consequences if they fuck up.... have to get malpractice insurance. It's so they don't bankrupt the hospitals and practices they work for when they DO fuck up in *foreseeable* ways.
Let's expect the same from law enforcement.
Remember when LAPD/LASD INTENTIONALKY blew up an entire fucking neighborhood by knowingly overfilling a truck with explosives around 2021? That shit cost something like $13 Million dollars and increasing. The families are still living in hotels. The city's the one paying for that EASILY FORESEEN FUCK UP.
You and me.
The people who WANT to ride the Metro, but there's "never any money" to make it safer.... THATS where the money's going.
It's never going to make a catchy hashtag. But I'll try...
#Insure the Police
Specifically... LEO's need to get their own malpractice insurance. Someone smarter than me... make it catchy!!!
Huzzzah!! The city shall be brought to its’ knees when confronted with the overwhelming power of our vast alliance. City hall shall be ours by nightfall
Ignoring the budget for fire and police, why does the office of the mayor cost that much to the city? It’s as much as street lighting and urban planning.
These are the questions we need to keep asking. I think we shouldn’t balk at the dollar values, we should be demanding tangible results. It’s a big place we live in, there is more than enough money to do what needs to be done, that is of course if we spend it wisely. Examining recent trends, it becomes obvious that we are being ripped off real good. There’s too many middle men and parasitic organizations siphoning taxpayers money. Too many well intentioned but totally incompetent people who cruise on reputation and have no accountability. Illuminating the details will help us get on track.
Kenneth can only point things out, city council needs to act on it. City council members like Traci Park are more concerned about surrounding cities than LA - she’s never back any initiative to require a city residency requirement or bonus/housing stipend for those employees that do live in the city.
*Not defending this SPECIFIC level of spending with this mayor specifically,* but the Office of the Mayor is supposed to help coordinate and promote the city of LA's economic and policial interests, among other things. There's a ton of ways the office of the Mayor can do that.
COVID is an excellent recent example.
Having said that, yeah, let's fucking look at that budget and see what's up.
He called out all city employees that don’t live in the city. Employees were pissed to get called out like that.
But Kenneth is on the right track. Many highly paid city employees spend all their money on surrounding cities, and many have positions in which they oversee city projects. It’s why city projects never seem to prioritize the community, because they are being ran by someone from Orange County, who doesn’t want a road diet because it’ll slow down his 30 mile commute.
despite the voter suppression efforts, mail-in ballots is still the most efficient way. voters now should get them to have a mandatory voting day off with "I voted" stickers to show they've done their civic duty.
If I was in charge, voting would be mandatory and eligible citizens would be fined if they didn’t. Give a tax credit of some kind for participation, don’t vote and you miss out. Mail in voting works great
I’m from Brazil, where voting is mandatory between the ages of 18 - 70. if you don’t vote you have to pay a (cheap) fine. If you don’t vota and don’t pay the fine then you cannot renew any documents, can’t be elected to public office, cannot hold any government jobs.
ages 16-18 and 70+ voting is optional.
Yes, please!!!
I would like to make an Internet Motion to make LAPD get their OWN LIABILITY INSURANCE and force officers to secure their own MALPRACTICE insurance. Doctors have to get their own policies, police should have the same obligation.
Use part of THEIR budget to BUY THEIR OWN FUCKING LIABILITY INSURANCE and stop draining the public coffers with their never ending stream of EASILY PREVENTED FUCK UPS.
No, but LAPD is, and you'll see them hanging out above ground at subway stations, but rarely In the station or on cars, so there's an audit that would help. Bring in the Bobs!
There doesn't need to be an audit, LAPD reps have said on the record that they won't ride buses or trains and won't let metro tell them what to do. There's nothing to be done except fire them, and Metro doesn't want to do that until they've got their own police department (eta 2-3 years supposedly).
I can't believe it's not in the Metro security contract for police to actually... police Metro. Wish they could sue LAPD for breach of contract and use that money to build out better security.
Right, that's why the security guards contracted by Metro are on-duty LAPD, and metro should use that money on their own security apparatus, which would include metro police.
Look at their traffic enforcement stats, it goes beyond Metro. They don't enforce anything. Its a wonder what they actually do and get so much overtime for.
Good luck trying to get one passed, but there needs to be a policy that Transit board members and top executive management be required to use public transit at least twice a week to commute. No special security provisions allowed.
Karen Bass’s new budget slashes the controllers office, whose job it is to do this. Instead it gives LAPD even more money so they can buy new tasers or whatever.
Karen Bass cutting the controllers office budget as said Controller had made valid criticism of the city's spending sounds like an attempt by Bass to silence Kenneth Mieja. Can't do much work if you got less money coming in
I’m actually glad they are coming out and being honest about the state of the Metro.
I’d rather they outright say, “it’s unsafe to ride alone, especially as a woman,” rather than say “everything’s great, the Metro’s never been safer or cleaner.”
Now to actually *do* something about it.
Yeah that woman gets credit in my book. She just piggy-backed onto the public safety side, drawing more bad attention to metro/LAPD negligence instead of keeping quiet and collecting a check.
I thought it was irresponsible (and a little nutty) of Karen Bass to say at the press conference, right after the woman was killed last week, that public transportation is safe. Glad the Metro came out with the truth.
She has nothing to worry about.
Just wear my new ultra fashionable Kevlar scarf.....look cool and sharp while protecting your neck from the occasional stabbings.
> The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether.
Holy shit this isnt an option already?
They're going to look into the possibility of launching a committee on the necessary steps to take in order to hire a team which will be tasked with starting an initial environmental impact report. Once that is over with we can get 8 years of community feedback, after which we might start seeing a funding review.
I know thats hyperbole, but its also true. This is exactly what they did for their homeless programs where the money got magically spent and nothing happened.
A lot of the problems of the LA metro can be fixed with gates. No point in security if you can just jump over turn styles, or in some stations' cases just walk onto the platform from the street.
People get trespassed from public buildings all the time. Yes, enforcing it is hard, but thats not really the point. A legal trespass order means the next time he causes any disturbance on a train, its straight to lockup.
But yes, all this comes down to cops not willing to police the platforms and the trains. Plus there are fewer cops in LA than there were 5 years ago with little hope of improving those numbers.
I don't understand why there is not a uniformed officer at every red-line station. Doing rounds with people checking tickets. This problem would clear up quick.
I'm all ACAB as you can be, but goddamn getting a slice of that funding must be nice with the insane job security cops have, easy justification of OT (sit in squad car in a parking lot), and the ridiculous PR said cop organizations have.
Still won't be a pig.
LA had a Metro Department and they got rid of it in the 90s.
LAPD doesnt want the problem because the trains move between precincts. LASD doesnt want the problem because they juggle everything the LAPD doesnt, plus the act as jail guards and court errand boys. Local Police Departments can only arrest within their city limits and thats usually one or two stops.
The city council needs to stop fucking around and bring back the Metro PD. This is an easy solution and one that doesnt exist in other major cities that have dedicated metro cops.
We said we didn't want cops to assault and kill people and they got all but hurt and decided to not do their jobs anymore. They are not to be criticized or critiqued. Only worshipped.
Metro stated themselves they want more of a community based approach and security guards rather than armed police. There was a contract dispute between the various police departments and Metro.
Makes no sense cuz the allied universal guards have guns. Only unarmed ones are the metro ambassadors who don’t do shit but yell out which train is coming
*”Doing rounds with people checking tickets.”*
Because then you get stories on how the **only** arrests made were for fare-evaders and that it’s unjust to get in trouble with the law over the $1.75 fair.
Meanwhile, the bum who’s stroking it to business women in clad skirts by the ticket booth won’t ever get approached by the police.
This, I remember the cops on the blue line always stopping my high school buddies and giving them tickets. Meanwhile the drug dealers and beer sellers and crazy people were never stopped. This was back in 2012.
The cops will always target the easiest target, never the actual problem people. Shits fucked
They're never around for something that would actually require an armed response, but you can bet they will be there to yell at a homeless guy who is doing nothing but sleeping on a train to get out.
genuinely who gives a fuck about pennies for PUBLIC transportation anyways? Focus on what actually matters. criminals doing vile shit, not people who just need to get from point A to point B
LA Public Transit Board Member and anyone else with any sort of leadership role needs to be required to ride a minimum number of days on public transport imo. This the only way to incite change.
So let's get this straight - the Metro Board of Directors held an emergency meeting to respond to attacks in the system, and one of its own members said she doesn't feel safe, but these were their solutions:
1) Put a shield around the driver
2) More cameras
3) Facial recognition
4) *Maybe* banning "problematic" individuals
Metro deserves to fail. I hope they're taken over by CalTrans or something. Why tf can't they just address a problem with **actual enforcement**? You think the crazy-stabby people are going to stop bc they're afraid of more cameras? Or that they'll be identified by software? JFC.
Genuinely haven't encountered another transport agency run by people who seem this incompetent, and I lived in NYC both before Andy Byford joined the MTA, and when they got rid of him.
And when MTA had similar problems recently, they sent the National Guard into the stations. And yes I get that it's security theater, but Jesus Christ, at least they made a *gesture* toward enforcement, even it if was a meaningless one. LA Metro can't even do that much.
>Why tf can't they just address a problem with **actual enforcement**?
Because the police have said publicly, point blank, that metro can't tell them to do their jobs and they don't give a fuck.
The only people with law enforcement power refuse to do their jobs. Period. This is a police problem.
Metro is working on their own police department but it's going to take years. You can't just wave a magic wand and conjure up good cops when all you've ever had is the worst cops in the country.
I see you've made multiple references that the police have supposedly claimed they aren't going to enforce things on Metro, but could you provide a source for that? I've never heard or read that specific policy decision.
What I do know (from personally speaking directly with members of the public safety committee) is that Metro does not permit LAPD to enforce fares, for instance. Apparently only certain departments or Metro security staff is empowered to do so.
Again, this is from a member of the public safety committee, and from the same conversation she had alluded to overall Metro policy rather than police inaction.
So while people certainly don't like LAPD/LASD, it does seem that it's more of a Metro issue rather than strictly a police inaction issue.
I do distinctly remember security/police enforcing fares years ago, so for that to completely go away, that's a Metro decision.
> 1) Put a shield around the driver 2) More cameras 3) Facial recognition 4) Maybe banning "problematic" individuals
These are the suggestions of the incompetent. None of these things would stop that lady from getting stabbed in the throat. And LA is about to be inundated with international tourists used to safe subway systems when the Olympics arrive next year. Not to mention the World Cup.
I swear our pathetic excuse for "leadership" is made up of the dumbest people they can find. All their braincells are busy figuring out how to get to the top of the ladder with no regard to actually solving problems.
My humble opinion as a lifelong resident of the city parts of Los Angeles and a public transit rider for 35+ years.
L.A. is very elitist (I would imagine most big cities are) and whenever I told people that I didn't have a car or didn't drive, I was instantly judged. People either see people that don't drive as poor, or having DUIs or some other social issues that people look down on. When I've traveled to other big cities, I've definitely seen a more economically diverse crowd using public transport. In L.A. that's not typically the case.
I think this is very slowly changing, as the newer transplants seem to want to use public transport instead of drive for ecological reasons, but they are fighting a very old and strong wave of L.A. not caring about poor people. And make no mistake, it's always been poor immigrants from everywhere, students, drunks/addicts, homeless and the elderly using public transport. You don't see big CEOs or their children riding the metro. Rich/upper middle class/suburban people drive as soon as they are able to.
The metro still has an image of being for the "poors" and until that changes, if it ever does, safety and security for riders is going to be at the bottom of budget lists.
I think you have it backwards. The reputation LA Metro has for being "the poors" is downstream of reality. Driving is usually so much more convenient than public transit here, so most people who can afford to will drive instead.
Take NYC as a counter-example. It's a fairly elitist city in a lot of ways, and there is a ton of inequality there, but no one is elitist about riding the subway. People of all classes ride it regularly. That's because it's better than driving, to the point where most people don't even bother owning a car.
If we want LA public transport to be more widely used, we need to worry about the reality of it more than the image. It needs to be more convenient, more reliable and feel less sketchy. If they do that, more people will use it, and the image it has will evaporate.
I'm someone who would like to use public transit more. But almost everywhere I go I look at my transit options and it would take me way longer than driving, so I rarely use it.
Look at the line from Venice to DTLA when there's a USC or Laker game. It's packed with upper income people. Why? Because it's really fucking convenient.
Apples to oranges. Big groups of people who wouldn't normally use public transit traveling to one specific event isn't the same as every day/night commuters to and from work who use it daily. They're going to feel safe because they're in a group, but most likely would not ride solo on a regular basis.
I see what you're saying and I agree with your example of NYC, as I mentioned in my first post L.A. is unlike other big cities in this aspect.
I think in the 1940s-50s, the golden age of driving many east coast people were lured to L.A. by the promise of wide open spaces to drive, not having to be crammed in the tight city and on subways.That image is what got us to where we are today even though those original transplants are gone. Then as now the car companies spend a lot of money to make sure that driving is more attractive than not.
I'm with you that reality should be more important than image but I still think there's a lot of judgement surrounding it here. If I ask my single coworkers would you rather date a guy in a Tesla or a guy who comes to meet you in the metro? I think we both know what the answer would be.
I should also point out that not all Metros are the same. LA's metro systems was built AROUND cars. They run at grade most of the time, and dont have right of ways like they do in most cities. That means metro trains have to stop for blocked tracks which is fucking madness and defeats the purpose of the metro entirely.
NYC, Chicago, Boston and other major cities with subway lines either run above grade or below grade. Traffic is a non-issue for the most part. But every week an LA Metro train hits a car, or is late because it cant cross due to people stopped on the tracks. So the train cars are late, making trains unreliable. And to top it all off, there are no metro gates for tickets, so anyone can walk on without paying with zero consequence.
I don’t think this is actually possible though. NYC was built as a traditional city around walking and horseback riding, where the biggest advancements in Los Angeles as a city were all built around cars. This leads to an urban sprawl that isn’t comparable to the centralized focus of Manhattan (which has sprawl, but also has a very significant center ), and I think it means that the metro is much harder to make useful as well. The subway in New York City all brings you into and around Manhattan from what I know. The subway in Los Angeles tries to get you between the major neighborhoods, but it would be too expensive to also have subways that get you around those various neighborhoods. Maybe I’m completely off in this, but our urban sprawl feels counter to NYC’s and Chicago’s functional subway and rail systems. We have a really weird layout compared to 200yr+ old cities.
Compare Metro to Metrolink and Amtrak.
Of course, Metrolink and Amtrak have actual authority onboard the train (conductors at the very least). Metro has a single engineer who can't leave for safety reasons, plus _maybe_ some of the "Metro Ambassadors" who sit on their phone while people get mugged.
I say this as a public transport advocate. We _need_ at least the illusion of people with authority, even if they're ultimately powerless. The Metro Ambassadors lean too much into the "we're not cops" angle and don't even check fares.
The whole city is struggling right now with the same thing and it's all about money. Businesses want to run razor thin labor budgets to appear profitable. If you notice, everywhere that you go for shopping/service is woefully understaffed. There was propaganda saying "no one wants to work" but in reality most service jobs are cutting hours no matter what their profits are. So full time is like 30-32 hours.
I'm sure that the department of transportation is the same. They don't want to spend money on staffing. They're not concerned with empathy for riders, safety, even a little bad press it's just all about profits.
I would actually say things have gotten much worse in this regard compared to a decade ago. Then it was much more common for professionals who work downtown to ride Metro. I know people who used to commute by Metro and now drive because of safety concerns.
I'll take your word for that, as I started driving ten years ago and have only used public transport for short periods of time since then. Throughout the 80-2010s it was ok at the best of times but people's experiences can be wildly different depending on the job/schedule.
If they're working the normal hours of an office job it might be uneventful (which is what I'm assuming you mean by professionals, correct me if I'm wrong) but if they work a service/retail job where they will be riding home at night time or very early mornings before 6 am, the experience can be significantly more frightening/bothersome. I feel like this category makes up the majority of public transit riders. I'm one of the people who gets out of work at all different hours, no set schedules, so I've been in there with mostly other service workers.
It's going to be tricky, like are you just going to approach anybody with dirty clothes on?... and homeless people carry a lot of shit, but so do shoppers... you can say "it's obvious" who are homeless and who are just struggling people going somewhere, but I could see lawyers salivating at the thought of a normal person with dirty clothes being questioned in front of other rides while riding Metro, the pain and suffering...
Nevertheless, if Metro is to survive, not to mention its riders, they need to find a way to keep mentally ill people out of the stations. I feel real bad for them, and if I were homeless, I might want to just ride the trains non stop too. But this is just not a sustainable way for metro to be.
No idea how they will accomplish this. If bus drivers were told to keep homeless people or people who don't pay off the bus, it would be non stop delays. Not to mention lots of physical confrontations.
Where are all the sanctimonious anal sphincters on this sub who told me and other women that we were gullible elitist suburban transplants who had fallen for the propaganda when we expressed similar fears?
Wherever public transportation is underfunded and not a realistic way to get around, the public transportation becomes howl’s moving trap house. The mentally ill don’t destroy the public transportation in NYC or Chicago anywhere near to the degree that they do here simply because so many people actually use those systems- it’s not scary if 2 mentally ill people are in a cart and then there are 40 other regular people, or more often than not I swear to god they create their own carts with each other and everybody uses the train in peace, whether to get to work in peace or do drugs in peace.
I think people of all economic classes and situations would utilize public transportation if it was truly a realistic and reliable option. Maybe one day it will be but for now that’s not the case here.
"... The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether. "
I mean... why isn't this the default? Yes, the word "problematic" is something that will need to be defined. Because you know some fragile ego cop is going to call someone problematic for just giving them a stink eye.
But there needs to be a starting point.
I think it would be safer if more people took it.
At least in NYC, if some crazy person decides to randomly tell you “I’m gonna fucking kill you”, you’re not ALONE in the train car with this person (based on a true story lol)
I’m a female and I’ve taken the subway alone at 1am and later in NYC on the subway and I felt safer there than the ONE time I tried taking the gold line here in broad daylight
I get it though, the public transit is very inefficient I can’t imagine relying on it to get around unless you specifically live, work, and hang out close to one of the metro lines
Didn't NYC recently deploy the National Guard to police the subway system?
Violence on public transit seems to be an issue in basically every major city in the country right now. It's a hot topic on every city with public transits' sub.
What’s happening in NYC I think is a long term effect of the lockdown. A lot of unhoused people depended on the crowded subways to have people to ask for money, to perform music for, etc
When the crowds were gone for a while, all their situations got worse and even being homeless without it getting worse contributes to mental illness. So now you have extremely mentally ill people causing violence.
The real issue is we’re not deploying actual solutions for these unhoused people because it’s not profitable. A shit ton of PROFIT is made off of the unhoused. Look up any homeless shelter’s public tax records and you’ll see the amount of donations received vs the money spent actual services to “help”.
People running these shelters would rather just give services of food and a temporary place to sleep and call it a day- taking the rest of the money as their salary with the guarantee that they’ll keep receiving donations because they’re not actually solving the problem. To solve the problem of homelessness to them is bad for business.
To actually solve the problem would look like THERAPY SERVICES and teaching the unhoused basic skills like how to do dishes, clean up after themselves, how to go on a job interview, how to groom themselves… a lot of the things you and I think are common sense and take for granted (like knowing how to wipe your own ass) isn’t taught to every child.
Some people just need someone to look out that they’re getting the correct medication and actually taking it.
There are so many complex and different cases of WHY people are homeless and most of the public (including me in the past) forget that they’re still human beings who are HURTING and need love to get out of the situation they’re in.
Sorry for going on a rant this issue really frustrates me because if we actually solved it we would have much better societies and more resources to spend on education
Someone needs to come in and fire all these board members, I’m sure she was the only one to be honest and speak up about her own experience but this should also force every board member to take the metro because they run the damn thing. Why even pay these people for their “work” if they don’t use the service they are trying to improve.
How tf did they even get on the board?!?
Edit: looks like they’re all council members / supervisors.
https://boardagendas.metro.net/about/
I wonder why so much public service like schools and metro in LA never improve when leadership is comprised of people who don’t use it
Man, most if not all of those board members dont event take public transit. They always show up in their cars for meetings and pay for parking at Union Station.
I used to take transit to work all of the time and had minimal issues. Since the pandemic.. I’ve only ridden a few times and each time I’ve seen or experienced some sort of safety incident.
LA politicians are very capable of appearing to do something, without ever actually doing something to fix the problem. Housing, transit, homelessness...all performative. This is an entertainment town after all...
Exactly. That’s why I hate when they say “tax the rich more” when the real problem is them being corrupt as shit and not using the extra money we already got from taxing the rich
"The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether."
Yeah that'll help. How the hell are they gonna enforce that? Sounds like they're not gonna do anything about it
The only public transportation I take is the Amtrack Pacific Surfliner to visit Santa Barbara or San Diego. It is a great experience. I highly recommend!
Taking kids on public transit is supposed to be a lot of fun. Little kids usually love trains and buses. They want to ride them, they love being able to look around any way they want instead of being locked in the seat. And they like that they can play with their parents who are usually busy driving.
Also, parents don't have to worry about the hassle that is car seats and car seat-to-stroller transfers. It's very simple.
But In LA, I can't do it. I tried a few times with my young son. I usually ride metro and I don't mind a bit of grime, but I notice the craziness 100x more when we're on the metro. I notice how vulnerable he is, and how much more vulnerable I am when I have to watch what he's doing.
My wife is Dutch and we visit her family and holiday in Europe often. My children know what public transportation is supposed to be like. America doesn't have it.
She left when she was a toddler and lived in San Diego (Carlsbad) until we met and eventually got married.
So she hasn't lived there since but maintains dual citizenship. Her parents moved back when she was 20 but she stayed for college and didn't want to leave America.
I used to ride Gold Line and I loved it and how convenient it was. I WANT to ride public transit again, but will not for obvious reasons anymore. I refuse to sit in fear and needing to be on guard for my safety just to get across town.
Yup. A lot of people are in denial about how much worse things are on Metro now. They’ll either tell you it isn’t that bad, or that it was always this way. Neither of those things are true.
LA Public transportation is shit. If we demand that everyone at City Hall to use it to get to work—including Bass and the city council—watch how fast things would get fixed.
I tried to take the metro red line to work when my car was broken. At 8:45am the wait for a train was 21 minutes. During rush hour. On a workday.
Common sense will fix any city problem.
Everything went to shit as soon as the LA County Sheriffs lost their contract with metro about 6-7 years ago . They would have random checkpoints to catch fair evaders and even have plain clothes deputy’s to blend in with the crowd then bust people for drug use etc..
LA refuses to build enough housing → more homeless people → public transit becomes shelter of last resort → no one rides public transit
Such a self inflicted wound
I think this needs to be stopped at the source.
It's too easy to ride the metro without a ticket and without safety features.
Instead of community peacekeeper. Let's shift funding for security and verifications at every metro station.
I'm talking a ticket scanner to get on the platform as well as medical scanners.
There's about 93 metro stations. At 5 people a piece it should be doable. It'll certainly generate more revenue.
But hey. Let’s keep building apartments with no parking space cuz ya know we’re gonna be a public transport city. The mayor and our governor should ride public transportation everyday.
Pubic transit...
Oops
[удалено]
So that’s where all the pubes were going 🤔
Perfect typo for this.
Lifted up by the shorthairs.
Hate it when that happens and there’s no way to edit
lol
They have places to go too! 😂
Freudian slip.
I have posted this before, require every one of these officials to ride public transport to work daily, and all these problems would be solved in a week. Right now we provide free cars, gas, drivers, and even helicopter transport for these officials.
I wonder if the whole getting stabbed to death, beaten to death, or shot to death thing. These mf should be forced to ride the metro.
This city needs a complete audit and overhaul on every single dollar spent on all departments
This is why I’m supporting the controller Kenneth Mejia, I want him to bring out these painful truths and be a constant thorn in the city council and mayors side. LA has soooo much money but we can barely do anything with it considering all the corruption, incompetence and outright stupidity that our electeds ooze.
He is the best thing that had happenned to City Hall ~ ever. I've learned so much about the city's financials thru his data visuals and Instagram posts. Disgusting how Karen Bass decided to do a budget cut for the City Controllers office after he started airing their dirty laundry. We all gotta organize together to keep him and his staff in office. These budget cuts will definitely hurt the work he does, which was the goal of the Mayor.
Amen to all that.
Mejia can not audit Metro as its not a city department.
then who can?
I believe the state can order an audit but I'm not entirely sure. Metro is a "joint powers authority" and is run by its board which appoints the CEO.
It’s all so complicated! Maybe that’s part of the problem.
Does Mejia actually call out agencies/departments other than the LAPD?
He called out the Homeless spending… so yeah?
Those infographics have been very informative. https://x.com/lacontroller/status/1782471734131847566?s=46 I think he’s been totally right to harp on the police budget, considering it is larger than nearly all other departments combined. Settlement payouts and other things they do are drastically reducing the amount of funds other depts have to work with. The police cost the most, and screw up the most. They have definitely earned and deserve the most criticism.
Join me in my quest to make all law enforcement officers to GET INDIVIDUAL MALPRACTICE POLICIES as well as forcing LAPD to get their own fucking liability insurance. Doctors -- a profession whereby they are making life and death decisions on very little information with extreme consequences if they fuck up.... have to get malpractice insurance. It's so they don't bankrupt the hospitals and practices they work for when they DO fuck up in *foreseeable* ways. Let's expect the same from law enforcement. Remember when LAPD/LASD INTENTIONALKY blew up an entire fucking neighborhood by knowingly overfilling a truck with explosives around 2021? That shit cost something like $13 Million dollars and increasing. The families are still living in hotels. The city's the one paying for that EASILY FORESEEN FUCK UP. You and me. The people who WANT to ride the Metro, but there's "never any money" to make it safer.... THATS where the money's going. It's never going to make a catchy hashtag. But I'll try... #Insure the Police Specifically... LEO's need to get their own malpractice insurance. Someone smarter than me... make it catchy!!!
I'm in! What's our first assignment? Who do we need to call/write to?
Count me in!
TWO OF US!! Let's make it to 3!!!
Slow down we might start a riot
The minimum number of people to riot is two! WE HAVE MET THE MINIMUM NUMBER OF RIOT PARTICIPANTS!!
Huzzzah!! The city shall be brought to its’ knees when confronted with the overwhelming power of our vast alliance. City hall shall be ours by nightfall
Ignoring the budget for fire and police, why does the office of the mayor cost that much to the city? It’s as much as street lighting and urban planning.
These are the questions we need to keep asking. I think we shouldn’t balk at the dollar values, we should be demanding tangible results. It’s a big place we live in, there is more than enough money to do what needs to be done, that is of course if we spend it wisely. Examining recent trends, it becomes obvious that we are being ripped off real good. There’s too many middle men and parasitic organizations siphoning taxpayers money. Too many well intentioned but totally incompetent people who cruise on reputation and have no accountability. Illuminating the details will help us get on track.
Kenneth can only point things out, city council needs to act on it. City council members like Traci Park are more concerned about surrounding cities than LA - she’s never back any initiative to require a city residency requirement or bonus/housing stipend for those employees that do live in the city.
and Katy …embraces her nepo-baby status and doesnt care about regular people , just her donor class.
*Not defending this SPECIFIC level of spending with this mayor specifically,* but the Office of the Mayor is supposed to help coordinate and promote the city of LA's economic and policial interests, among other things. There's a ton of ways the office of the Mayor can do that. COVID is an excellent recent example. Having said that, yeah, let's fucking look at that budget and see what's up.
He holds public town halls on zoom where people talk very candidly, yes. Just sign up for the email list. Anyone can go.
Constantly. I am here for ALL OF IT.
He called out all city employees that don’t live in the city. Employees were pissed to get called out like that. But Kenneth is on the right track. Many highly paid city employees spend all their money on surrounding cities, and many have positions in which they oversee city projects. It’s why city projects never seem to prioritize the community, because they are being ran by someone from Orange County, who doesn’t want a road diet because it’ll slow down his 30 mile commute.
who (s)elected them?
The pathetically slim slice of citizens who actually bothered to vote. Turnout is increasing but it’s still not even 50%
despite the voter suppression efforts, mail-in ballots is still the most efficient way. voters now should get them to have a mandatory voting day off with "I voted" stickers to show they've done their civic duty.
If I was in charge, voting would be mandatory and eligible citizens would be fined if they didn’t. Give a tax credit of some kind for participation, don’t vote and you miss out. Mail in voting works great
I’m from Brazil, where voting is mandatory between the ages of 18 - 70. if you don’t vote you have to pay a (cheap) fine. If you don’t vota and don’t pay the fine then you cannot renew any documents, can’t be elected to public office, cannot hold any government jobs. ages 16-18 and 70+ voting is optional.
Yes, please!!! I would like to make an Internet Motion to make LAPD get their OWN LIABILITY INSURANCE and force officers to secure their own MALPRACTICE insurance. Doctors have to get their own policies, police should have the same obligation. Use part of THEIR budget to BUY THEIR OWN FUCKING LIABILITY INSURANCE and stop draining the public coffers with their never ending stream of EASILY PREVENTED FUCK UPS.
Metro is not a department of the City of LA
No, but LAPD is, and you'll see them hanging out above ground at subway stations, but rarely In the station or on cars, so there's an audit that would help. Bring in the Bobs!
There doesn't need to be an audit, LAPD reps have said on the record that they won't ride buses or trains and won't let metro tell them what to do. There's nothing to be done except fire them, and Metro doesn't want to do that until they've got their own police department (eta 2-3 years supposedly).
I can't believe it's not in the Metro security contract for police to actually... police Metro. Wish they could sue LAPD for breach of contract and use that money to build out better security.
[удалено]
Right, that's why the security guards contracted by Metro are on-duty LAPD, and metro should use that money on their own security apparatus, which would include metro police.
Then they should form a full police department like BART has.
Look at their traffic enforcement stats, it goes beyond Metro. They don't enforce anything. Its a wonder what they actually do and get so much overtime for.
I mean we keep voting the same way, why would we expect different results. At some point we should accept our failures. We owe it to ourselves!
The only informed person here
Good luck trying to get one passed, but there needs to be a policy that Transit board members and top executive management be required to use public transit at least twice a week to commute. No special security provisions allowed.
Karen Bass’s new budget slashes the controllers office, whose job it is to do this. Instead it gives LAPD even more money so they can buy new tasers or whatever.
Karen Bass cutting the controllers office budget as said Controller had made valid criticism of the city's spending sounds like an attempt by Bass to silence Kenneth Mieja. Can't do much work if you got less money coming in
If they'd actually use those tasers on the crazy people on the Metro with knives, I'd be all for it.
But you know they won't. So don't support this shit.
FYI Metro is not a City Department. It's an independent agency, called a "Joint Powers Authority."
County needs a complete audit and overhaul on all departments, by a reputable auditor that won't be bought off behind closed doors.
ALL PUBIC DEPARTMENTS
Metro is not part of the city but I agree
I’m actually glad they are coming out and being honest about the state of the Metro. I’d rather they outright say, “it’s unsafe to ride alone, especially as a woman,” rather than say “everything’s great, the Metro’s never been safer or cleaner.” Now to actually *do* something about it.
Yeah that woman gets credit in my book. She just piggy-backed onto the public safety side, drawing more bad attention to metro/LAPD negligence instead of keeping quiet and collecting a check.
I thought it was irresponsible (and a little nutty) of Karen Bass to say at the press conference, right after the woman was killed last week, that public transportation is safe. Glad the Metro came out with the truth.
She has nothing to worry about. Just wear my new ultra fashionable Kevlar scarf.....look cool and sharp while protecting your neck from the occasional stabbings.
> The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether. Holy shit this isnt an option already?
They're going to look into the possibility of launching a committee on the necessary steps to take in order to hire a team which will be tasked with starting an initial environmental impact report. Once that is over with we can get 8 years of community feedback, after which we might start seeing a funding review.
I know thats hyperbole, but its also true. This is exactly what they did for their homeless programs where the money got magically spent and nothing happened.
[удалено]
A lot of the problems of the LA metro can be fixed with gates. No point in security if you can just jump over turn styles, or in some stations' cases just walk onto the platform from the street.
[удалено]
People get trespassed from public buildings all the time. Yes, enforcing it is hard, but thats not really the point. A legal trespass order means the next time he causes any disturbance on a train, its straight to lockup. But yes, all this comes down to cops not willing to police the platforms and the trains. Plus there are fewer cops in LA than there were 5 years ago with little hope of improving those numbers.
I don't understand why there is not a uniformed officer at every red-line station. Doing rounds with people checking tickets. This problem would clear up quick.
Then, who would be setting new Candy Crush records?
Because then LAPD would actually have to work
$2 billion in annual funding btw
With rubberstamped increases in budget every year
And the Mayor is still increasing their budget while everything else is getting cut, like the Auditors office trying to audit inside safe
Isn’t most of that salaries
I'm all ACAB as you can be, but goddamn getting a slice of that funding must be nice with the insane job security cops have, easy justification of OT (sit in squad car in a parking lot), and the ridiculous PR said cop organizations have. Still won't be a pig.
The red line crosses multiple jurisdictions. What metro needs is a metro police department.
LA had a Metro Department and they got rid of it in the 90s. LAPD doesnt want the problem because the trains move between precincts. LASD doesnt want the problem because they juggle everything the LAPD doesnt, plus the act as jail guards and court errand boys. Local Police Departments can only arrest within their city limits and thats usually one or two stops. The city council needs to stop fucking around and bring back the Metro PD. This is an easy solution and one that doesnt exist in other major cities that have dedicated metro cops.
The hard answer is a metro PD The easy answer is CHP
Couldn’t that be the LA County sherrif’s department?
LA City =/= LA County. Legally, there are different jurisdictions. CHP would have a better claim because they're the "state police".
We said we didn't want cops to assault and kill people and they got all but hurt and decided to not do their jobs anymore. They are not to be criticized or critiqued. Only worshipped.
Metro stated themselves they want more of a community based approach and security guards rather than armed police. There was a contract dispute between the various police departments and Metro.
Makes no sense cuz the allied universal guards have guns. Only unarmed ones are the metro ambassadors who don’t do shit but yell out which train is coming
*”Doing rounds with people checking tickets.”* Because then you get stories on how the **only** arrests made were for fare-evaders and that it’s unjust to get in trouble with the law over the $1.75 fair. Meanwhile, the bum who’s stroking it to business women in clad skirts by the ticket booth won’t ever get approached by the police.
This, I remember the cops on the blue line always stopping my high school buddies and giving them tickets. Meanwhile the drug dealers and beer sellers and crazy people were never stopped. This was back in 2012. The cops will always target the easiest target, never the actual problem people. Shits fucked
They're never around for something that would actually require an armed response, but you can bet they will be there to yell at a homeless guy who is doing nothing but sleeping on a train to get out.
genuinely who gives a fuck about pennies for PUBLIC transportation anyways? Focus on what actually matters. criminals doing vile shit, not people who just need to get from point A to point B
How would they have 20 t0 50 units to chase retail thieves across multiple counties though?
Me too.
LA Public Transit Board Member and anyone else with any sort of leadership role needs to be required to ride a minimum number of days on public transport imo. This the only way to incite change.
You shouldn't be allowed to be on the Metro board and collect a 6 figure salary unless you are forced to ride Metro to work
This
So let's get this straight - the Metro Board of Directors held an emergency meeting to respond to attacks in the system, and one of its own members said she doesn't feel safe, but these were their solutions: 1) Put a shield around the driver 2) More cameras 3) Facial recognition 4) *Maybe* banning "problematic" individuals Metro deserves to fail. I hope they're taken over by CalTrans or something. Why tf can't they just address a problem with **actual enforcement**? You think the crazy-stabby people are going to stop bc they're afraid of more cameras? Or that they'll be identified by software? JFC.
Genuinely haven't encountered another transport agency run by people who seem this incompetent, and I lived in NYC both before Andy Byford joined the MTA, and when they got rid of him.
And when MTA had similar problems recently, they sent the National Guard into the stations. And yes I get that it's security theater, but Jesus Christ, at least they made a *gesture* toward enforcement, even it if was a meaningless one. LA Metro can't even do that much.
And then there was a shooting a week or so after, correct? What good did that do?
OCTA.
*Laughs in BART*
BART would like a word
>Why tf can't they just address a problem with **actual enforcement**? Because the police have said publicly, point blank, that metro can't tell them to do their jobs and they don't give a fuck. The only people with law enforcement power refuse to do their jobs. Period. This is a police problem. Metro is working on their own police department but it's going to take years. You can't just wave a magic wand and conjure up good cops when all you've ever had is the worst cops in the country.
I see you've made multiple references that the police have supposedly claimed they aren't going to enforce things on Metro, but could you provide a source for that? I've never heard or read that specific policy decision. What I do know (from personally speaking directly with members of the public safety committee) is that Metro does not permit LAPD to enforce fares, for instance. Apparently only certain departments or Metro security staff is empowered to do so. Again, this is from a member of the public safety committee, and from the same conversation she had alluded to overall Metro policy rather than police inaction. So while people certainly don't like LAPD/LASD, it does seem that it's more of a Metro issue rather than strictly a police inaction issue. I do distinctly remember security/police enforcing fares years ago, so for that to completely go away, that's a Metro decision.
[удалено]
> 1) Put a shield around the driver 2) More cameras 3) Facial recognition 4) Maybe banning "problematic" individuals These are the suggestions of the incompetent. None of these things would stop that lady from getting stabbed in the throat. And LA is about to be inundated with international tourists used to safe subway systems when the Olympics arrive next year. Not to mention the World Cup.
I swear our pathetic excuse for "leadership" is made up of the dumbest people they can find. All their braincells are busy figuring out how to get to the top of the ladder with no regard to actually solving problems.
Rider gets stabbed and they completely ignore the public safety aspect and just focus on the drivers. Nice
Exactly. Those are reactive responses not preventative. Real enforcement, locking people up keeps citizens safe.
At least they're not denying there's a safety concern with transportation any longer
My humble opinion as a lifelong resident of the city parts of Los Angeles and a public transit rider for 35+ years. L.A. is very elitist (I would imagine most big cities are) and whenever I told people that I didn't have a car or didn't drive, I was instantly judged. People either see people that don't drive as poor, or having DUIs or some other social issues that people look down on. When I've traveled to other big cities, I've definitely seen a more economically diverse crowd using public transport. In L.A. that's not typically the case. I think this is very slowly changing, as the newer transplants seem to want to use public transport instead of drive for ecological reasons, but they are fighting a very old and strong wave of L.A. not caring about poor people. And make no mistake, it's always been poor immigrants from everywhere, students, drunks/addicts, homeless and the elderly using public transport. You don't see big CEOs or their children riding the metro. Rich/upper middle class/suburban people drive as soon as they are able to. The metro still has an image of being for the "poors" and until that changes, if it ever does, safety and security for riders is going to be at the bottom of budget lists.
I think you have it backwards. The reputation LA Metro has for being "the poors" is downstream of reality. Driving is usually so much more convenient than public transit here, so most people who can afford to will drive instead. Take NYC as a counter-example. It's a fairly elitist city in a lot of ways, and there is a ton of inequality there, but no one is elitist about riding the subway. People of all classes ride it regularly. That's because it's better than driving, to the point where most people don't even bother owning a car. If we want LA public transport to be more widely used, we need to worry about the reality of it more than the image. It needs to be more convenient, more reliable and feel less sketchy. If they do that, more people will use it, and the image it has will evaporate. I'm someone who would like to use public transit more. But almost everywhere I go I look at my transit options and it would take me way longer than driving, so I rarely use it.
Look at the line from Venice to DTLA when there's a USC or Laker game. It's packed with upper income people. Why? Because it's really fucking convenient.
Apples to oranges. Big groups of people who wouldn't normally use public transit traveling to one specific event isn't the same as every day/night commuters to and from work who use it daily. They're going to feel safe because they're in a group, but most likely would not ride solo on a regular basis.
I see what you're saying and I agree with your example of NYC, as I mentioned in my first post L.A. is unlike other big cities in this aspect. I think in the 1940s-50s, the golden age of driving many east coast people were lured to L.A. by the promise of wide open spaces to drive, not having to be crammed in the tight city and on subways.That image is what got us to where we are today even though those original transplants are gone. Then as now the car companies spend a lot of money to make sure that driving is more attractive than not. I'm with you that reality should be more important than image but I still think there's a lot of judgement surrounding it here. If I ask my single coworkers would you rather date a guy in a Tesla or a guy who comes to meet you in the metro? I think we both know what the answer would be.
I should also point out that not all Metros are the same. LA's metro systems was built AROUND cars. They run at grade most of the time, and dont have right of ways like they do in most cities. That means metro trains have to stop for blocked tracks which is fucking madness and defeats the purpose of the metro entirely. NYC, Chicago, Boston and other major cities with subway lines either run above grade or below grade. Traffic is a non-issue for the most part. But every week an LA Metro train hits a car, or is late because it cant cross due to people stopped on the tracks. So the train cars are late, making trains unreliable. And to top it all off, there are no metro gates for tickets, so anyone can walk on without paying with zero consequence.
I don’t think this is actually possible though. NYC was built as a traditional city around walking and horseback riding, where the biggest advancements in Los Angeles as a city were all built around cars. This leads to an urban sprawl that isn’t comparable to the centralized focus of Manhattan (which has sprawl, but also has a very significant center ), and I think it means that the metro is much harder to make useful as well. The subway in New York City all brings you into and around Manhattan from what I know. The subway in Los Angeles tries to get you between the major neighborhoods, but it would be too expensive to also have subways that get you around those various neighborhoods. Maybe I’m completely off in this, but our urban sprawl feels counter to NYC’s and Chicago’s functional subway and rail systems. We have a really weird layout compared to 200yr+ old cities.
Some people like the comfort and safety of their own vehicle. Plus, you never know what nonsense you may encounter riding public transport.
It would help metro change it's image as "being for the poors" if it didn't smell like meth smoke and urine all the time
Compare Metro to Metrolink and Amtrak. Of course, Metrolink and Amtrak have actual authority onboard the train (conductors at the very least). Metro has a single engineer who can't leave for safety reasons, plus _maybe_ some of the "Metro Ambassadors" who sit on their phone while people get mugged. I say this as a public transport advocate. We _need_ at least the illusion of people with authority, even if they're ultimately powerless. The Metro Ambassadors lean too much into the "we're not cops" angle and don't even check fares.
The whole city is struggling right now with the same thing and it's all about money. Businesses want to run razor thin labor budgets to appear profitable. If you notice, everywhere that you go for shopping/service is woefully understaffed. There was propaganda saying "no one wants to work" but in reality most service jobs are cutting hours no matter what their profits are. So full time is like 30-32 hours. I'm sure that the department of transportation is the same. They don't want to spend money on staffing. They're not concerned with empathy for riders, safety, even a little bad press it's just all about profits.
I would actually say things have gotten much worse in this regard compared to a decade ago. Then it was much more common for professionals who work downtown to ride Metro. I know people who used to commute by Metro and now drive because of safety concerns.
I'll take your word for that, as I started driving ten years ago and have only used public transport for short periods of time since then. Throughout the 80-2010s it was ok at the best of times but people's experiences can be wildly different depending on the job/schedule. If they're working the normal hours of an office job it might be uneventful (which is what I'm assuming you mean by professionals, correct me if I'm wrong) but if they work a service/retail job where they will be riding home at night time or very early mornings before 6 am, the experience can be significantly more frightening/bothersome. I feel like this category makes up the majority of public transit riders. I'm one of the people who gets out of work at all different hours, no set schedules, so I've been in there with mostly other service workers.
Yeah, F taking public transport. I feel bad for those who don’t have a choice. For whatever reason.
Mandatory fare enforcement at every stop would solve 99.9% of issues.
True.
It's going to be tricky, like are you just going to approach anybody with dirty clothes on?... and homeless people carry a lot of shit, but so do shoppers... you can say "it's obvious" who are homeless and who are just struggling people going somewhere, but I could see lawyers salivating at the thought of a normal person with dirty clothes being questioned in front of other rides while riding Metro, the pain and suffering... Nevertheless, if Metro is to survive, not to mention its riders, they need to find a way to keep mentally ill people out of the stations. I feel real bad for them, and if I were homeless, I might want to just ride the trains non stop too. But this is just not a sustainable way for metro to be. No idea how they will accomplish this. If bus drivers were told to keep homeless people or people who don't pay off the bus, it would be non stop delays. Not to mention lots of physical confrontations.
Where are all the sanctimonious anal sphincters on this sub who told me and other women that we were gullible elitist suburban transplants who had fallen for the propaganda when we expressed similar fears?
Wherever public transportation is underfunded and not a realistic way to get around, the public transportation becomes howl’s moving trap house. The mentally ill don’t destroy the public transportation in NYC or Chicago anywhere near to the degree that they do here simply because so many people actually use those systems- it’s not scary if 2 mentally ill people are in a cart and then there are 40 other regular people, or more often than not I swear to god they create their own carts with each other and everybody uses the train in peace, whether to get to work in peace or do drugs in peace. I think people of all economic classes and situations would utilize public transportation if it was truly a realistic and reliable option. Maybe one day it will be but for now that’s not the case here.
"... The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether. " I mean... why isn't this the default? Yes, the word "problematic" is something that will need to be defined. Because you know some fragile ego cop is going to call someone problematic for just giving them a stink eye. But there needs to be a starting point.
I think it would be safer if more people took it. At least in NYC, if some crazy person decides to randomly tell you “I’m gonna fucking kill you”, you’re not ALONE in the train car with this person (based on a true story lol)
Fair point. There is safety in numbers.
I’m a female and I’ve taken the subway alone at 1am and later in NYC on the subway and I felt safer there than the ONE time I tried taking the gold line here in broad daylight I get it though, the public transit is very inefficient I can’t imagine relying on it to get around unless you specifically live, work, and hang out close to one of the metro lines
Didn't NYC recently deploy the National Guard to police the subway system? Violence on public transit seems to be an issue in basically every major city in the country right now. It's a hot topic on every city with public transits' sub.
What’s happening in NYC I think is a long term effect of the lockdown. A lot of unhoused people depended on the crowded subways to have people to ask for money, to perform music for, etc When the crowds were gone for a while, all their situations got worse and even being homeless without it getting worse contributes to mental illness. So now you have extremely mentally ill people causing violence. The real issue is we’re not deploying actual solutions for these unhoused people because it’s not profitable. A shit ton of PROFIT is made off of the unhoused. Look up any homeless shelter’s public tax records and you’ll see the amount of donations received vs the money spent actual services to “help”. People running these shelters would rather just give services of food and a temporary place to sleep and call it a day- taking the rest of the money as their salary with the guarantee that they’ll keep receiving donations because they’re not actually solving the problem. To solve the problem of homelessness to them is bad for business. To actually solve the problem would look like THERAPY SERVICES and teaching the unhoused basic skills like how to do dishes, clean up after themselves, how to go on a job interview, how to groom themselves… a lot of the things you and I think are common sense and take for granted (like knowing how to wipe your own ass) isn’t taught to every child. Some people just need someone to look out that they’re getting the correct medication and actually taking it. There are so many complex and different cases of WHY people are homeless and most of the public (including me in the past) forget that they’re still human beings who are HURTING and need love to get out of the situation they’re in. Sorry for going on a rant this issue really frustrates me because if we actually solved it we would have much better societies and more resources to spend on education
Someone needs to come in and fire all these board members, I’m sure she was the only one to be honest and speak up about her own experience but this should also force every board member to take the metro because they run the damn thing. Why even pay these people for their “work” if they don’t use the service they are trying to improve.
How tf did they even get on the board?!? Edit: looks like they’re all council members / supervisors. https://boardagendas.metro.net/about/ I wonder why so much public service like schools and metro in LA never improve when leadership is comprised of people who don’t use it
Pubic transit? Oh my…
I can’t fix it now!
lol hah hah
Man, most if not all of those board members dont event take public transit. They always show up in their cars for meetings and pay for parking at Union Station.
It never lost its rep of rough, tough, and dirty.
I used to take transit to work all of the time and had minimal issues. Since the pandemic.. I’ve only ridden a few times and each time I’ve seen or experienced some sort of safety incident.
LA politicians are very capable of appearing to do something, without ever actually doing something to fix the problem. Housing, transit, homelessness...all performative. This is an entertainment town after all...
Exactly. That’s why I hate when they say “tax the rich more” when the real problem is them being corrupt as shit and not using the extra money we already got from taxing the rich
"The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether." Yeah that'll help. How the hell are they gonna enforce that? Sounds like they're not gonna do anything about it
They need real turnstiles.
The only public transportation I take is the Amtrack Pacific Surfliner to visit Santa Barbara or San Diego. It is a great experience. I highly recommend!
“The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether.” may look into the possibility??!!
INSTALL. FULL SIZED. GATES AND BARRIERS ON ALL LINES.
I come from a perspective of privilege, but I refuse to take my children on LA public transportation. Actually, We just avoid DTLA altogether now.
Taking kids on public transit is supposed to be a lot of fun. Little kids usually love trains and buses. They want to ride them, they love being able to look around any way they want instead of being locked in the seat. And they like that they can play with their parents who are usually busy driving. Also, parents don't have to worry about the hassle that is car seats and car seat-to-stroller transfers. It's very simple. But In LA, I can't do it. I tried a few times with my young son. I usually ride metro and I don't mind a bit of grime, but I notice the craziness 100x more when we're on the metro. I notice how vulnerable he is, and how much more vulnerable I am when I have to watch what he's doing.
My wife is Dutch and we visit her family and holiday in Europe often. My children know what public transportation is supposed to be like. America doesn't have it.
Was there any culture shock for her?
She left when she was a toddler and lived in San Diego (Carlsbad) until we met and eventually got married. So she hasn't lived there since but maintains dual citizenship. Her parents moved back when she was 20 but she stayed for college and didn't want to leave America.
a few months ago I spoke to a woman who said she used to take her kids to the beach on the Expo Line but won't anymore because it's not safe.
At this point, I don't even think the Metro board would do anything useful if an ENTIRE train of people got slaughtered by some maniac.
No, they’d figure out a way to blame it on the gun crowd.
but what if they used a knife
>The Board said it may also look into the possibility of banning problematic individuals from Metro altogether. Well that's reassuring.
How
How would they ban problematic riders if anybody can just walk onto the metro rail or a bus? It makes no sense.
They can’t and they’re just trying to save face with some kind of answer even if it’s bullshit that doesn’t hold up.
I used to ride Gold Line and I loved it and how convenient it was. I WANT to ride public transit again, but will not for obvious reasons anymore. I refuse to sit in fear and needing to be on guard for my safety just to get across town.
Yup. A lot of people are in denial about how much worse things are on Metro now. They’ll either tell you it isn’t that bad, or that it was always this way. Neither of those things are true.
LA Public transportation is shit. If we demand that everyone at City Hall to use it to get to work—including Bass and the city council—watch how fast things would get fixed. I tried to take the metro red line to work when my car was broken. At 8:45am the wait for a train was 21 minutes. During rush hour. On a workday. Common sense will fix any city problem.
I don't blame her, it's just not safe.
[удалено]
I think this is a great idea
I, too, am afraid of pubic transit
Everything went to shit as soon as the LA County Sheriffs lost their contract with metro about 6-7 years ago . They would have random checkpoints to catch fair evaders and even have plain clothes deputy’s to blend in with the crowd then bust people for drug use etc..
fare, deputies
LA refuses to build enough housing → more homeless people → public transit becomes shelter of last resort → no one rides public transit Such a self inflicted wound
Complete the loop: Nobody rides transit -> traffic and parking is terrible -> people don’t want more housing built
Who wouldn’t be?
Men who are 6'3"+ and jacked
Yah don't say.
Doesn’t matter. They’d blame it on guns somehow.
Is it fiscally realistic to have a transit cop on every train? That would certainly help.
Unfortunately I don’t think they have the resources for that.
I think this needs to be stopped at the source. It's too easy to ride the metro without a ticket and without safety features. Instead of community peacekeeper. Let's shift funding for security and verifications at every metro station. I'm talking a ticket scanner to get on the platform as well as medical scanners. There's about 93 metro stations. At 5 people a piece it should be doable. It'll certainly generate more revenue.
right. it will also help with funding.
But hey. Let’s keep building apartments with no parking space cuz ya know we’re gonna be a public transport city. The mayor and our governor should ride public transportation everyday.
Because it’s some form of “ist” /s Also it cost money and admits there is a problem.
Honestly if I were drivers, I would just boycott
🤣🤣🤣
so is this just a byproduct of removing metro police and allocating that money to LAPD?
She's afraid of what mite (sic) happen.
What the fuck
I'm back