Assemblymember Sebastian Ridley-Thomas today joined U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, U.S. Representative Maxine Waters, U.S. Representative Karen Bass, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts for the Crenshaw District groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of construction on Metro’s $2 billion Crenshaw/LAX Transit Project.
Ridley-Thomas said, “This is an important day for residents in neighborhoods from Southwest Los Angeles to Inglewood who will gain a critical mass transit option in their community.”
“Today’s Metro groundbreaking for the Crenshaw/LAX Line is the culmination of more than a decade of prodding and persuading to gain the necessary funding and authorization from Metro to build the Crenshaw/LAX Line and to include a below-ground station in the transit project at Leimert Park, the cultural center of the African American community in Los Angeles,” he added. “South and Southwest L.A. residents voted to tax themselves when they approved Measure R to help pay a portion of the cost of building the Crenshaw/LAX Line. Now, they will start to see a return on their tax investment.
“The innovative targeted hiring policy adopted by Metro requiring contractors to hire residents from neighborhoods characterized by high unemployment will help to ensure that local residents see direct economic benefits of that investment in the form of construction jobs,” Ridley-Thomas continued.
When construction on the Crenshaw/LAX Line is completed in 2018, 8.5-mile light rail mass transit system will run south from the Expo Line Station in L.A.’s Crenshaw District to Metro’s Green Line Station in El Segundo with stops along the route in the City of Inglewood. Metro is studying options for building an extension that will take Crenshaw/LAX transit riders directly to the central passenger terminal area at L.A. International Airport (LAX).
“It will be a few years before Crenshaw area and Inglewood residents are able to take the stairs or an escalator below ground to board a train at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza at Martin Luther King, Jr. and Crenshaw Boulevards, but when the Crenshaw/LAX Line is built and certified for operation, residents will be able ride the rails from their community neighborhoods to downtown Los Angeles, Universal City, Pasadena and East Los Angeles without needing a car,” he said.
