Drawing a Light Rail Line in the Sand: The Mid-City Exposition Line: How a Band of 13 Saved Mass Transit for Los Angeles's Westside

his article describes how a small group of activists in Los Angeles convinced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to build a new light rail line, known as the Exposition Line, to serve the Westside district of Los Angeles. Begun in the mid-1990s with a group that called itself the Friends 4 Expo Transit and initially having only13 people, the group grew in size, perfected lobbying techniques such as representing their position at public meetings as citizen advocates, and reached out to communities along the potential right of way. The group focused on design, engineering, and architectural issues on a project that breaks down into the heavily developed downtown area, a residential mid-city section and a heavily commercialized western section. The line is 9.6 miles long, with the ultimate cost expected to be $631 million, which is projected to cost less per passenger mile than non-rail alternatives. The article relates that the next step is securing federal funds that have been reallocated elsewhere, with one option being the use of local funds.