NICO MONETTI | staff writer
“This project is ready to go!” 32nd district congresswoman Hilda L. Solis said. Congresswoman Solis’s assertion was directed not only to the rows of politicians, businessmen, and media camera-men, but to the MTA (Metro Transit Authority), whose cooperation is urgently needed to fund the long-awaited expansion of the Metro Gold Line.
“This challenge has Hilda Solis, Adam Shift and David Dreier responding to the community need that is here,” congressman David Dreier of the 26th district said. “We’ve come together in a bipartisan way to say that we want to do everything that we possibly can to reduce the air pollution problems and reduce traffic congestion.”
The three congress members allied yesterday afternoon, to publicly bolster support for the continuation of the Metro Gold line. “The Gold Line is a project I’ve been working on for many years that starts in downtown Los Angeles...[and] ends in Sierra Madre Villa,” congressman Dreier said. “I want it to go to the Ontario International airport.” The project is expected to be of tremendous benefi t to Azusa, its surrounding communities, and the LA area as a whole.
“The total economic benefits for the region are expected to exceed forty billion dollars... The project could save [commuters] one point five million gallons of gasoline each year...It will create over 2,000 new construction jobs...And it’s expected to cut over 126 tons of carbon monoxide [in one year],” congresswoman Solis said.
Mayor Joe Rocha was a proud member of the political team who pitched and reemphasized their reasons to extend the metro line to the foothill area. “I can’t begin to tell you how many times people come up and ask me about the status of the Gold Line,” mayor Joe Rocha said. “I want to be able to tell them the next stop will be Azusa.”
Backers of the proposed project maintain that an economical and practical public transit system will not only provide local area residents with a reliable and affordable means of transportation, it will also greatly cut down on environmental pollution and relieve millions of area residents of the current necessity to drive on over-crowded freeways. “Look at all these cars around us right now,” congressman Dreier said. “The idea of reducing that by any number is something that would be very positive.”
According to congresswoman Solis, over two billion dollars of private funding has already been committed to the execution of this project. Mayor Rocha, whose administration has boldly invested over $630 million in the project, projects the payoff of such a seemingly speculative investment will economically benefit the Azusa community in the long run.
“More than two billion dollars in development projects...are contingent on the Gold Line extending from east Pasadena,” Rocha said. “That additional development could add 1.5 billion in property and sales tax revenue for local cities in the next thirty years.” The politicians now seek additional funding from the MTA.
Azusa Pacific University president John Wallace and Citrus College president Dr. Michael J. Viera also attended the event in displays of support for the initiative. “Jointly, I’m speaking for both Azusa Pacific University and Citrus College,” Viera said. “Between us we have more than 25,000 students...this last station in the first extension of the Gold Line would allow twenty-five thousand students to leave their cars behind.”
Citrus student Andrew Cress, spoke on behalf of a student led organization focusing on gaining local support for the expansion of the Metro Gold line. Cress’ organization created an online petition local area college students can sign advocating the construction of the line. The petition takes less than ten seconds to electronically sign and serves as an effective demonstration of the need for a functional metro transit system in the Foothill area. Over six hundred people have already expressed their support for the construction of the line.
After Congresswoman Solis’s closing remarks the group of politicians and supporters then made several stops in the Azusa and Monrovia areas along the train tracks they hope will soon house the Metro Gold line and give brief speeches. In the eloquent prose of Congressman Dreier in his closing remarks, “We need to get ‘er done.”
