I-5 Authority Pushes to Exempt Widening Project from Mandated Equity and Environment Evaluation, Asserts Widening Freeway Cleans Air streetsblog.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from streetsblog.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Metro is proceeding to finalize plans to widen freeways in southeast L.A. County. Details remain elusive on a new slightly-less-harmful alternative for Metro and Caltrans’ 605 Freeway Corridor Improvement Project, though Metro presented the project at last night’s Gateway Cities Council of Governments’ 91/605/405 Freeways Corridor Cities Committee meeting (agenda packet – includes Metro presentation starting on page 82). There wasn’t a lot of new information in yesterday’s presentation, but the discussion was instructive.
This was only the the second public meeting where Metro’s new alternative has been presented, if you can call it that. Though it’s clear that it still calls for demolishing hundreds of homes, the proposal remains vague, sketchy.
Interview with Whittier City Councilmember Fernando Dutra streetsblog.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from streetsblog.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Today, Metro delivered a presentation that revealed a few outlines of a new version of the agency’s plan to demolish hundreds of homes to widen the 605 and 5 Freeway in southeast L.A. County.
Metro’s 605 Freeway Corridor Improvement Project would spend billions of dollars to widen about 15 miles of the 605, plus other intersecting freeways. The 605CIP would widen about three miles of the 5 Freeway through the cities of Downey and Santa Fe Springs. Last August, Metro announced that the 605CIP would impact more than 1,200 properties – including demolishing more than 200 homes in the city of Downey. When Metro’s “drastically” increased demolition totals were announced, numerous parties weighed in against the proposal. In October, the Metro board passed a motion delaying the project, while directing staff to come up with less destructive alternatives.
Ali Saleh is the mayor of the city of Bell, located in southeast Los Angeles County. Saleh co-manages his family’s clothing business, started by his parents who immigrated from Southern Lebanon to the U.S., settling in the city of Bell.
Saleh was first elected to the Bell City Council in 2011, following a recall election that ousted councilmembers involved in a corruption scandal. Saleh has championed smart growth, small business, public participation, and governmental transparency. He currently serves on the board of the
San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. He is a past board president of the Gateway Cities Council of Governments, Regional Council boardmember for Southern California Association of Governments, boardmember for the Greater Los Angeles County Vector Control District, and boardmember for the Los Angeles County Sanitation District.