The updated Metro extension plans have just been released. The proposal lists four potential stops: La Cienega/Beverly, San Vicente/Santa Monica, Fairfax/Santa Monica, and La Brea/Santa Monica. However, it is the stop at La Cienega and Beverly that has knowledgeable West Hollywood West residents questioning the future of their quaint neighborhood.
Three of the stops along Santa Monica Boulevard — at La Brea, Fairfax, and San Vicente — should raise concerns for the entire community. Years of construction on both the east and west routes of Santa Monica Boulevard will cause hardships for many businesses and commuters.
The Beverly/La Cienega Metro stop makes sense for Cedars-Sinai and Beverly Center, but the spillover impacts could eventually change the entire southern tip of the West Hollywood West neighborhood, which is mostly comprised of R1, single-family homes.
In 2020, Scott Wiener introduced Senate Bill 50, which aimed to promote additional housing within a quarter-mile of a major transit corridor. The bill was defeated in the California Senate by a vote of 18-15, falling short of the 21 votes needed to advance the legislation.
“This is not the end of this story,” said Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), who supported the bill. “Now it is time for all sides to step up.” While the sides come to terms on the ideas behind SB50, it is up to us to anticipate its effects on our community and take action now to protect our local zoning laws
The subway line reaching to San Vicente will serve a dense sector of residents and provide greater support to local businesses. It’s an investment in the future vibrancy of our community. Big Tech has bypassed Weho. It’s in Silicon Beach. Google and Apple are creating vast new office spaces in West LA and Culver City, where housing is more affordable and traffic less dense. Weho needs to consider several paths towards our long term viability. Rezoning is a part of that. Encouraging mass transit in a congested area of our city seems prudent. Plan for greater walkability throughout the city.… Read more »
Bringing Metro through WeHo will push out all of the small business owners as well as single family homes and decimate the community. The idea of creating the metro to bring in more business is false. The Metro IS the business. It will not be environmentally friendly and ridership has decreased since 2013 even though more rail miles have been added. Adding more buses to La Brea is the only option that makes sense for the environment and commuters.
One of the best outcomes of this could be to push out the NIMBY suburbanites from urban LA! Imagine the positive outcomes from removing this negative opposition: safer streets for pedestrians, better transit, denser and more affordable housing, and fewer BMW/ Tesla drivers threatening the health and safety of urban dwellers. Yes, let the anger rise and sweep you out to Palm Springs, never to stand in the way of urban progress again!
NIMBYism is regressive and shortsighted. Progress is rarely achieved without some degree of inconvenience. The problem with transportation to and from West Hollywood is that it is not freeway close to anything — it usually takes 20 minutes at minimum just to get to an on-ramp. If we allow NIMBYism to thwart connecting WeHo to the subway, we will become an isolated island, a place too inconvenient to get to, and that certainly won’t be good for business. We need the Metro if we’re not to be inundated by more cars clogging our roads and competing for street parking because… Read more »
#CRIME
And I thought WeHo was progressive. I thought this site was progressive. Seems not, given that this OpEd was written by the publisher. People, the community, and businesses need more public transportation. And we need less traffic. Will it result in a period of inconvenience? Yes. Will the long-term benefits outweigh the short- term inconvenience? HECK YES. Will it change the lifestyle of the neighborhood? Agreed, that’s more complicated, but I think the outcomes will only be better. People using the metro aren’t going to be invading WeHo residential areas, that’s Beverly Hills type elitism to think. It’ll make us… Read more »
Agreed!
What’s even more grimly amusing is that at least some of the same people so opposed to a higher minimum wage also oppose a subway which would import minimum wage earners easier who can work in West Hollywood yet cannot afford to live anywhere close! Certainly we need to keep the commute for them as difficult as possible, and keep that subway out, eh?
Most commenters are old queens who shake their fist yelling for people to “get off their lawn”. It would be great if they moved to Florida.
We will all be dead before any of this comes to fruition, but just in case Larry, after you stop the Kroger/Albertson merger, please stop this madness
Welcome to WehoOnline – where happiness and progress come to die…
CHANGE? You want to CHANGE things? Heaven forbid!!
When will this country realize that public transportation is the way to go?
I say, BUILD BABY BUILD, subways, light rail, dedicated bus lines, bike lanes…..
And get rid of the damn scooters.
Their ultimate goal is to eliminate single family homes anywhere near public transit. Doesn’t matter that you busted your ass and worked hard to buy your home. They are pushing hard (and will eventually get to) rezone to eliminate single family homes near metro. Vote differently.
I’d love to own a single family home that later gets upzoned. Talk about winning the lottery.
Rents are TOO HIGH we live in a wealthy area with limited space. Large multi-unit buildings are the only solution. Unless you convince the OVERHOUSED RICH PEOPLE IN TITANIC BEV HILLS MANSIONS to invite us to rent a room.
Agreed. This is a bad idea.
I can tell you from experience that METRO lies. These maps as far as I can tell don’t really show staging areas (if you believe that the gas station on La Cienega/Beverly or the car wash on SMB will be ample staging then I invite you to look at the properties taken for the red line extension from Fairfax to Century City). Possibly the most troubling is Fairfax/Santa Monica: the San Vicente/Fairfax alternative just rips up SMB from the (to be demolished for the boring machine launch site) Sheriff’s station to the to be demolished Whole Foods, but the Fairfax… Read more »
The construction will surely degrade the living experience in my neighbourhood (Hayworth Ave between SM and Fountain), and then further by the import of bad-actors coming into this quiet area. The upcoming Fountain Ave “project” is just the beginning of a lower quality of life in this area around Fairfax and SM. Just ask how that import has affected Venice and Santa Monica.
This is the same NIMBY reaction every self-centered individual and city has every time a subway or subway station is proposed.
Look at it this way, NOT in our lifetimes will we ever see a Los Angeles connected like say London or NYC but there will be a point where a critical mass of people universally starts taking the subway to get around. It will take time to do this here. Wouldn’t it be nice to take a subway to anywhere you really would want to go in Los Angeles?
No.
They ARE a bunch of spoiled nimbys.
In the mid 90’s the city ripped up Santa Monica Blvd. to “take back” the median. Two years of construction almost killed the business community. However, we did get a lovely pedestrian sidewalk (double row of trees from La Cienega to Doheny.) This was the rebirth of our “pedestrian village.” Then, about 2018 the “earth children” and councilmembers interested in bringing diversity and more revenue for the City began to embrace “sustainability” over resident livability. Automobiles in Los Angeles County generate about 11% of greenhouse gas emissions. Further, the State of California will phase out the sale of Gas-powered cars… Read more »
Metro Construction will make the re-design of Santa Monica Blvd. seem like a minor inconvenience. But just as the Santa Monica project, when it was completed, gave a huge boost to development in the City, the Metro will change West Hollywood in ways we probably will not ever anticipate. As most of the existing rent controlled housing is near the end of it’s “life expectancy”, we will see a lot of new, high density construction that will be supported by the Metro. But in the 40 years plus that I have lived in the City, change has been a constant… Read more »
Do you own a car?
Totally agree! Thank you. The Draft EIR does not take into account the downward trend of car emissions nor does it take into account security costs, the fact the ridership levels continue to go down, and that every small business owner along Santa Monica will lose their business because the years of construction will decimate the area. More buses along La Brea is best alternative.
There’s still a “proposal list”? It’s gonna be another 10 years of proposal lists. Hopefully by then they’ll add a No Metro proposal.
No Metro is on the Draft EIR and is the best alternative esp keeping in mind that greenhouse gases from cars will dramatically decrease in the next ten years