UPDATE: A reliable source close to what's going on as officials deal with the Chatsworth train collision informs me that situation over the weekend got so out of hand that the PR agency on retainer for crisis communications for Metrolink couldn't be reached for two days. The source added: "The mayor knows full well the Metrolink board is screwed up and is determined to fix it. That's why he sent in Katz, an expert on transportation issues, to clean up the mess once and for all.".
How many people must die, how bad do things have to get, before we get straight talk from our leaders?
I don't know about you all but immature as I am for an old man I find it a whole lot easier to deal with bad news if I face the facts with straight talk.
Unfortunately, all we're getting from our leaders about the Chatsworth train collision is a lot of B.S. You know that's true when a PR flack gets rebuked for telling the obvious truth and takes the high road and quits in protest because her bosses -- ultimately the political leadership of the five counties that run Metrolink -- want to manage public perception more than they want to fix the problems that caused the tragedy.
They could have stood together at the crash scene
and accepted responsibility for running the commuter rail system on the cheap and told the public the hard facts.
Instead, the head of the MTA board, who just happens to be the mayor of L.A., put his point man on transportation issues, Richard Katz, on the Metrolink board and had his personal flack shamelessly pat him on the back for his courage and leadership.
"The mayor believes that the public deserves answers and the agency needs changes, and he's taking the leadership to get it done," said Villaraigosa spokesman Matt Szabo. "The operational safety of Metrolink must be the paramount concern."
And Katz added: "We want to make sure that we have every safety tool in the toolbox working on these lines, particularly when you have freight and commuter sharing the lines...I think between the five counties we'll find a way to pay for it."
Is that any different than the drunken driver who runs down little kids in a crosswalk and promises to go into detox and never do it again? At least the drunk would probably say he's sorry.
I think the five counties should have found the money a long time ago but safety wasn't paramount. The problem was known and other communities found the right safety tool in the toolbox -- automated systems that stop trains in emergencies like running red lights -- years ago.
It's good the mayor is committed to fixing this problem but how about all the other at-grade rail crossing on MTA trains and on the busway that are dangerous and how about all the other problems we have all over L.A.
The public is fed up with lying and obfuscation from their leaders at every level. It's time they started acting like public servants and treating the public like adults.
If they really wanted to respect the lives that were lost on that train, they would stop trying to smooth over the political problems they face with carefully chosen words and start speaking the truth about this and every other issue.
How many people must die, how bad do things have to get, before we get straight talk from our leaders?
I don't know about you all but immature as I am for an old man I find it a whole lot easier to deal with bad news if I face the facts with straight talk.
Unfortunately, all we're getting from our leaders about the Chatsworth train collision is a lot of B.S. You know that's true when a PR flack gets rebuked for telling the obvious truth and takes the high road and quits in protest because her bosses -- ultimately the political leadership of the five counties that run Metrolink -- want to manage public perception more than they want to fix the problems that caused the tragedy.
They could have stood together at the crash scene
and accepted responsibility for running the commuter rail system on the cheap and told the public the hard facts. Instead, the head of the MTA board, who just happens to be the mayor of L.A., put his point man on transportation issues, Richard Katz, on the Metrolink board and had his personal flack shamelessly pat him on the back for his courage and leadership.
"The mayor believes that the public deserves answers and the agency needs changes, and he's taking the leadership to get it done," said Villaraigosa spokesman Matt Szabo. "The operational safety of Metrolink must be the paramount concern."
And Katz added: "We want to make sure that we have every safety tool in the toolbox working on these lines, particularly when you have freight and commuter sharing the lines...I think between the five counties we'll find a way to pay for it."
Is that any different than the drunken driver who runs down little kids in a crosswalk and promises to go into detox and never do it again? At least the drunk would probably say he's sorry.
I think the five counties should have found the money a long time ago but safety wasn't paramount. The problem was known and other communities found the right safety tool in the toolbox -- automated systems that stop trains in emergencies like running red lights -- years ago.
It's good the mayor is committed to fixing this problem but how about all the other at-grade rail crossing on MTA trains and on the busway that are dangerous and how about all the other problems we have all over L.A.
The public is fed up with lying and obfuscation from their leaders at every level. It's time they started acting like public servants and treating the public like adults.
If they really wanted to respect the lives that were lost on that train, they would stop trying to smooth over the political problems they face with carefully chosen words and start speaking the truth about this and every other issue.
Ron Kaye is the former editor of the Los Angeles Daily News where he spent 23 years helping to make the newspaper the voice of the San Fernando Valley and fighting for a city government that serves the people and not special interests.
Twice in recent years, Los Angeles Magazine listed Kaye among the city’s most influential people, specifically in the area of politics. Kaye has been variously described in the media as the “accidental anarchist,” “the Patrick Henry of the San Fernando Valley” and a “passionate populist.” He is now committed to
carrying on his crusade for a greater Los Angeles as an ordinary citizen. Previously, Ron worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner,
Associated Press, Cleveland Plain Dealer and The Australian as well as papers
in Fairbanks, Alaska and Yakima, Wash. He also wrote for Newsweek magazine, The Guardian in London and the National Enquirer.
I noted that the Board member who was replaced just happened to be the Mexican Mayor of Baldwin Park! Hmmm...replace one crony with another crony - par for the course with Villar!
Ron, you are wishing for the impossible if you hope to hear the truth from leader of the most corrupt regime in the history of this city! Alas, it will never happen!
What sticks out in my mind 6 days after the tragedy is not the political, cover-your-bleep aspect, but everlasting images of Villar posing in the fireman's jacket and rubber boots to give the impression that he was helping with the rescue! And his total lack of COMPASSION and SORROW for the victims and their families!!!
I waited in vain to see if Villar would show a 'human' side - an emotional side...but he stood there like an expressionless robot...his head mechanically rotating from side to side as he mouthed a few perfuntory words praising HIS firefighters and police officers as though he owned them! His eyes were blank and expressionless, and his demeanor certainly did not convey sympathy, sorrow, or comfort.
Above and beyond the fact that Villar is the worst mayor in the history of this city, I just don't LIKE the man!!! He is missing a soul!
Speaking of safety systems...
We now know that MetroLink does not have a positive system to prevent their operators from running red lights...
Has anyone revealed whether or not the Union Pacific uses such a system to control the movements of their trains?
I would think that UP would now insist that MetroLink install such a system as a precondition for trackage rights over the UP system.
Of course the heavy and light rail systems have always been done on the cheap. It was never about having an effective, safe method of transporting large numbers of people, and was always about looking like they (the pols) were doing something to reduce freeway congestion without actually spending the serious money it would take to expand that system to account for the volumn it handles today, let alone tomorrow.
After all, haven't we always been told, that if we don't build it, they won't come? Except, that has always been a lie, as they come anyway!
It's just too bad that all of these pols weren't allowed to have train sets when they were kids - it sure would have been cheaper in the long run if they had gotten this fascination with trains out of their systems before they reached puberty.
"The public is fed up lying and obfuscation from their leaders at every level. It's time they started acting like public servants and treating the public like adults."
Ron, I am going to quote you from now on!!!! TH
Metro is facing the biggest lawsuits in its history as both the Times and DN reported yesterday so the PR flack who blamed the engineer on day one has warmed the hearts of many a lawyer. The families of the dead do deserve money for their loss, but not what many are looking to get -- the other tragedy is that the safety fixes and new trains needed will suffer. The challenge will be for Metro to meet the payoffs and staying solvent -- well, there are always more taxes and reduced service.
As a regular commuter on the MetroLink (Antelope Valley Line) for the past 5 years, I must confess that I have never felt "unsafe." In the years that I have taken the train, our passenger cars have waited or slowed for many a freight train and Amtrak to pass. We have waited outside stations for other passenger trains to clear; we have waited outside Union Station for clearance to enter because of "heavy traffic" or space at a receiving gate. We have also been delayed leaving Union Station due to late arriving connecting trains or clearance to depart. I have seen conductors in regular contact on their radios, not relaxing or gabbing, and walking the entire length of the train constantly. I am greatly saddened by the loss of MetroLink family members in Friday's crash. What also concerns me is the general lack of respect or understanding that drivers and pedestrians and bicyclists and commercial truckers have for these people-moving behemouths. MetroLink is not always traveling 79 mph -- there are different speads for certain areas. The conductors also communicate to the passengers where there is a "special" circumstance and the speed is slowed. Do not point your finger and say I am an employee or plant for MetroLink or the mayor -- I am neither. If anything, my gripe with MetroLink is that with the increased ridership, additional cars are not added to the trains. The railcars may seat 120 people, but I can tell you from experience that there are as many as an additional 30-50 people standing in each car during peak commuting hours. Please do not condemn the entire rail system because an idiot attempted suicide suicide by train (Glendale 2005) or neglect of one engineer (Chatsworth 2008). Until we improve our management in this entire County, we are doomed to these situations. btw, I continue to commute by train and do not see that changing for me in the foreseeable future.
The expectations for what is the right action for the case here are based on what? The mayor can't jump in and deal comfortably with this situation, aside from its totally horrific result that most leaders would have a challenge with, but Tony does not have experience DOING things so when it comes time to perform, it's all over for him.
He's not even able to speak as well as he managed to do earlier in his administration, now constantly stuttering and stammering, searching for words and punctuating the air with "Uh," "er." and "ah." His discomfort is obvious.
Tony could have spent his term working with problems and people- people of the city- not the power brokers. He regularly has to use Matt Szabo for his outlet to verbalize statements of any official importance, often making them even more insincere than would ordinarily be suspected. Tony only worked on posing for the cameras and getting to rub elbows with people he thought would help his political career and has become all the more and more distant in the everyday operations of a municipality.
For example, his delegation of authority leaves us with such persons as David Nahai at DWP running things nearly on his own, it seems, and this is what the approach is for the rest of the city business. It has not been good for the city.
Making a statement about cause of the train wreck was a surprise to me as their was not much time for all the facts to be sorted, but the statement must have felt like money falling from the sky for so many attorneys. (Google "train wreck" for a sidebar ad sample.) The liability is a big part of litigation, and then the calculation of damages becomes important. I don't know if that was a wise thing to do. Some say yes, but the liability exposure, already huge, should have been something left for a full investigation to happen first. But all that is about the legalities involved, not the human impact in other ways.
This is a very serious situation, but there does not seem to be much in established policies operating to see how rail traffic is to be managed with respect to safety reports, implementation, anticipated costs, revenue sources, timetables and apportioned or assigned responsibilities to the assorted governmental agencies and entities, including cities and counties.
All this needs to be considered. We obviously don't want any other tragedies but how much do we have to do to prevent it? How much is enough? We see with 9-11 aftermath how the cost curve for security went vertical for so many implementations of security measures. But we don't know how much is enough- all of it done to prevent the opportunity for an attack of any level to happen or to minimize the potential damage if an attack does occur. It's expensive and intrusive, but it’s tolerable up to a point. That point is not certainly defined precisely as I view it. This step-up will probably be what happens now for rail transportation safety. We may not be able to know how much is enough.
With all Tony's travels, you might expect him to have picked up some management tips so that the city could be the better for it. That didn’t happen. Sorry, his best work is still posing before the lens. Funny how some of his worst moments are speaking before the microphone.
The mayor is out of his league in this picture. His best course of action, like after the Mirthala affair revelation, would be to keep a low profile and speak about it carefully, and as little as possible.
The irony here is that this collision happened, apparently, because of human error that technology was not equipped to protect us from, and it happened in a matter of minutes. What should we do to fix things? We don't know all the reasons for the train wreck yet and some things will still have to be concluded with an educated guess at a scientific level.
Tony has to see that this is not the way to a second term as Mayor. He's already shown why he shouldn't have been allowed a first term. He needs to phase himself out and plan on being part of the private sector.
"...they would stop trying to smooth over the political problems they face with carefully chosen words and start speaking the truth about this and every other issue."
Sometimes ya just gotta think that all pols were born with the dominant "lie gene."
They say we're supposed to learn from history and not make the same mistakes over and over; we don't.
And even Richard Nixon, before Watergate, infamously said, "it's not the crime; it's the cover up."
They'll never learn.