A Scandal in Housing and Cutbacks in LA's Bus Service
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LA's Housing Authority board has fired its highly-paid CEO, who tried to evict tenants when they picketed his home. He calls his firing retaliation against him for asking the board to reimburse excessive expense accounts. Also, it's been five years since a federal consent decree required Los Angeles' Metro system to reduce fares and provide more buses. Now, Metro's reducing bus service and building trains. We get the latest on LA's ongoing battle over public transit. On our rebroadcast of today's To the Point, the intervention in Libya shows President Obama pulled in a multitude of different directions. Is there now an "Obama Doctrine" in the Middle East? What are the implications for US policy toward the rest of the world?
Making News
Los Angeles Housing Authority Head Is Fired ()
A controversial city bureaucrat has been ousted. The board of LA's Housing Authority, the largest west of the Mississippi, has fired Rudolf Montiel, who tried to evict nine tenants six months ago after they picketed outside his home in Rancho Cucamonga. Jessica Garrison reports for the Los Angeles Times.
Guests:
- Jessica Garrison: Los Angeles Times
Main Topic
Cuts to LA's Bus Lines ()
For 10 years, LA's Metro, and its predecessor, MTA, functioned under a federal consent decree, which required more buses and lower fares to benefit poor people of color. But that decree expired five years ago. Metro is building new trains, and improving roads and freeways, with money from Measure R, the half-cent sales tax increase voters approved in 2006. At the same time, it plans to cut bus service by 12 percent and increase the number of riders on individual buses. Metro claims bus ridership is "astonishingly low," and that better management will mean "enhanced service." The Bus Riders Union, which was a plaintiff in the case that produced Measure R, says its benefits are being taken away.
Guests:
- Esperanza Martinez: Bus Riders Union
- Conan Cheung: Metro
- Brian Taylor: UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies
Main Topic
Barack Obama's First New War ()
After weeks of apparent reluctance, the US joined the UN's fight to protect Libyans against their leader, Moammar Gadhafi. President Obama promptly left for South America, and there's still dispute about the mission, its intended outcome and what the US role really is.
Guests:
- Massimo Calabresi: Time
- Michael O'Hanlon: formerly, Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board
- Charles Kupchan: formerly, National Security Council
- Jonathan Alter: Newsweek, @jonathanalter
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Underwriters
Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.
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