Recommendation to receive and file a report from Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the status of various projects that impact Long Beach.
And so I see that. So if there's anyone here that's not here for those two items, you're welcome to take a break and be back later on because we'll be taking those these two items next. The next item is our Metro presentation. And if I can, please have the clerk read that item. Communication from Mayor Garcia recommendation to receive and file a report from L.A. County Metro on the status of various projects that impact Long Beach. Thank you. Let me before I have Mr. Wiggins start that presentation, let me just add that what we have in front of us today, and this is an important presentation for the whole council because we know that L.A. Metro affects and has an impact on on Long Beach every single day. I have the honor of serving as the as a metro director to represent many of the cities in southeast L.A. County, including Long Beach. And the presentation we're going to have in front of us today is going to go over a variety of initiatives as they relate to Long Beach. And so inclusive of that will be our new policing contract that has been in place now for maybe six or seven months. It'll be talk about the blue line and its impacts on on long beaches, including the closure and how that's going to and how we're going to work with that, as well as the 710 modernization plan . And so if there's any questions from council members, I know we received these from the community, this would be a good time to get those questions answered. And I do want to thank the Metro team that is here to make this present important presentation. I also want to, of course, thank both Sharon Weisman and Luke Clapp, who guide our metro work at the at the board level and here at the city. And so thanks to them as well. So with that, let me go ahead and turn this over to Mr. Wiggins. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and good evening and good evening to the members of the Council. My colleagues and I are honored to be here on behalf of our CEO, Mr. Phil Washington, to share what the Mayor just gave you. An overview, an update on a number of initiatives that we are working at Metro, that we work directly with the city of Long Beach. First of all, I'll provide you with an update on where we are with our policing contract and our partnership with Long Beach Police Department, followed by our project. We've called The New Blue, which is essentially a rehabilitation of the entire blue line and will then wrap up with the 710 freeway project. So with. With regard to. All right. With the law enforcement contract, our goal at Metro is to really transform that transit ridership experience across the entire system. And so we really want to get to the point where every single one of our employees, every single patron can ride our system anywhere in our system, 24, seven, anywhere without fear, 100% of the time. And for those of you who may be familiar with Metro, particularly the blue line, you know that we have work to do in that area. But that partnership with Long Beach Police Department is really getting us on this path of creating a very positive ridership experience for all of our patrons. And so every year we take a look at customer satisfaction, particularly thoughts around security and perceptions of security. And when you look at those numbers, you know, they're not that 90% of our folks on the bus are passengers feel safe, about 79% on the rail feel safe. But from the perspective of our CEO and our board of directors, well, what my instructions are is go get that 10% on the bus system and let's go get that 21% on the rail system. These these numbers actually need to be 100%. And so we are working very hard to improve that ridership experience and really address those issues that drive riders, complain about issues of harassment, code of conduct violations, crime on our system. And so our board of directors and our CEO have really made it a top priority at Metro. So if you take a look at before we implemented our multi-agency model, this is just an example, a representation of what the calls for service were on our rail system and our prior model. We worked with one particular agency that really was just our system is too big. We're looking at 1400 square miles, so it's very difficult for one agency to cover our entire system. So that gives you an example of about 80 or so calls on average per day that come in on our rail system. And then you notice that they're highly concentrated in Central Los Angeles and then in Long Beach, in particular, on our blue line. And so in our prior model, we did not have a direct working relationship with Long Beach PD. But when you take a look at the demand for service, the calls for service. It made perfect sense to reach out to Long Beach Police Department to partner with us on that effort. And so that partnership is underway. Chief Looney and I have been at this for a couple of years now, well, a year before we even entered into a contractual agreement. And I'm happy to report that we're making very, very good progress. And so now we have a multi-agency model. We have partnerships with the sheriff's department, Long Beach P.D. and, of course, LAPD, LAPD patrolling the city, the sheriff everywhere else outside the city, on the bus and rail system. And, of course, Long Beach PD on our blue line. And then our own Metro Security employees, we actually added a total of 77 to do nothing but check fare. So we brought that team from about 109 to about 180 some odd individuals. And in our security department that are conducting critical infrastructure protection and, of course, checking fare on our system. And all of those components work well together. So the rule is very, very clear. We've actually made it very clear what lanes we want law enforcement in. Our law enforcement partners are really there to address crime and disorder and reduce our system's vulnerability to terrorism. The prior model had officers checking fare as well, which was a bit problematic for a number of reasons that I'm more than happy to explain are we have our private security team who guards our facilities and some of our stations, and we have our internal metro security team that's responsible for fare compliance, revenue protection and critical infrastructure protection. And all of that really comes together to improve the overall environment. So our board of directors passed a multiagency model in February of 2017, and we implemented that model in July of 2017. So we now have a full year underneath our belt. And so specific to Long Beach, the Long Beach team patrols all of our rail infrastructure, essentially eight stations in the city of Long Beach. The riding trains are patrolling stations and they're responding to crimes in progress. One of the challenges we have before we move to this new multi-agency model as our emergency response times. We're actually getting into the neighborhood about 14 minutes for an emergency response. And you can imagine that's not acceptable if you're on the receiving end of that. And so our partnership with Long Beach and LAPD and now the sheriff, we actually have that emergency response time down to under 5 minutes. And for Long Beach, it's actually about three and a half minutes on average. And so that's exceptional response time for emergencies that occur on our system. I heard your earlier discussion about addressing homelessness. That, of course, is a significant challenge for Metro as well. And so we have as Metro as a whole, we have a number of outreach programs, our law enforcement teams through LAPD, they have hope teams, the sheriff's department have mental health evaluation teams, are met teams and the Long Beach PD. This year we're actually adding two quality of life officers to actually help us conduct outreach at our downtown. It's really where the demand is. Downtown, Long Beach Station and of course, across the line. And so those officers right now, Chief Looney and I are wrapping up the. Session about how we're going to bring them on and how we're going to equip and staff those officers. But they'll be on board here pretty soon. And they're also adding one additional detective to help, actually, with the increased investigative need. The officers are doing an exceptional job on our system. I'll show you later that we've had a very positive impact on crime. And so Long Beach PD requested and we were approved an additional position to help with that additional detective caseload. And Mr. Wilkins, before we move on to this next slide. So I just want to add, just for for the public and some of the folks that as well as we're moving forward on this. So I think it's important to note that, you know, the the single agency model was, I think, around since the inception of of Metro and truly has been kind of the main system that we function public safety on the system on. And so to go to the multi-agency model was a, a significant change. And I know that that's something that was a has been a priority of Long Beach I think for for many years was to get to a multi-agency system. Obviously, I was happy to be on the on the board. So we were able to do that work and work with you and partner with our police department. But it's something that Long Beach has been advocating for, for for a long time. And so I think we obviously have a great relationship with our partners at the sheriff's department. But to have I think, Long Beach Long Beach police officers able to patrol the system within Long Beach has been a very positive development. And I think we're very grateful to Metro for. And the chief is for working with us on that on that transition. And I know that it wasn't an easy transition or I know it also wasn't easy to get to. And so I just want to as we continue that conversation, I just want to thank you for that. Certainly. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I tell you, it's really been a good partnership for Metro as well. I think the results were exceptionally pleased with the results of all of our partners, in particular Long Beach PD. Going back to this this concept of outreach. And with regard to the homeless population, our board and our CEOs really allowed us to really engage in what we call a full court press on homeless outreach. And so we've added we had a pilot project that we ran for a year that essentially took thethree teams at these multidisciplinary outreach teams. And we piloted that program downtown to teams working on our red line. And the results were significant. Basically over 4000 contacts. And of that, they're actually helping about 25% of those folks actually find some form of temporary or permanent housing. So it made sense to expand that and our board directed us to do that. So we now have eight teams that will be working across our entire service area day and night on the bus side and on the rail side as well. And they'll be working in concert with our law enforcement officers, in particular the two additional quality of life officers that we're adding here in Long Beach. So with regard to the entire system, we've seen an immediate positive drop in one violent crime, and that's a decrease by 30%. And that's just the first the first fiscal year from July to June, July 2017 to June of 2018. So very significant. And really, the only difference is we actually have that felt presence on the system. We have officers riding trains, riding busses, patrolling stations. And that's really helping us to have a positive impact on crime. Specific to Long Beach, the numbers get even better. Your PD has done an outstanding job. Your part one crimes are down by half in this first year and you're part two. Crimes are down by 80%. And so we really applaud the efforts that Long Beach PD has engaged in in our system. They've been very consistent with maintaining that presence on the system, and that really is the most effective deterrent to crime. And then when crime does occur, we're very pleased with the response. And so I look forward to our continued partnership with Chief. And I want to add just to that number, if we can take that slide back, because I think it's important. I think there's obviously the perception of of crime on on Metro is something that we deal with all the time. We know that. But it's important for the community to know that, that when you look at the part one and part two crimes and the significance of the of the decrease, that's those are significant numbers that are unequivocally crime is going down on the blue line. We know that we're nowhere near where we want to be, but I think those are significant. So I want to thank you and your team, but especially our Long Beach Police Department and our new transit unit that works on our metro unit. I'm not sure what we call it exactly, but I want to thank them and all the members that work on that as we move forward. So great. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And the first year was really about taking control of some of the more serious crime on the system. And now that we're beginning to see numbers that are in the neighborhood of what would be considered average across the country, we're going to spend more time focusing on code of conduct issues then . Being loud music, things of that nature. So we're going to continue to make progress and we're pleased about the about the partnership. And so next, we're going to talk about the new blue. And my colleague, Mr. Krupp, will take over from here and then will, if you would, hold your questions till the very end of the presentation . We'll be more than happy to answer. Great. Thank you. Good evening and thank you, Councilman Vincent, Mayor of the Anthony Club. I am the director of Community Construction Relations for Metro. I'm excited to talk about a new project that's coming to us next year. We're calling it the new blues, as Alex mentioned, and it represents a really big milestone for the blue line in service to Long Beach as well as to downtown Los Angeles. Before going to the new blue itself, one article talk a little bit about what we've been doing over the last several years to improve the passenger experience on the blue line and to improve the operations there itself. Over the last several years we've actually done station refurbishment refurbishments. We've added new canopies. This includes a second canopy. When there's only one canopy at some of the stations we have repainted all of the stations, added new LED lighting to many of the stations. We actually did an upgrade to the landscaping, switch to a drip irrigation system and added some drought tolerant plants. In addition, we've added pedestrian and swing gates at 27 intersections, new concrete walkways and increased accessibility for those with mobility challenges. In addition, we've actually replaced all of the power stations along the entire 22 mile long line, and we've actually overhauled and are in the process of overhauling and replacing 46 new trains and 38 overhauled trains. And this includes the retirement of the existing fleet. So that leads me to to the actual new blue improvement project itself. What is it? It is a $350 million project that looks at the entire blue line. Its goals are to enhance the safety, increase reliability and operations, and improve the customer experience from both a visual and esthetic perspective as well. Right now, our schedule is looking at starting in January of 2019, it'll take approximately eight months. And in the process of actually shutting down the blue line, we're going to be providing three levels of replacement bus service. One of those levels of service is something that's completely new to the metro system and I think will be extremely beneficial to residents. Commuters down in Long Beach. You just add one thing to that, because I just want to make sure we're consistent with some of the other numbers that we've been talking about. Go back one slide. I think you speak you're speaking specifically here to the to the 350 of these improvements. But the total blue line project itself is about $1,000,000,000. If I look. Roughly if if you add all of the improvements over the last ten years, it's roughly a billion and what. We're going to. So the massive project itself is about 10 billion. About a billion. I'm sorry. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Let's keep going. So our schedules looking at starting in January of 2019 with the shutdown of the southern portion of the blue line. This includes the closure of the blue line from Willowbrook, Rosa Parks Station, all the way to downtown Long Beach. The Willowbrook Rosa Parks Station will be closed during that entire time period. We've actually started construction at that station to basically rebuild it and to create a. Transit hub at that location. During the shutdown, however, the Green Line will remain in operation and commuters will still be able to transfer from the Green Line to the replacement bus service that we're providing. The second half of the project involves a shutdown of the northern portion of the alignment, and this is from Willowbrook, Rosa Parks Station north, all the way to Seventh Street and Metro Center. It also includes a 45 day closure of the Metro Expo Line so that we can do some work on both the excellent and the blue line, particularly the two stations that are closest to downtown Los Angeles. Specifically, we're looking at five different areas. The first is traffic control improvements and train ticketing system. This is a little bit wonkish. It's a little bit behind the scenes and and it's a bit more technical. The track improvements themselves are a bit more physical. We'll see those more visually. We're also doing overhead power improvements, which is the the catalytic system that actually powers the train and then the Willowbrook, Rosa Park stations. Again, it's a complete rebuild of that particular station. And then lastly, we have stationary improvements that I think will be most visible to our customers that actually take the blue line on. A daily basis. The train control improvements include construction of four additional crossover tracks and switches to reduce service interruptions. This allows us to do a better job at operating the blue line with one track operation. It will minimize the delays if there's an incident, either a train incident or security incident. There's things along those lines. It'll minimize those delays for for for travelers so that they won't necessarily be backed up as much. We'll upgrade the existing train control systems. This will bring it up to the most modern standards. What you see on all of our other rail lines, we've also got track improvements, which includes the inspection and replacement of tracks both in downtown Long Beach as well as along the entire alignment. We're doing some special track work at Seventh Street Metro Center in the Expo Junction to minimize some of the wear there and improve the operations there. And then lastly, and this is actually a really critical piece is some pretty high end work to the regional connector. As you know, the regional connector is a major project that's underway right now in downtown Los Angeles. We are adding three new stations, but more importantly, we're actually connecting the metro blue line with the Metro Explorer and the Metro Gold Line. And this will allow you to have a one seat ride that goes from downtown Long Beach all the way out to Azouz, as well as from East Los Angeles. All the way to Santa monica. Last year we had the overhead power improvements, which is the upgrade or replacement of the power system for the entire 22 mile long line. So I mentioned the three levels of bus service that we're providing during the shutdown. The first level of service is a local service, and that's what it looks like. This will hit all of the all of the stations that are closed and connect to the the blue line as it continues to operate. The second level is a select service which had some of the stations and connects again to the blue line that's continuing to operate. And the last civil service is the Express Shuttle Service, which is the Express service that to go from downtown Long Beach directly into downtown Los Angeles. And this is a new service. That we've not provided in the past. This is a. Map that talks a little bit more detail and shows you what those level of services mean for each of the different stations. Again, this is the first phase going from January through May of 2019. This is when the southern portion of the alignment is shut down. Then moving to the second phase, when the northern portion of the alignment is shut down from May through September of 2019. And then lastly, during the 45 day closure of the actual air service, the two stations that will be closed, which includes the Seventh Street, Metrocentre and the Pico station, will be serviced by all three levels of the replacement bus service. In addition, we have a shuttle that will be just providing service from the closed expo I'm sorry, from the Expo Line to those closed stations. Lastly, our communications plan, as you as you know, we are just now rolling out our public communications. Right now we're starting with a very grass tops approach to it. As we move closer and closer towards December, when we start to get closer to the actual closure itself. We'll move towards more direct customer communication. This includes pop ups at each of the stations. It includes a direct mail piece that'll go to almost all of the residents and addresses along the entire alignment. And we'll also be doing a media campaign that will get the word out as well. I think all of you should have in your packets a copy of the fact sheet based on the bill. And we also have copies of the fact sheet available at the entrance. To the to the to the meeting. To the council chambers. And then we also have our new new blue website, which is that metro dot. Net backslash, new blue, where you can find out all the information that I just present. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. We'll keep going and then we'll we'll do our questions at the at the end. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. Council Members. Thank you for for the opportunity to do this this presentation. My name is Vanessa Chavez. I'm with L.A. Metro's Highway Program. And today I'm going to go over an update on the 710 quarter project, specifically recapping the actions that our board took this past February, describing the alternative that was selected by the board and then going over the timeline and next steps for the project. So upon closing the public circulation of the environmental document last August, the board in February with, based on the project team's recommendation, adopted alternative IVC as the preferred alternative for the 710 project. Alternative five C would modernize the freeway 19 miles from Long Beach all the way to East Los Angeles, enhancing safety, improving capacity by adding a lane in this direction to the freeway, improving air quality through a submission truck deployment program that I'll explain in more detail in a little bit. And then adding other complementary programs that are, I believe, unlike any other freeway project, the total cost of the project is around $6 billion, which even including Measure R and Measure M, we don't quite have all that amount, at least for the for the first ten, 20 years. But we do have about $1.3 billion in funding with Measure R and Measure M So we are planning to do some improvements, and I'll get into that here in a second. So upon approving the preferred alternative, our board also passed a couple of different motions. This first one, and I'm going to I'm just going to summarize them, go into a lot of detail, but just for for summary purposes. Motion 5.1, led by Supervisor Hahn, required us to focus on zero emission trucks as a as a policy. So for for the for the clean truck program that we're proposing, she wanted to make sure that it was a phased in zero emission truck deployment program, that we increased the funding from 100 million to 200 million, the funding target for that program that we pursue incentives to accelerate the implementation of zero emission technology. And then we develop a policy recommendation for future consideration of a dedicated lane exclusively for zero emission trucks. There was another motion passed by or spearheaded by Supervisor Solis and recognizing again that we don't have $6 billion for the project, they asked us to go back and develop what we're calling an early action program, which would emphasize projects or prioritize projects that deliver the greatest benefits and improve safety, mobility and, of course, air quality. But primarily and here's the focus of this is minimizing property impacts, minimize or reduce completely, eliminate property impacts, and to develop and enforce a local targeted hiring plan. It also asked us to go back and reevaluate the the mainline freeway improvements after we're done with this this early action program. And with that, we would do with the money we actually have within measure after measure. M The board motion also looks at future planning considerations, for example, for us to develop multiple scenarios for a comprehensive plan to reduce traffic congestion in the corridor, to develop strategies, strategies to reduce vehicle demand on the demand side, alongside the physical roadway improvements, and to evaluate the feasibility of high frequency bus service as well. So moving forward, we have a few parallel efforts. The first one is finalizing the final the final year, even though that sounds redundant. But we've got to finalize the final. We have a timeline, pretty aggressive timeline of December 2018, the end of the year to do that. That would include include the response to comments. It would include, of course, the final document, environmental document. It would include the record of decision in the notice of the termination, everything that we need to actually have a project. In the meantime, we're also looking at recommendations of what early investments we could do in the freeway. Essentially with the money we have, where where do we invested? What is the where do we get the best bang for the buck that we plan to start towards the end of the year and probably take us through the spring of next year? So we knew to recommend projects and of course do some funding prioritization for those projects. And lastly, we have a number of continuous efforts that were were delineated in the motions I just summarized and also an older motion we had from 2015. And these things are planning efforts or policy considerations that we need to continue working on. This graphic here just just illustrates the fact that even though we don't have $6 billion, the totality of the project includes not just freeway improvements, but also improvements to arterial streets, active transportation projects and these complementary programs. Well, the Early Action Program or this early initial investment program will have a piece of each one of these. It's essentially a piece of the larger pie that we're going to try to to to to begin building. So this is just to to to to reiterate that point. In terms of investment on the freeway side, I'm highlighting here in this map, this is this is the freeway. Think of it on its back. I guess the Northeast is pointing to your right. The first half of the freeway is on the top. Part of the map is Long Beach, all the way to the 91. And then the one, two, five to the 60 is on the bottom part of the of the map. And as you can see, there are a number of interchanges. You see those little blue bubbles there. Those are the interchanges that we could definitely improve. And there's a number of them in Long Beach. There are also biking fed crossings over the L.A. River that are proposed new bike and PED crossings that we could improve as well or create as well on the arterial side. Again, there's a number of there's upwards of 77 intersections along the quarter that we identified as deficient or that need need improvements. A lot of them are in Long Beach as they're circling that or in that box. This also includes, of course, what we would do to corridors like traffic calming measures, intersection improvements, not just intersections, but corridors as well. And of course, bike and pet projects that that we can do along along the arterial improvements as well. There is a community health benefit program that, again, I don't think there's any other freeway project that I'm aware of that has this this thing. It's similar to what the ports have done over the years in terms of grants. So it's basically a grant program that we will look to partner with, with health department, health departments or other agencies to deliver. And it would provide funding for things like HEPA filters or clean fuel busses and things of that nature. We also have a sewer emission truck deployment program, as I mentioned earlier. And again, we will be looking to partner with most likely the HMD to deliver this, this, this program. And again, similar to what the ports have done over the past years, providing subsidies to turn over the fleet of trucks, in this case, specifically the fleet that drives on the 710. In terms of language, specifically in the candidate for investments, we have at least seven local interchanges. The Shoemaker Bridge itself, of course, is also a candidate for investment there. We have upwards of 23 arterial street intersections that are candidates for investment and are in arterial corridors like like Artesia Boulevard, like Willow Lake PCH. We have three bike impaired crossings over the L.A. River. Obviously, the community health grants. And then we also have investments that we already started making starting about five or six years ago. For example, there's a small early action cycle program that is about to go to construction probably by early next year. And a lot of those animals are in Long Beach. We're also we're providing funding for the Atlantic Willow intersection. And, of course, some initial funding for the Shoemaker Bridge Project to do the environmental document, then final design. So we'll continue working with public works and other departments in the city to make sure that, of course, the city's comments are addressed in the final year and then moving forward, looking forward to prioritizing funding and hopefully bringing some more investments to the city. And we have a couple more quick slides. There is a 710 parallel effort. This is called the Livability Initiative. We found we applied for a grant through Caltrans to look at complete streets and active transportation improvements in parallel to the 710. Some of the things that the freeway project couldn't really do, Caltrans couldn't really do. So we identified with working with city staff a number of quarters. You can see there in the in the slide. PCH Atlantic the llamo that our candidates for complete streets the city is pretty much already doing this as part of their mobility element. But the effort here is to provide provide resources and information to apply for for the city to be able to apply for grant funding to get these done. So we've been working with the city for the past year. In doing this, we had a number of outreach meetings, as you can see in the picture here that we're pretty successful in. We look forward to wrapping that up and providing the city with the information to apply for the grants and hopefully get some of these constructed. And with that, I'll close and all of us are here for answering questions. Thank you. Let me let me I think I think there's one more slide to maybe I'm looking at the wrong presentation. Is there one more slide? Yeah, I think we've got one more. Maybe there isn't. And I think there's actually I should add one. Little bit, one more update that I have. Okay. I think Sharon's working on that, Mr. Mayor. Okay. No problem. Well, let me just add a few things to the presentation that we have some we have some questions. So I want to just a note, a few things. First, obviously, is you guys are doing are doing great work in all these projects. Some things to note for the public. I think it's really important, I think for us in Long Beach. I don't know that myself or the council or even staff have contemplated enough the huge challenge that the closure, the blue line is going to be for the city. And obviously, we were and we know it's coming and we're anticipating it, but we have not had this type of closure since it opened 25 years ago. And so while the outcome is going to be excellent and we're going to end up with a better system and good ridership and hopefully all the things that we want that that that shutdown is going to be very significant for thousands and thousands of people that use the blue line every single day to get to work, to go to downtown Los Angeles, to connect and go to the airport. And so I know that we're going to do everything that we can to ensure that that is the least impactful as possible for the folks here in Long Beach. And we know from data that we have people from all across the city that use the blue light system to get particularly folks who are going into downtown Los Angeles. And so they're parking at the Willow or the Wardlow station, and there's going to be a lot of disruption around that. So I do want to note one of the kind of exciting developments out of this is that Metro is creating this express system so that during the shutdown, we will be piloting a one stop downtown Long Beach to downtown L.A., shuttle or bus. And and that's something I know that we are interested in keeping once we reopen the blue lines. I've been clear about that, Mr. Washington, and I know other board members have as well. So we're excited about about that. I want to also just add as part of your presentation that. The the modernization of the 710 provides an enormous amount of resources to Long Beach for projects. That has nothing to do with the footprint of the actual highway or the freeway. And so I want to make sure the council is aware that over the next couple of years, the amount of resources available to arterial streets, the reconstruction of all of the on ramp and off ramps up and down the 710, the ability for streets and larger highways and connecting streets and neighborhoods to benefit from the essentially the investments that are going to be made to mitigate the challenges around the 710 are pretty important. And so I know that particularly for the council members that are adjacent to those projects, I know that they want to be involved and learn more about the early action projects. Also to note is that the board was pretty clear that we want the early action projects to begin in the hopefully complete regardless of that next phase, which would be looking at modernization of the actual freeway itself. And those early action projects I know where that we're looking at include the Shoemaker Bridge. They include all of the arterials. They include possible residential streets and alleyways and a bunch of a bunch of infrastructure improvements up and down the corridor. And so I just wanted to note that. And then the last thing I'll note is actually the slide that we have up here. But I know you want to I'll comment on it and we'll just this this car right here, this is a really special I think this car is the very first car in the history of the metro system. And when the metro system opened up, it was connecting downtown Long Beach to downtown Los Angeles. And it was the blue line, of course. This car is called Car 100, and it's actually called the Long Beach Car 100. It was named after the city of Long Beach. And and this car actually rode then Supervisor Hahn and then very young Janice Hahn on the first ride from downtown L.A. to down to downtown Long Beach . And this car was going to be actually sent to a scrapyard very recently. But we interceded the city and Metro is donating this car back to the city of Long Beach. And this car, Will, has been repeated to its original colors. As you can see there, it's being restored to essentially what it was 25 years ago. And the car 100 is going to be returned to the city of Long Beach for, you know, for us to use as as we as we like, which we haven't figured out yet, but I'm sure will end up being used as maybe a restaurant or a museum or both. And so we're looking at that. But the great thing about this is it's historical because, of course, this entire metro system we're talking about kind of started the rail system on this car. And the fact it's named after the city, I think is really special. And so we're we're excited to partner with Metro on this project and and many others. And so thank you to the staff. You guys are doing a great job. I have a series of questions and comments. So when I want to go ahead and go through those. Okay. And let me begin, Councilwoman Mongo. I just want to tell you, as a prior blue line rider and member of the community that really supports all that you do. I just want to thank you for the big leaps and bounds that you have done, but also as a representative of the East Side. A considerable number of my neighbors will not be driving all the way downtown to take the Express bus because they were the types of riders who used to just sit down wardlow and get on at the Wardlow station or depending on parking, hit the Willow Station. And so I know that there are capacity and budgetary and other things, but if there are any opportunities to expand a bus service or at least to do a survey that we could help you with, to find out interest, to find out if we could get enough riders to make it in that neutral. The number of van rides I'm hearing going up, we've already seen additional vans start flooding the city, neighborhood streets because people are clearly going to plan to carpool, which is great. But whatever we could do to help encourage the express ridership, our officers here to stand at the ready and help you. We have several community meetings that this is being discussed at starting later next month and so I'm sorry later is three in August already me on the summer went fest later this month. So these are important things and we look forward to your partnership. So thank you for all that you do. And I'm still looking forward to the sound wall promise 14 years ago that your team is the first to really step forward and help us guide that through on the 605 Freeway. The neighbors have been waiting a long time and they're very thankful to have the ear of Metro and the support that has taken so long. But they weren't vocal and now they are, and now they're engaged and we're very excited for all that work. So thank you. Thank you, Councilmember. Now. Thank you very much. Great presentation. Thank you for that tonight. I just want to mention those crime numbers are incredibly impressive. So kudos to Chief Luna on that. I'll just follow up on. The sound wall. Great news. And the northeastern border of my fourth district is a four or five freeway. So right after we get that 605 for our project and I'll handle your list, our wish list tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you. And I really appreciate the presentation. I got to say that much of what has been presented, I've been aware of through other regional boards as well, and I'm no stranger to most of the representatives here from Metro. And so welcome to Long Beach and thank you for the great work that you all do to keep us moving throughout L.A. County. I'm especially pleased to see the work being done on safety and security. So, Mr. Wiggins, thank you for your presentation. And and particularly along the blue line, we hear a lot about perceptions and we need to do more to to change those perceptions with the blue line, the work on I-70 and oversight. I mean, the Corridor Project Metro has been great to work with and great partner with the city and I'm looking forward to hopefully fast tracking that because it's a vital project for the city of Long Beach. I think the fact that so many representatives are here from from Metro giving this type of presentation speaks to what we've talked about a few years ago as a priority. And that was making sure that Long Beach had a seat at the table at the MTA board. And so obviously, our mayor is there as a voice for our city. And it certainly, I think, has improved the relationship and responsiveness from Metro to the city and vice versa. And so I'm glad to see just this this relationship moving forward and the attention given to to the city on these important projects. Thank you. And Julia Brown, you a pleasure to work with. All right. Thank you, Vice Mayor Andrews. Yes, fine. Thank you very much. First of all, I congratulate every one of you for the job that you're doing and will continue to do. I just sometimes think about the big thing that really kind of came to my eyes was the percentage I would with crime. You know, you look at 80%, you know, you guys are really going to run the car dealership out of business because I know I would stay on the blue line if it's that safe. Congratulations, every one of you guys. Great job, you and Commander Luna. Chief Luna and your group. You guys got a safe here in Long Beach? I'll stay on the blue line. I'm giving my car away. Thank you. Giving and giving it away. It's a serious car. Okay. Thank you. And absolutely true. I think the blue line is the changes are significant. So thank you for that, Councilmember Pearce. Great. Thank you so very much for your presentation. I know I wasn't here the whole time, but I was multitasking for another project for tonight, so apologies for that. I did get a chance to see some of the presentation. And I know as someone who was a blue line writer for many years, it is a place I always felt safe on. And the challenges are perception. And so I'm really excited that we're doing this overhaul. My district is the port in downtown over to the east side. And so really when we talk about putting 3000 new residential units in downtown and trying to get people out of their cars, Metro is a key player in that conversation. And so I'm really happy that Long Beach has a seat at the table and that you guys are working with us and to see all the great improvements from the 710 to this option as well. I do want to echo Councilmember Mungo's comment about not just having a downtown Long Beach. I mean, you guys know because you've been through the process. But for me to get from downtown just out of Long Beach takes use to take 30 minutes. And so as we are talking about additional stops, that might be an option. I know that a lot of families and people that work in downtown L.A. would appreciate that if that's an option. And then I love the idea of bringing the Long Beach car back. If you guys remember, whenever we phased out our fire boats, I wanted to keep them and do a museum with them. I was a little too late before they went to auction, so I really love the idea of capturing some of Long Beach's history and in highlighting how transit can be key to cleaning our energy and saving the memory of of the great things that happened along transit. So I look forward to my staff working with you guys, look forward to making sure that our residents in the downtown and in the second District really are aware of these changes and partnering in that and that outreach and education. So thank you guys for all the hard work you do. Thank you, Councilmember Ringa. Thank you, Marion. I want to compliment you on your work with the Metro. I think it's an important part of the work that is being done with our corridor issues and as well as our container movement along the 710 freeway. And communication is big and I'm glad that you have an outreach plan obviously in place, very pleased with what's going on with your other mobility issues there, with the bicycle paths and walking paths and and of course, the modernization of the A17, which is huge. The 710 goes right through my seventh District community as well as the blue line world question. People have been asking me about a retaining and retaining a soul that could be along the stretch between well, right before right up right around the word low station going north there. It passes through a park and a couple of schools. And so the the blue line really makes a lot of noise, if you will, and a song, while I would be very beneficial along that community because there are two residential areas around that park, you know what I'm talking about? The surrealist park. Excuse me. Yeah. So I mean, I know Councilman Rossin is well aware of that project as well, but any updates on that or is there anything in the in the works? And as far as being able to mitigate some of that, some of the noise that comes out of the blue line in that area ? Yeah, I believe originally we had considered that in within the 710 program. But eventually I think we recognized that it was more, like you said, more of a blue line four or five issue. So I can go back and check. The last I heard we had look, we, we were going into preparing design for for a while. We were moving forward with designing the wall internally and Metro. So I'll go back and check the status of that and get back to you. Get back to this to the city. And I'll tell you the truth. The reason we're really concerned, because during the summer we have concerts at the park and you hear the blue light coming down all the time in the middle of a performance. So, I mean, it would be a very good benefit to the community if we could have a song Water that would mitigate that noise in regards to the A17 and the modernization and what's going on there. There's there was a lot of concerns raised this past year about homes being lost and the possibility of of getting homes moved and families displaced. Could you give us just a little bit of an update to where we're at with the actual modernization, the freeway along that stretch? Right. So as I mentioned in the presentation, the we need to get through the finally air first that that's what makes the project a project. Right. What we're going to do right after that is look at which parts of the freeway, which interchanges, as the mayor mentioned, we could build first. The good news is that the for the early action interchanges, the we don't really need as much or in some cases any any residential properties. The residential properties may. Only are needed for the the freeway, the freeway interchanges, the big ones, 91, 91, seven, ten, four or five, seven, ten. And we don't we're not planning to do those as part of the early action program. So I have some numbers here in front of me. I mean, I'm looking at it and we can probably get away with almost no residential property impacts with most of those early action projects. And I me add to that I think also they know that customer we were very involved you know chairing or I 17 committee of the council and that it's our goal obviously at the board that when we enter the when we get beyond the early action projects which will obviously this is a multiyear project. Well, we feel confident that there won't be those residential impacts. Once we get to that next phase, we can have a larger, broader conversation about what our resident initial impacts may be. But it's our goal at the board not to have any residential impacts. I mean, that that that's our our obviously our goal. And so those are conversations that will that will continue as we as we move forward. And so working with the community and the council, when we get to that point, is going to be very important. And in terms of next steps, we do need to prepare the board motion. We need to take those project recommendations for the early action projects back to the board, probably early next year. And so they get to see and evaluate what are those impacts and and hopefully, you know, the minimization of those impacts. Thank you. Thank you for the update. And I'm looking forward to our continuing relationship to working with you as we move forward with this very important project with the city. And I want to echo my councilmembers comments regarding public safety. Great kudos to the police department. Kudos for that. The Mayor and the city in joining Mitchell in providing a better and expanded public safety service to the to the Riders of Loveridge. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councilmember Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to just chime in and first, thank you for coming down. Thank you for the quality presentation and just acknowledge and say that I'm a big fan of Mr. Washington. I think he has a very highly qualified, qualified and diverse staff. I think we we sort of lead most transit agencies in that regard. I want to also sort of shout out the tap car program. I think it's an amazing program for integration busses, trains, bikes, one system of run rate system. If there's a change one board, I think it makes sense that full integration I want to acknowledge I see a Kenneth McDonald, our Long Beach Transit executive director there. And I think we should continue to look at how we can better integrate our bike share in Long Beach with with Metro and Long Beach Transit to have one shared system. I also want to just raise up and I know many of you've heard me talk about this there. You know, 17 is a great project, but there's a number of massive projects in the region that all converge in one place. That's the intersection of the 710, the intersection of 91, the intersection of the L.A. River and Artesia Boulevard. They all have in common that they're all in some form of some stage of modernization that will impact one community. And that community is North Long Beach, the committee I represent. And so I've said it before, and I'll continue to say it. I think there needs to be a dedicated focus, a working group, a dedicated vision program, dedicated to figuring out how to rate the environmental justice wrongs of the past when the infrastructure was originally built. And I'd like to see more attention there from more than this group, all the agencies that are that are players in that conversation. But again, thank you for what you do and continue the good work. Thank you, Councilman. And let me just I just close and then open it up to this public comment. Let me just close by again thanking the team. And I do want to mention and close by saying something that was mentioned by the councilmembers and it is Metro's goal to have a fully integrated system. So I think the vision that we're working on right now is how do you with one tap card or in the future an app or what have you, are you able to, you know, jump on a bike, share bike and then get on a Long Beach transit bus and then get on the blue line? And it should it be one card, one system. So everything is talking to each other. And and for those are may not be aware of. I think it's I learned a lot when I joined the board. Metro also operates, of course, the countywide bus system, but there are also 17 municipal operators within the countywide bus system. Lumbee Transit is one of the larger of these operators. But Long Beach Transit is working every day with Metro so that the metro system and the transit system is integrated into one master regional system. And so everything that we do at Long Beach Transit affects Metro and everything that Metro is doing on their bus system, many of which of the busses go into Long Beach, by the way, affect our system. So we're trying to get to a point where everything is more integrated and that we're trying to make it easier for for riders. And so the other big goal that's happening in the next couple of years is the focus is shifting as we're spending , you know, enormous amounts of money on the rail systems, which is great, that the a lot of interest is shifting also to the bus system. And we're trying to figure out how we modernize and save the bus system because we are as you know, the bus system is in massive need of of not just an upgrade, but just a we need to give it more attention so that young, younger people feel that the bus system is accessible. And right now, a lot of folks don't feel for those that use the bus system, they use it often. But for those that don't use the bus system, it's very difficult to get someone to actually get on the bus and ride the bus to get to another location. And so limited transit is engaged right now in a major review of where all of the bus stops are across the city. Where should they go in the future? What are the main stops, where they should be? And Metro is involved in the same exact effort and it's all trying to link up to create a new bus system that will be rolling out in the next couple of years. And so this will have a big impact on us in Long Beach. And so I think it's important for us to be very engaged on these issues and understand what's happening with with transit as we move as we move forward. So thank you all. We really appreciate your guys, you guys being here. And I saw you brought the whole team, so that's good. Thank you, guys. Thank you very much. Is there any any public comment on Metro? Please come forward. Very good. You click as the address. I was on that train. And the return trip when it opened up. My office used to be at seventh in metro at 700 south lower. While there were some very interesting plans that have been brought forward. That I think are very positive. There is one. Major issue that I think they're. Overlooking and I. Referenced before to all the members of the board at the Washington Street Station. Where currently the blue line goes down St Peter's St. There should be and I originally was calling it the Crow Line, which is a direct line over to Union Station. Couple of weeks ago, Homer Simpson pointed out to me that a better name for that would be lickety split. You could get to Union Station within 45 minutes and then connect on and be out the East Jesus and beyond. In fact, you could finish up your business. At the metro headquarters. And thumb your nose at your partner. That was your. Colleague that was coming in and stuck. In the tunnel. At seventh, the metro. And that's an inherently problem that will never, ever, ever, ever go away. So the answer is a straight what I refer to as the now the lickety split line. In addition to that. There is no need except in dire emergencies, to shut down the transit line to do the needed repairs. You restrict those to. 4 to. 5 hours at night. Starting maybe at 1230, 1234. And cease the work at maybe 415 in the morning period, except for dire emergencies. You do not need to shut. Down the lines, period. The repair and upgrading of line that has to be institutionalized. The repair and the upgrading of lines is going to be an ongoing basis period. In fact. So behind are, I think that we probably will face a bittersweet situation of not being able to handle the 2028 Olympics. That's the bitter end. The sweet end is if they get their act together. They had their act together. We should be able to have it planned for 2032, which would be very nice and sweet, because that would be the hundredth anniversary of the Olympic Games. It's the MTA has some leadership problems, notwithstanding a highly credible mayor there is in the city of Los Angeles, certainly one of the most qualified minds in the state and in this country. But the MTA has too many metal twits. They're holding it back, in my view. Thank you very much to the next speaker. Good evening, Michael Cauldwell First District. I just wanted the one thing I didn't see in any of the presentations. This is going to be very, very small. There is always an issue. With transfers between companies, between Long Beach Transit, between Okta. And. Metro. Can this be addressed quickly? Or possibly because sometimes when a writer like myself, I commute to be in a park every day when I go to work and I have to transfer to Orange County or if I want to take a few trips out, sometimes the companies do not sync up. I would say it's very, very small. I know other people have more important things, but if that can be addressed, I think this is going to be great for Metro. I mean, I enjoy Metro. And also let me congratulate you that I just now found out. That there's free wi fi that metro like. I'm like, whoa, what's this? Free Wi-Fi? Ruby. I can use my my devices on Metro. Great. So cool to. That. But like I say, with the transfer situation. Sometimes. Busses don't sync up. So if that can be addressed as well and fixed. People can get where they need to go better. Sometimes the drivers don't even see people, you know, if if it. Takes up a few minutes just for any driver on. Any transit system. To take a quick look around, make sure no one's coming. And then they can take off and continue. That would be great, but good job, Metro. You're doing a great job. Thanks. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Thank you very much, Andrew Carroll from the second District. I really love that presentation. I'm glad to see all the money that we're investing in our. Public transportation system. I think public transit is a. Really great institution for us and we should do all we can to support it. I think one of the issues that has been addressed lately, but I would encourage the city council and anyone in this room to address it further, would be the issue of perception versus reality. Because the blue line is actually a lot safer than is perceived to be and with all that has long reputation as being not very safe. But all sorts of studies. Show that it's. Actually safer to be on the Metro than it is to be in some of the surrounding communities that the Metro passes through. That's one. So when it comes to when people's perceptions are based on reality, you can invest lots of money in changing reality, but that won't change people's perceptions because people's perceptions aren't based in reality. Right. So I would like to see more money being spent on changing the perception of the blue line and also public transportation generally. And that's something all of us in this room can do. It doesn't have to wait for. I saw the phrase grass top funding. That's a new one. I don't know. As a metaphor, that doesn't really work, I'm sorry to say, but I appreciate what that's going for, which is that if we can get these institutions at the top level to do something about it, and I'm glad to see that we are, but we can also do a lot at the grassroots level. Everyone in this room, we have to ask ourselves, look in the mirror. When's the last time that you rode the bus? You know, when's the last time that you wrote The Blue Line? And you have to ask yourself that question. When's the last time you got on a bicycle? Right, and went to the bus stop and put your bike on the bus and then rode the bus to the line and wrote the blue line to work. And then it late at night came back home. All of us in this room can do a little more to give up our cars and get on the blue line and increase ridership. Los Angeles actually has one of the most extensive public transportation systems in the country and even around the world. It stacks up pretty well in America. And yet the perception of it is that it doesn't have that same accessibility. So there's a lot that we can do to change these perceptions. And it starts with letting people know that the blue line is safe. But ultimately it starts with all of us in this community using the blue line more, using the busses more, including our city council members who all have a good enough access to press and stuff that they could easily ride the bus to city council. Get some cameras on there. Talk about the new system and talk about how fun it is. Talk about safe it is. Take the bus home, you know, take it back, take it to council on Tuesday, take it back home. And that would be a great way. Get some press on it, encourage people to use the system. And then finally, to echo Councilwoman Mongo statements, which I totally agree with, which is that the bus lines running east to west are definitely something we really have to improve in order to access the blue line and then go north or south. So I think there's a lot of work we can do about that. But on that question, again, we have to ask ourselves in this room, what are we willing to give up in order to have more public transportation? Because space is at a premium in Southern California. And if we want to have more public transit, we might have to give up some highways, I mean, some lanes for cars. And that's not something a lot of people are prepared to do. But if we can make these sacrifices in the mirror, then I think we can do a lot to improve our blue line and transit. Thank you. Thank you very much. And I'll just add, Mr. Carroll, I think that one of the great things that Metro's working on is on the blue line when the shutdown happens, you know, which I think is obviously no one's looking forward to, but is a necessity when we reopen the system, there's going to be a major push to kind of hit refresh. And I think you're going to see it, by the way, the stations look, the landscaping, the the kind of computer systems that are going to be installed at the stations, the fact that all the trains will be new, that the technology will be modernized, and the marketing push and kind of kind of collective push to have that fresh start and let people know that, yes, this is a safe system and that we want folks to ride the blue line and we want transit to have all those connections, I think is going to be an opportunity for us, which is something that we should take advantage of as we hit, you know , the end of next year and we reopen the blue line. Yes. Hi, Karen Recién. I'm a resident of the First District and I haven't been able. To drive for about 15 years. So I take the bus almost on. A daily. Basis. I just want to commend the police department for their taking over the line. I mean, there's been a huge improvement on the nefarious activity around this train station since they've taken over the patrolling of the system. I also want to support Rex Richardson. I go all over the city and most of you know me. I go to a lot of community meetings. I can get to just about everywhere. Except for some of Suzie Price's district, which is local, and Rex Richardson's area. Rex Richardson's area has the worst bus service. Of any of the parts of the city that I have been to, which is just about all of them. And part of it is because of the interaction. Metro. I tried to go to the concert at the for the municipal band in your district. I couldn't get there. The metro bus had a break down, so they dislodged all the passengers and they. Wouldn't take any. More. So I wasn't able to go, I'm sorry, I tried. Overall, I think we have a wonderful bus system. It's not easy for people to learn how to work the system. And I know that both the MTA and Long Beach Transit are trying to work on that with their programs, particularly geared towards seniors who are heavy users of the busses. And I commend everybody's work to try and bring this together and to have an integrated transit system that supports everybody so we can all enjoy events across our city in every council district. Thank you very much. With that, we have a motion in a second to receive and follow the report. So members, please go out and cast your votes. Motion carries. Okay. Thank you. Thank you again to the metro team for for being here. We have our budget hearing next. I know that Ms.. Sharonda Jackson is here. She had an announcement. Let me was we set up for the budget presentation. If she wanted to come up and do that and then staff and we can just set up the budget presentation. Thank you very much, Mayor. And more so than an announcement, it's actually a thank you. I just wanted to say thank you to the mayor, to the vice mayor for assisting us with the memorial service for my cousin, which was held last Friday. And in putting the memorial service together, it made me think that there are hundreds of amazing stories about out there, about Long Beach residents, people who grew up here, who lay claim to the park systems, who want to talk about what Long Beach did for them. And we don't really know those stories. I gave you. A copy. There of the program just so that you could read it for a minute to see what this amazing man accomplished. He was very humble, but he loved his city and he came back to Long Beach whenever he could. I spent many years at the airport taking complaints. I think it's time for us to put together a system that allows people to brag, to talk about the great things that has happened in Long Beach, how Long Beach has affected their lives. So to the mayor, I'm offering a suggestion. If we want to put together some kind of a communications roundtable or something to explore, how can we learn all those great stories? How can we then share that back to the public to inspire our young people? I run across people. Commerce. I spent time in Selma, Alabama, and there was a young man who was a principal dancer for for the Alvin Ailey dance team. He was for Long Beach. We met in Selma. I had never knew anything about him. So I'm making a suggestion that we take lots of complaints. We have all kind of communication avenues. Let's do one that allow people to to brag, to talk about the great things that have happened in Long Beach and so that we can tell those stories on a regular basis. So thank you again for your help with the memorial service. And I think we need to toot our horn a little bit more than what we do. So thank you very much. Thank you. I want to let Vice Mayor Andrew say a few words. I can't tell you what a great job you did for the memorial service. I know what you're speaking about. And I'm I would hope everyone would hear what you just said, because we need to brag about Long Beach. You guys, this is a strong beach, and everyone needs to know how tough we are. Thank you so much for what you did. And it's far beyond athletics. I mean, we have Long Beach residents who are helping to run Wall Street, who are doctors, who are lawyers, who are at major universities. And we just have not kept in touch with them. But we need to do that. That's a benefit for us as a city if we know where our people are. We never know who we might need to be in contact with out there in the larger community. So thank you so much. Okay. Now we're going to back up to back up our agenda to our first hearing tonight, which is our largest of our hearings over the next few weeks. Tonight is focus on three major presentations. We have our continuum of public safety, which is our obviously our our public safety continuum and which involves a few departments. And then we also have our kip, which I know is of interest to the council as it relates to infrastructure of all of our streets and sidewalks. And so this is obviously the opportunity for the Council to engage on the largest part of our budget, which is public safety as well as our infrastructure budget.