More Whistling in the Wind

There is a term in the entertainment business for what audiences are expected to do when a movie, TV show or play asks them to accept an implausible situation. It’s called “suspension of disbelief,” as in “Yeah, this is ludicrous, but just roll with us, OK?”

Now several state lawmakers have embraced the concept. They expect the public to believe that there is a legislative solution to the problems of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its board of directors. For example, a much-revised bill by state Sen. Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) would change the makeup of the MTA board.

The board would be cut from 13 to nine members, with the mayor of Los Angeles, the L.A. County supervisors and a group of municipalities appointing three each. This figures to be no more successful a formula--in other words, not at all--than the last three state legislative attempts to solve the problem of transit oversight in the Los Angeles Basin. Earlier, the Legislature gave us the Southern California Rapid Transit District and the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission.

The MTA would benefit from a courageous, nonparochial board, but Polanco’s bill won’t provide it. There have been decades of selfish behavior by the local leaders who have populated the agencies’ boards. Transit officials have to grasp the blueprints offered by the federal government and the courts. It’s as easy as connecting dots, since the most important decisions involving California’s transit systems have been made in Washington and in judges’ chambers, not the opulent downtown headquarters of the MTA.

Here’s the simple mandate: Finish as much of currently planned rail construction as possible; improve bus service for the transit-dependent, and leave everything else for another day, or decade. If Sacramento could fashion a bill that would force compliance with that dictum, its words would be worthy of support.