I guess someone should have mentioned it here earlier, this whole thing with Gloria Molina asking for the new Eastside extension to be named in Spanish, but I didn’t think it was a big deal. I keep forgetting about the hatred people have for Spanish and Spanish speakers. In 2009. In a city of mostly Latinos, where half speak Spanish. I was planning on being outraged at the backwardness, call some assholes out, but fuck it, who cares? It’s just the monolingual ethnic white enclaves grasping at anything as they build up the virtual gates to stave off the inevitable: you will have to accept us. And the way we speak. Oh, I bet they are longing for those restrictive covenants now.
This shit is old and tired and repetitive. I’m used to it. I grew up with it. A second class citizen in my own country. My primary language mocked, derided, condemned. Taking the brunt of irritation as some annoyed monolingual bureaucrat is forced to talk through a child to communicate with his Spanish speaking parents. Authority figures that treat you like a criminal just because of an East Los accent. Newbies to the city thinking I’m the foreigner since they don’t recognize that accent. Even as other romance languages signify upscale. Yet a symbolic gesture to recognize one of the main languages on the Eastside, somehow that’s considered offensive? Efaak eyuu.
I’m not going to get mad. Para tal baboso, sus babosadas. Look it up.
What you don’t understand is that we have defensive mechanisms, built from experience, to deal with this continued attack on our identity. What you don’t understand is that your streak of hostility will not touch us.
Sas!
Nice one, toma!
And what’s up with our Eastside native Chicano mayor trying to rid himself of his Eastside accent? You don’t see Ahhhnold doing the same, he still says things like Cal-eee-foh-nya (which is correct but not to English speakers).
Anyways, it’s hard to trust the mayor when he sounds as if he is a man with no home.
I feel ya compa. I put up with that sh*t four days a week when I go to work over on the westside.
I really don’t understand why people are upset. The people who are upset don’t even ride the train. I think it’s great.
The reason I think it’s great is because when a certain part of the Gold Line which will now be called La Linea de Odio has more accident than the other parts of the Gold Line owing to Metro’s safety plan in the area having some guys out there telling people to not step in from of the train, we’ll know exactly the part they skimped on via construction and safety.
Just like now, which part of the Gold Line do you think the most people get hit in, the part that goes through South Pasadena that’s nice and protected with proper signage or the part that roars through certain sections of Highland Park right in front of people’s front yards that they cut in half in order to build the Gold Line.
(Oh and take a look at the new death trap trains they are testing on the Gold Line, they stop when going up hills, nice… they are more tiny inside but yet manage to be heavier, fabulous, that seems totally safe to me)
I would like it if they also gave the Blue Line through South LA a different name, so people can see the environmental racism in this country. They can see the section people keep getting hit in.
People think Gloria is stupid, no she’s not stupid. She’s smart. She knows how Metro is she’s protecting her constituency. When people keep dying in that section and that section is called La Linea de Odio people will know, they will know the way it was built as a part that goes through instead of for the people of the neighborhood the fact that is has a name will protect those people.
On accident number two on the La Linea de Odio what is Metro going to say? If it was just the Gold Line they could just pretend like certain things where happening.
Browne
Wow!! What controversy!! I remember hearing that the Gold Line was supposed to be a fully underground subway- but some Supervisors on the Westside over ruled that somehow!! We got ripped off big time!! Just like always- what’s new??
Were you there at the MTA board meeting! That was reducilous. Alot of banter back and forth. They want both names there Spanish/english. It’s especially annoying that they are trying to pull that they said that it will confuse people. I am pro la linea de oro shoulndt even be a question. That’s interesting the name coincides with the accidents that happen there. I now know.
People want to talk about unifying LA with the same language how about unifying LA by treating everyone who lives in LA the same. Lets stop this symbolic bullshit of screaming about how English should be the only language because it unifies us. No it doesn’t. When you feel one culture or language is superior over another regardless of how noble you think your reasons are it’s called being prejudice and if a system does it, it’s called being racist.
If the people are so concerned about a divided LA how about they fight from something real? How about they blog about something real?
How about the same level of care for kids on the Eastside and kids in South Central in regards to education as there is on the Westside. How about building trains and intersections with the same level of care in all sections of the city not just in the rich ones, not just in the places where upper middle class and people with graduate degrees live.
It’s all of this talk about equality and money, but yet the same people are always the same people who have to deal with inequality and shitty quality of service and if one time they say they want a little bit of acknowledgment then people with power lose their damn minds.
Like this is going to cost that much more. Metro tows cars off the freeway for 27 million annually and people are complaining about a name change wasting money.
I think the thing that bothers me the most about all of this is the insincerity of it all. Just be honest, just say what the real issue is and don’t say it has to do with the cost, because it’s not going to cost that much more money.
Don’t say it has to do with unity when you really don’t give a damn about issues of diversity.
You know what costs money, Cubic’s contract in regards to the TAP card that costs lots of money. That waste of technology that does nothing costs a lot more money for what seems like to me nothing.
Browne
It’s not as confusing as staying on the Red Line and having it turn into the Purple Line if you’re on the wrong train. Just look at the map. At least this doesn’t go to one of two places and then you realize you got on the wrong train. It goes one place. It’s like Sunset turning into Cesar Chavez. What’s so confusing?
The purple/red line insanity. That is truly confusing. Why doesn’t Metro just call the Red Line Noho and the Purple Line Wilshire.
Now that is some confusing insanity that should be complained about, because even though I take the train all of the time sometimes I do end up on the wrong train. And someone asks me about that 9 out of 10 times when I’m on either of those trains.
And shortline busses that don’t say they are shortline busses. The 53 has a shortline that even the Metro operators don’t seem to know about.
Browne
I agree with Browne about the Purple/Red thing..
Hey, I figured out how to ride the subways & trains all over Europe all by myself in just a short time and everything over there was mostly in non-English languages! …And I’m just a dumb Mexican!;)
Just call it whatever you want.
That’s why the Metrorail map that they post in the station has color, not names for the lines. That’s one reason they named the lines by color in the first place, instead of names, so that people who spoke ANY language could immediately refer to the line without having to learn some foreign word.
And Browne, they did not cut people’s yards in half in Highland Park in order to build the Gold Line. That’s a former Santa Fe Railroad line that was built around 1890, before those houses even existed (most of them). Learn your history.
I find riding the BART in San Francisco a LOT easier than trying to use the Red Line to NoHo.. so far I haven’t gotten on the wrong train.. but there’s always that moment of paranoia when I think I did. I hate that.
As for the Gold Line.. why can’t the entire line be called “Linea de Oro”?? It seems silly to rename it piecemeal.
You know even if they didn’t cut people’s houses in half that gold line through the Highland Park is pretty shitty. (I love how they say how quiet it is, and how they only have bells at intersections so when it hits you can just sneak up on you, maybe trains should be loud.) It takes about four regular steps to hit the track and to protect the kids in the neighborhoods Metro has pebbles, abosolute bullshit.
So Scott regardless of the reason that they gold line is so shitty, even if I got the cutting the front yards in half part wrong the other part is pretty crappy especially in comparison to the Mission station which is right next door.
Browne
Glora Molina is an idiot. That gordita india just made using the Metro system that much more user-unfriendly. As if our Metro system wasn’t a big enough joke to begin with, now we have 2 names for the same damn rail line. Why aren’t the rail lines running through Little Tokyo, Koreatown, or Chinatown in their respective languages? Doesn’t Roybal have enough places named after him in LA?
You know if you have something to say about Molina you need to be alot less of a sexist ass in the way you say it (I’ve noticed this on lots of blogs.) And you know, the Gold Line through the Eastside is built like shit which is pretty much Metro’s style for building through majority working class poc neighborhoods:
http://www.thebusbench.com/2009/04/the-santa-fe-railway-wasnt-so-nice-either-the-gold-line-inequities.html
You know Molina wanted the Gold Line to be built as a subway not at grade on the Eastside. The mainstream press has a vested interest in people focusing on her and thinking she is the devil.
If you want to get mad at something get mad at how Metro is passing out flyers for the Eastside as their safety measure while South Pasadena gets barriers, soundwalls, signs, the barriers get barriers. You want to call someone names call Roger Snoble a name, call the corporate interest in LA names, call Riordan (who is still pulling strings some dirty names.) Getting mad at Molina for this is simply stupid.
I’m personally happy she is calling it La Linea de Oro it will make it much easier for me to google and find info when the death rates on that section of the Gold LIne will be markedly higher than in South Pas and Pasadena.
Browne
Shine it on Browne, Chavo let he/she slip through the cracks, he/she is a well known troll who is always looking for attention. He/she calling someone an idiot and a fat indian says alot about who he/she is. This sad person has undoubtedly not taken or lost it’s medication and should immediately dial 911 for help and hide all sharp objects.
Very Simple,
Your “gordita india” comment is worthy of deletion, but I’m gonna let it ride, for now. But it’s inappropriate and wrong. I have my issues with Molina as well, but your avenue of criticism is a dead end.
Browne, if the Gold Line was not built through ELA I’m sure you would be pissing and moaning about the Eastside not having enough transportation options. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t with your type of entitlement mentality. Just be happy the friggin’ rail line runs so close by — most Angelenos would be jealous!
Very Simple,
This is not about the Eastside. This is about that everyone should be given the same courtesy.
And what does this entitlement mentality mean anyway?
Does it mean that if you’re not happy to take the crumbs people give you that you are an ingrate?
Lots of entitlement going on with rich people who got their money stolen from Madoff and get new stories on how unfair it is. (Middle class people get their money stolen everyday and no news stories on them.) I think lots of entitlement is going on with these banks that fucked up our economy, but yet they are getting helped out with MY TAX DOLLARS and they feel that it is owed to them.
I think lots of entitlement is going on with people who feel that people of african descent and indigenous descent shouldn’t ask for anything and just be so thankful that we’re not still in Mexico or Angola.
I think you need to look up the word entitlement and explain to me how the definition of entitlement applies to anything that I am said in my prior comment.
Browne
Wow, Very Simple. When I saw your name in the recent comments I’d figured you’d come back to do the very simple thing, and apologize for your crude remarks about Gloria Molina. Guess not.
To the mods: Very Simple sounds an awful lot like someone that me and DQ are all too familiar with at another blog. If he is who I think he is, he’s undoubtedly a troll who’s here to do nothing more than disrupt the place.
“Does it mean that if you’re not happy to take the crumbs people give you that you are an ingrate?”
Crumbs? You call a billion-dollar light rail project “crumbs,” Browne? That is *exactly* the sense of entitlement problem you claim to know nothing about
We should all be so lucky as to have a billion-dollar “crumb” like the Gold Line extension in our neighborhood!
The light rail’s being subsidized by everyone, not just the rich. Browne’s tax dollars are going toward it, too. It’s not a hand out. Hand outs are what’s happening on Wall Street. Businesses that have failed, read, failed, due to their own incompetency, on their knees and begging Washington for a handout. Where’s the anger, simple one? Why is all of your anger reserved for people in East LA? You used a racial slur to insult Gloria Molina. Any racial slurs toward the entitled Wall Street gorditos? Come on. Reach deep down inside. I’ll give you 20 bucks. Just open up a paypal account, and 20 bucks will be wired to you if you just say one hateful, bigoted thing toward the entitled babies on Wall Street. Come on, you can do it!
“Handouts”? Who said anything about “handouts,” Rob?
I will call out any sense of entitlement regardless of race, class, etc. or whatever else you want to project on my statements
The Westside is also another big bag of entitlement, if that makes you feel any better, Rob. They had their chance with the original subway proposal years (and millions of tax dollars) ago but blew it due to typical Westside NIMBYism. For that, I feel Westsiders should be responsible for the difference in construction costs associated with the new subway design
Now about that $20 dollars . . .
LOL. You’re not even close. Remember, you made a racial slur toward Molina. The requirement for your 20 bucks was to make a slur toward the wall street fat cats too. You did take a shot at West LA, and that is progress! But since you reserved any racial slurs toward the west siders, could you at least take back what you said about Molina? If so, the 20’s on its way.