There's an excellent fable I just made up about a swan and her baby swans. The swan loves her baby swans very much and protects them from all bad things, like climate change, mercury poisoning and the unctuous worm. But this worm isn't your everyday unctuous worm: It's a magical unctuous worm that promises unlimited transportation for the swan's family and friends and neighbors and housekeeper to anywhere in all the biome for eternity. The catch is that the swan must give her consent to the unctuous worm's digging 20 feet beneath her nest, which he will do regardless of her opinion.
The swan, unfortunately, is Beverly Hills Unified School District, whose nest is my school, Beverly Hills High, where I will be a junior in the fall. This swan and her nest, whose idiosyncrasies and anxious moms I know all too well, loudly and publicly declined the unctuous worm's offer. The worm, Metro's westward subway extension, would be disruptive and dangerous, they say, because of earthquakes and terror threats and other bad things.
A group of school board members, district parents and sheep (for the fable's sake) have rallied together over the cause, publicizing it with lawn signs ("NO SUBWAY UNDER BHHS") and a theatrical YouTube production -- both local specialties.
This group's worries, which were exaggerated in the said video, have primarily visceral roots. So in order to provide well-founded facts, which Metro didn't, the Board of Education conducted a rigorous study, recruiting industry specialists to dig an enormous trench across my school's campus, simultaneously providing an excellent case of irony: The thunderous trench digging was probably more disruptive than the actual subway digging (which would occur multiple King Kongs below ground) would be.
Through studying this giant hole, teams of geologists verified that there aren't any active faults running through the campus, which means that earthquakes aren't particularly threatening to the area, which should have stamped out the group's worries. But, being visceral, the local group's negative sentiments continue to persist.
Before going on I must note that the group's intentions are noble, and I both admire and appreciate the great lengths they are willing to go to protect my safety. They truly feel in their veins that the building of this subway is bad. But still, I must also note that 40 percent of Americans feel in their veins that God manufactured man. The problem with gut feelings is that they repel contrary evidence (e.g., science) and are fueled by even the slightest hints of verification (e.g., rumors).
The subway extension is inevitable -- it will provide a great good for a great number -- and for it to exist, it has to exist sub-something. If this stretch of the subway doesn't go underneath Beverly, where there isn't an active fault but may be flammable gas, it would likely go underneath a nearby stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard, where there might be an active fault or more flammable gas or Indian burials.
Metro wants to make money, and the local activists know that; they have on occasion used the idea to their advantage. But what they often seem to forget is that Metro's best interest also happens to be the Los Angeles population's best interest. The path of the subway is slated to go beneath my high school because it's more convenient for Metro's customers, the citizens of Los Angeles, and is therefore thought to be more lucrative. Beverly Hills is notorious for its parochial worldview, which I'm using as a euphemism for selfishness; and in a hypothetical Annenberg museum on the subject, this would be exhibit A.
Besides the fact that the subway extension is in the best interest for countless Angelenos, fighting Metro is expensive and will probably be fruitless. The unofficial Beverly Hills way, it is said, is to sue. And suing drains all involved of money and can result in a war of attrition, which my school, despite its fancy name, cannot afford. It also, in effect, drives up the cost of the sued party's service, public transit in this case, which many of its customers cannot afford.
If things keep going the way they are, with Beverly Hills spending copious amounts of money to delay the improvement of public transit, as an experienced fabler, I prophesy that my swan, Beverly Hills Unified, will take after the Natalie Portman swan and work itself to insanity and self-destruction. And I just couldn't live to see that happen. The board meetings are too hilarious.
The PTA Council and the Beverly Hills Unified School District have gone above and beyond their call of their respective call of duty to help advocate for the students and staff of this district and I would like to thank them for all that they have done; this is advocacy at its finest. I would also like to thank the Beverly Hills City Council for standing by the School District in their fight against the subway. I would like to end on the following note: those that I know who are against running the subway under Beverly are not against running a subway through the City of Beverly Hills. We believe running the subway under Santa Monica Boulevard is a better option.
Max Schwartz
Beverly Hills High School, Class of 2012
Think about it, the Geologists BHUSD hired to do the trenching to dispute Metro's findings proudly testified and displayed in May that they trenched in depths of 25' below the school surface to uncover their findings. And not one time during this- despite the BHUSD threat of Methane regarding Metro tunneling underneath the campus- were there any harm to the students when this was done and this is trenching and open excavation of soil in a Methane gassy area on the school site 25 feet below the surface!
The key concern that Beverly Hills has is that if a Fault Line exists- as there is evidence that they are -that a substantial amount of BHUSD bond money that would go towards the structural rehabbing of the school to comply with Earthquake codes BEFORE BHHS can be expanded by one square foot.
It is from AB300 back in 1999 here's some links for you to review and have some insight on;
http://www.dgs.ca.gov/dsa/AboutUs/ab300.aspx
http://www.documents.dgs.ca.gov/Legi/Publications/2002Reports/FinalAB300Report.pdf
Once you connect the dots its all clear as day to what the real truth to this is.
Beverly Hills High School is our City’s legacy and our community’s pride and joy. But Beverly – with the exception of the newer Science and Technology Center – is old and has not been renovated in 30 plus years. To preserve it for future generations, Beverly Hills residents passed a $334 million bond measure. The bond money would be used to retrofit the school’s older buildings and build new structures, all of which are needed. If the MTA were to run a subway under the high school, the Beverly Hills Unified School District would need the MTA’s approval before they renovate or add on to their property, which uses additional time and money. It may prevent them from renovating entirely.
So why is the MTA taking a risk that is not necessary? The MTA says that the faults on Santa Monica Blvd prevent it from building a subway station there. Yet they have also said that subways can be built anywhere, even in earthquake zones. If subways can be built “anywhere” then it can be built safely on Santa Monica Boulevard.
We do know there is a threat of methane gas. The gas is not just a significant risk for the students; it could harm all the parents, teachers and administrators in the school’s various buildings, everyone in the subway cars, and possibly even those in the neighborhoods around the building. Beverly is also the City’s only disaster center. If something happens to those tunnels under Beverly, whether a tunnel collapse, gas leak, or gas explosion, the residents will not have a large, official place to congregate in case of an emergency. Furthermore, the tunneling will be 50 feet underground, or less, which is extremely shallow for a subway. The MTA plans on tunneling 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including when students are in classrooms. This can and most likely will disrupt the learning environment.
Another obvious mistake by Mr. Licht is his statement about the trenching studies conducted at the Beverly. The trenching does not prove that tunneling would be safe. The trenching proved that there are no active faults under Beverly, which means that the MTA’s geological studies saying there are active faults are wrong. The MTA did not perform their own geological testing in the City of Beverly Hills – under the high school property and under Santa Monica Boulevard. How can we trust what the MTA’s studies show when they have nothing to back them up? In other words, if the faults under Beverly are not active, then the faults under Santa Monica Blvd are also not active. This leads me – and others – to believe the MTA is most likely wrong about Santa Monica Boulevard.
If the MTA were really concerned with the interests of the people, and they should be given that the MTA is an agency working under the California state government, they would not be asking people to pay more for a less effective subway, which is exactly what Licht and other pundits like him seem to favor.
This isn’t about anxious moms or selfish residents, it’s about the entire community. The people of Beverly Hills should not have to worry about the safety of their children and the future of the city’s only high school. The safety issues are real and are yet another reason the MTA should avoid tunneling under Beverly.
Fables are nice and at times appropriate, but fables are based on fantasy and light on facts. The complicated and emotional dispute over the Westside Subway Extension through Beverly Hills High School cannot be simplified to a fable, in spite of the fact that some supporters of the route would like to think so.
It is a shame that misinformation is being spread by people who are not educated about the complicated nature of this dispute. For example Danny Licht, who, like me before my recent graduation, is a student at Beverly, recently wrote an article about the Westside Subway Extension, but did not double check his facts. His “fable” contained numerous inaccuracies, which do nothing to solve this problem or encourage productive debate about the issues.
One such example is his claim that the path of the subway should go beneath Beverly because “it’s more convenient for Metro customers” and is more lucrative. In fact, if you read the MTA’s reports, they show that running the Purple Line under Santa Monica Boulevard to Avenue of the Stars instead of under Beverly to Constellation would be cheaper, have more riders and would allow a faster commute. Indeed, a station at Santa Monica and Avenue of the Stars would put riders closer to the mall and would be a more convenient walk for students at Beverly who want to take the subway. The Santa Monica alignment also runs under the public right of way, which provides additional benefit.
The Beverly Hills Housewives are engaging in a very thinly veiled act of NIMBYism, yet try ever so hard to ensure we think it isn't NIMBY politics. After all, they shudder at the thought of THEM having access to their city (nevermind that BHHS is smack up against the border with THEIR city).
Aside from that, thanks to standing up to the hysteria in Beverly Hills. Science is greater than rumors, good point!