Hollywood and Mass Transit: Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?

It's been a tough week. Variety passed on this, so I'm back at the bar. And as usual, what's on my mind is the way mass transit is perceived by the public and what we can do about it.

You see my screenplay about boy meets girl on the North Hollywood Metro Red Line and how they go on to become LA's most famous couple also isn't getting any love from Ari Emanuel over at William Morris Endeavor. And that's even after I gave it the working title, An Inconvenient Truth II, and signed Sarah Palin as the girl.

"My name is Joel and I'm a mass transit addict. I need help."

Just imagine a movie in which mass transit is portrayed positively and cars and fast motorcycles have to get in line for more than a passing reference. Though Popeye Doyle stalking a dealer in The French Connection on NY's El is among my favorite action film memories, it's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three that's probably fresher in most moviegoers' minds. And frankly the remake is hardly helping attract new riders to Metro.

That's unfortunate because it's time to celebrate the pro-environment, pro-community, good-for-the-economy and anti-gridlock reality that a positive portrayal of urban mass transit can help create. And it doesn't need to be a futuristic vision of fast trains that most of us won't live long enough to see. For the economists and wannabes out there, Ezra Klein's excellent June 21st piece, How Much Does a Gallon of Gas Cost? in Newsweek is just another reason to get out of the car and onto a more efficient mode of transportation.

To be fair, mass transit needs a makeover so that Hollywood and TMZ recognize it as something deserving of the studios, directors, producers, actors, agents and writers' attention. And mass transit coalitions like Move LA need swag and gala auction premiums that can hold a candle to the Ford Escape Hybrid giveaways that have become staples at some environmental organization fundraisers. Hey Bob Iger, how much would you bid for a Platinum Tap Card good for unlimited rides for a year on Metro's trains and buses?

I dream of someday seeing a million dollar gala for mass transit packed with A-list celebrities, studio heads and LA's leading major donors at Barker Hangar or an art-filled estate in Beverly Hills or Brentwood. And instead of the de rigueur Toyota Prius Hybrids and electric vehicles dropping their celebrity cargo off at the Green Carpet it will be clean compressed natural gas Metro buses that shuttle the guests from their homes to the event. For those who live too far from a Metro stop, they'll carpool to the gala in something smaller than a Hummer or Lincoln Navigator.

Here's the rub. Mass transit isn't all that sexy (yet) and hasn't caught on in Hollywood, but we need Hollywood to give Metro an extreme makeover. Don't get me wrong. Metro's already made great strides in overhauling its image and deservedly attracting new riders. But we're not there yet in the grand tradition of the studios.

I admit it. I have Heal the Bay envy. Just look at the outstanding job HTB President Mark Gold has done building a movement in defense of water quality and Santa Monica Bay. With an A-List Board of committed, informed and prominent business leaders, celebrities and others, Gold's Heal the Bay is a template for non-profit environmental advocacy and leadership. Anyone who can get families and teams of corporate volunteers to spend a morning picking up cigarette butts under the Santa Monica Pier or pulling old shopping carts and more lethal stuff out of Compton Creek has my vote for the new Commissioner of Water. All that has to happen first is the Siamese LA Department of Water and Power surgery has to be successfully completed. Which is of course neither likely, or in the eyes of some, desirable, as it would create an entirely new, and not necessarily more efficient, bureaucracy.

Buddy, we can use your dime to make mass transit the next Toy Story 3.

So if you're a studio head, writer, agent or A-List celebrity, email me and we'll get you in front of the camera making the PSA for the 30/10 mass transit and jobs initiative today. And if you are a major (or minor) donor we can sure use your advice, support and Blackberry for organizing our next fundraiser.

We look forward to welcoming you on board. Please watch the closing doors.

 

 

 

Follow Joel Epstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thejoelepstein

Comments

[ProudLiberalDan]

02:41 PM on 07/12/2010

I ride transit everywhere, have a monthly transit pass, am a professional actor and pledge to you that if I ever rise to a level where someone actually is interested in what I have to say, I will happily and enthusiastically do all the PSAs for transit that you wish.

The 30/10 plan and beyond CAN work and WILL work.

[antaeus]

05:17 AM on 07/12/2010

Why can't I shake the perception-trumps-reality vibe? Shopping carts hauled out of the drainage basin means we're ready to spend the afternoon swimming near the Santa Monica pier? Sure. Just like self-satisfied applause for metro stations that must first be driven to in order to be used will do anything.

Patron-stars and lady-bountiful-celebutantes cannot fix this structural problem. The physical comfort of European cities is largely a result of comprehensive urban planning in the early and mid-19th century. Boulevards, serious public spaces that are actually within walking distance of where you live, multiple green spaces scattered across the city, and effective transportation with a surfeit of metro stations represent a massive commitment to urban living. L.A. is nowhere near that. In order to have stars communicate something, even they must first have something to say.

[Joel Epstein]

12:17 PM on 07/12/2010

Thanks for your comments. My response: Even dwarfs started small. LA is not without some planning history and if you look at some planned transit lines like Expo to Santa Monica they follow former transit rights of way that reflect settlement patterns in the area and key destinations like the beach. This city has some significant public space, a number of important business districts (downtowns) and well planned public transit should reflect this - just as it does in Europe which of course is still building and changing/growing. As for the involvement of patron stars, I'm not talking Mel Gibson. What I'm looking for - informed celebrities and creative community leaders like Norman Lear. Look at what he has done over the years in terms of changing public opinion about the Constitution, racism, etc.

There are a number of excellent scripts already written for those ready to step up. Thanks again.

[antaeus]

03:09 PM on 07/12/2010

Mr. Lear is a hero, and I'm all for everyone lighting his candle rather than cursing the darkness. But the answer we're needing is aggressive use of eminent domain powers, and I don't mean a give-away to resort developers. Billboard blight is another good example of the pernicious and widespread hostility to congenial urban existence that L.A. presents, but as long as we refuse to reexamine our notions of "private property" we are doomed to half measures, feeble steps sideways, and 50-year plans that become obsolete before they're launched.

[Fleurdamour]

04:32 PM on 07/08/2010

The NYC Subway, the Chicago El, the London Underground, the Paris Metro - mass transit is VERY sexy. Nothing else on earth gives such an opportunity for people watching and observing life close up. On the Metro, I got a first hand glimpse of daily Parisian life and street fashion and enjoyed a tour of the city from the ground up. The attendant at a ticket booth on the El was a dead-ringer for our First Lady, and a nice Chicago bus driver went out of his way to tell me the most fun things to do while visiting his hometown. On the NYC subway, I've seen a movie star and a woman in the early stages of labor, and I've seen Elvis impersonators on Capital Metro in Austin, TX and on the Deuce bus in Vegas. I've heard poetry, music and crazy talk on the trains and buses of major cities. I've played with dogs and small children. I've seen amazing art and breakdancing and heard dozens of languages in subway stations. I wrote a book mostly during my commute on the Staten Island ferry and subway, and I wrote another book using my commute time on the Los Angeles bus and Metro Red Line. I've read newspapers, magazines, and books, balanced my checkbook, and blissed out to music while letting someone else drive. Sometimes it's a drag when the bus doesn't show, but it's still better than sitting in traffic wasting time, gas and money.

[Joel Epstein]

01:45 AM on 07/09/2010

Here here! Thanks for the comments! More Angelenos need to experience what you have on mass transit.

[rocker686]

12:18 AM on 07/12/2010

It still will never work in LA and is destined to be a freakin' money pit.

[Joel Epstein]

12:19 PM on 07/12/2010

Thanks for reading. We've got to try to address the crippling gridlock. Mass transit is a major piece of the puzzle. If we take the best lessons from around the world and monitor those with their hand on the checkbook we will be fine.

[ProudLiberalDan]

02:42 PM on 07/12/2010

People with an inflated sense of automobile entitlement are afraid that their excuses for NOT riding transit are drying up.

Most of their fears are baseless anyway.