LA Times: From Visionary To Ostrich

Any history of LA has to acknowledge the LATimes' historic role as cheerleader for growth. Whatever would make LA bigger, safer, more powerful, there was the Chandler family and the LAT, boosting the idea.

Without the LAT's support, one could argue that the Owens Valley would still have its water and the movie Chinatown would never have been made. The Pasadena Freeway certainly wouldn't have been the nation's first. And the port at San Pedro would not be the nation's busiest.

But that was then. Here's the LAT today:

But the main objection to [long freeway] tunnels is more philosophical. It's a truism in Southern California: If you build it, they will drive on it. New freeways (or expanded old ones) tend to lure more people into their cars, and the new routes quickly become just as jammed as the old ones. There is no reason to think the same thing won't happen with underground freeways. Building tunnels does nothing to get people out of their cars, a necessity if the nation wants to reduce its reliance on oil and Southern California wants cleaner air and less traffic. If taxpayers are going to pay the cost of building miles-long tunnels, it would be wiser to put trains in them than automobiles.

Miles-long tunnels from the Inland Empire to Orange County, or from Palmdale to Glendale, offer tens of thousands of drivers relief. But who at the LAT editorial staff cares? None of them have probably ever even been in Palmdale, and they only pass through Riverside and San Bernardino on their way to Palm Springs.

Even though these tunnels will lead to increased fuel efficiency and better air quality by keeping traffic moving -- something the LAT rants about whenever the GOP proposes an energy or air bill -- they can't bring themselves to think that big.

They'd rather continue their pie-in-the-sky championing of mass transit, i.e., mega-billion dollar subsidies of economically infeasible public transportation systems. It's just another way for them to say "no," because LA's own failed and costly experiments with mass transit don't bode well for approval of future systems.

We're in a region facing huge growth pressure -- tens of millions of new residents are coming our way -- and the new LAT has lost all vision, all leadership, all hope.

Somebody with some positive energy, please buy this paper.