L.A. vs. the Valley

Jim Bursch at West L.A. Online is peeved at the Daily News for some language in today's news story about the jaw-dropping cost of extending the Red Line all the way to Santa Monica. He's got a point, since the graf sounds like vintage Ron Kaye (though I don't know that the DN editor got involved in the story at all):

We're sorry, but this just irks us. In today's Daily News story about the cost of a Wilshire subway, the third paragraph reads:

Critics say the subway's high price would take an enormous chunk of Los Angeles County's resources for the benefit of one area when entire swaths of the county - including the San Fernando Valley - are starved for mass-transit alternatives.

Editors at the Daily News routinely seek out "critics" who they know will espouse a particular point of view to add an editorial slant to a news story.

In this case, since the "critics" are unnamed, we believe they are probably referring to their own editorial page:

So while the San Fernando Valley and other transit-starved parts of the region make do with inadequate bus lines, the tony Westside would get the Cadillac of public transportation in a Wilshire Corridor subway to the beach.

We pointed it out then, and we'll point it out again now, the "transit-starved" Valley has two subway stations, Metrolink train service, a dedicated busway, and carpool lanes on the 405 freeway.

Here on the Westside, which block for block produces more tax revenue, jobs, and has more people, we have none of what the Valley currently enjoys.

More L.A. vs. Valley: LAist editor Carolyn Kellogg doesn't get the San Fernando Valley's complicated relationship with Los Angeles or vice-versa, but her commenters do. She also doesn't seem to know that the traffic sign logo I'm using for The Valley Observed is real—or that 1.3 million Valleyites live in Los Angeles—or that I do too. She can catch up on the Valley's kissing-cousin connection with L.A. here or here or here—or just enjoy some fun quips and quotes. Sample: "Smogadena … Pornadelphia … Unknown Actorville" — Jay Leno.