Of the many items that haven’t made it to the mayoral campaign agenda, one of the most important is how the growing number of rail transit lines will reshape Los Angeles.

The candidates, City Councilman Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel, each have advocated more light rail and subways. Garcetti has been more specific, calling for the start or completion of 10 new rail lines, including a tunnel under Sepulveda Pass connecting the Valley to West L.A.

But as is the case with much that happens in the city, none of this seems to have dented the consciousness of a populace that doesn’t pay attention to civic affairs or projects until the earthmovers and dump trucks show up. Understanding this, Garcetti and Greuel focus on hotter subjects.

Some residents, however, are good at pre-emptive action, such as those fighting a proposed new runway at LAX or people in my neighborhood opposing a huge apartment-retail-restaurant complex at the Expo line rail station to be built at Sepulveda Avenue and Pico Boulevard.

The project, by developer Alan Casden, is a perfect example of how train lines will change Los Angeles from a sprawling flat city to a denser, high-rise one. To find out what the city is going to do about it, I dropped into a meeting April 2 of the Westwood South of Santa Monica Boulevard Homeowners Association at St. Timothy’s Church.

Instead of a mayoral candidate, the homeowners got a couple of city planning department officials who spoke in the impenetrable bureaucratic language favored by so many city planners. The officials wanted to talk about process. The homeowners wanted to talk about the 638 apartments; five buildings, one 15 stories high; the 1,566 residents; and the congestion expected at 27 area intersections. The latter figure was in a draft environmental impact report.

Rather than listen to a tedious discussion of how the city will plan for future development, the homeowners were interested in the here and now, specifically Casden’s political clout, as seen in city approval of his big developments in Westwood and elsewhere. “Casden has been able to steamroller everything with money and power,” said one of his critics.

What was missing here and in other city policy discussions was an examination of what these train lines would do for—and to—the city. In the Valley, there is talk of converting the popular Orange Line express bus to light rail, better able to handle the growing patronage. A Crenshaw rail line will be built and light rail is changing East L.A. The subway extension will remake the neighborhoods in the Wilshire corridor.

It’s definitely something for Greuel and Garcetti to discuss. But the subject deals too much with Los Angeles’ future to attract attention in a campaign where both candidates are worried about a short-term gain of votes in an election less than two months away.

LA Observed photo: Expo Line construction near Pico and Sepulveda.

On my way to the courthouse for some interviews Tuesday, I glanced across the plaza at the county administration building and thought of two terrific county supervisors, Edmund D. Edelman and Kenneth Hahn.

Edelman came to mind because Steve Lopez had called me about him the night before for his column, which appeared Wednesday, on the affectionate and informative documentary made by the retired supervisor’s wife Mari Edelman. The documentary, “The Passion and Politics of Ed Edelman,” will be shown on KOCE’ PBS SoCal at 7 p.m. Thursday.

Thinking about Hahn is unavoidable. The county building was named for him after his death in 1997, the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration.

The hall reflects the secretive nature of country government. A Mussolini architect in Fascist Italy or one of Stalin’s favorites could have designed it. It is severe, unimaginative and massive, with long hallways inside that make it hard to find public officials. And when I reported from there about a quarter century ago, it was all but impossible to get those officials to share information with reporters or the public.

Hahn was different. He loved publicity. His agenda was often set by hot stories on page one of the Los Angeles Times. When his colleagues, who didn’t much like him, were doing something he considered wrong, he ignored secrecy customs and told reporters of the foul deeds. I was the beneficiary of a couple of instances of his defiant sharing.

He accomplished much for his south LA district, where he was a white politician beloved by his black constituents. In an area without hospitals, he built Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital, a jewel when it opened even though it has been degraded by later generations. And in an area without adequate public transit, he sparked the building of the Blue Line light rail.

Edelman also accomplished great things but he was different than Hahn. He accepted the county tradition of secrecy and personally did not seem to enjoy publicity. I disagreed with him on a secrecy issue, when he and the other supervisors met behind closed doors to draw up a reapportionment plan that would drastically change the boundaries of Edelman’s district to make it easier for a Latino to win. One of our reporters was thrown out of a meeting room where, as he had discovered, the supervisors were plotting.

But Edelman, now seriously ill, got a lot done behind those closed doors. Patiently working with his supervisorial colleagues, some of whom were incredibly bull headed and backward, he pushed through one of the most important reforms in county history, the children’s court, where children, caught in the juvenile justice system, face the judges in surroundings that are much more child friendly and humane than they were in the past. It’s named after him.

And today, as the U. S. Supreme Court ponders same-sex marriage, it’s timely to remember how he stood up for gays and lesbians in a time when they hovered in the shadows. A great civil libertarian, he forced the West Hollywood sheriff’s personnel to stop their overbearing, often brutal treatment of gays and lesbians, who were scorned or ignored by most political leaders.

All that’s part of the dynamic, often tense social history of Los Angeles County and Mari Edelman captured it well in her documentary.