Why is everyone so mad about Metro’s K Line extension vote?

Good morning, it’s Thursday, March 26 and you can expect summery but not scalding heat.

Today’s edition covers the Metro K Line extension fight, the sentencing of an anti-ICE protester, a major Meta verdict and more.

The Metro K Line extension has been pitched as a possible skeleton key that could unlock L.A.’s mass transit future. 

The extension, which would connect the station at Exposition and Crenshaw to the Hollywood Bowl, would link four Metro rail lines and 10 of the county’s busiest bus lines, and make destinations like Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the Grove accessible by train. 

But nothing about mass transit in Los Angeles is ever easy. And as the board prepares to vote on the path of the project today and a proposal to accelerate its pace, community groups and advocates are accusing Metro board members and each other of illegal backroom dealing and spreading misinformation. This is Los Angeles, so the usual threads — race, class, historical injustices, private grudges and dueling futures — are all tangled into the fight. 

On one side are transit advocates, who argue that a small group of Mid City homeowners risk slowing the project for years. But over in Lafayette Square — a leafy, historic Mid City neighborhood that became a Black enclave in the 1950s — residents fear the long-term effects of tunneling under their homes, as well as the loss of a nearby pharmacy and grocery store. 

Metro has said it is committed to relocating the grocery store. In reports, the agency argues that tunneling 80 to 120 feet under the neighborhoods in question will be deep enough to preclude any noticeable noise or vibration and transit systems have utilized similar methods under historic homes around the world. But residents say they still have questions. 

Complicating the matter are issues of history and trust. Three-quarters of a century ago, construction of the 10 freeway displaced Lafayette Square neighborhood association president Lauran Smith’s grandparents from Sugar Hill, a wealthy Black neighborhood in West Adams, she said. The family moved into their Paul R. Williams-designed Lafayette Square house in the 1950s — the same home Smith now owns and hopes to pass down to her children. Hers is far from the only Lafayette Square family that’s followed a similar trajectory, she said. 

Theoretically, funding for the project wouldn’t be available until 2041, making all of this a long way off. But the city of West Hollywood has sought to expedite that timeline through a funding mechanism that would essentially allow the city to borrow billions of dollars against the future growth in property tax revenue that the project would eventually create, in order to fund it sooner.

Mayor Karen Bass, meanwhile, waded into the melee with a statement Monday night saying she would vote to advance the project “full steam ahead” but also introduce a motion to support “community voices” — a slightly confounding position that infuriated advocates, who feared Bass’ motion might delay the whole thing. 

WeHo city officials have said that leaving the Mid City section up in the air could create too much uncertainty for the funding mechanism to work, jeopardizing their ability to speed up the project by more than a decade. 

The matter is complicated by the fact that two members of the Metro board live in or very near to Lafayette Square.

Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker, Bass’ appointee to the board and a Lafayette Square resident, recused herself but still attended multiple community meetings on the topic. Advocacy group Streets for All accused Dupont-Walker of lobbying behind the scenes despite her conflict of interest. Dupont-Walker declined to comment, saying she wouldn’t be speaking until after the vote. 

A second Metro board member, County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, also recused herself because of her home’s proximity. 

The Metro board will take up the future of the K Line extension at their 10 a.m. meeting today. 

One of the most high-profile cases federal officials brought against protestors during the immigration raids in Los Angeles last summer ended in federal court Wednesday. 

Christian Cerna-Camacho was arrested at gunpoint and charged with assaulting a federal officer following a protest in Paramount on June 7. 

Then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem later touted his arrest, with her agency posting a video of it and warning: “If you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Cerna-Camacha eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of assaulting a federal officer. On Wednesday, he was in federal court to learn his fate.

Prosecutors said Cerna-Camacho rallied others to come to a federal building in Paramount, where he violently tossed a firework and water bottle at law enforcement. In one scuffle, he also punched a Border Patrol agent, prosecutors said.

Cerna-Camacho’s lawyer, Scott Tenley, disputed that his client’s jab ever actually contacted the agent’s face.

Prosecutors had asked for eight months in prison. But U.S. District Judge Cynthia Valenzuela sentenced him to one year of probation. In explaining the lower sentence, she cited his remorse, his lack of criminal history, his stable work as a union carpenter and his strong family ties. The judge also cited “the troubling nature of [his] arrest.” 

Federal agents pinned his car between two unmarked government vehicles, even though his wife and two toddler-age children were inside. Officers pointed assault rifles at him even though he surrendered peacefully, the judge noted.

“The circumstances of the arrest suggest a vindictive effort by government officials to impose extrajudicial punishment,” Valenzuela said.

As the judge spoke, Cerna-Camacho wiped away tears. Afterward, he hugged his lawyer, who said his client was happy to put this behind him.

META VERDICT: A Los Angeles jury found Instagram and YouTube liable for designing their platforms to addict young users in a landmark case that could reshape what kind of accountability tech companies face around harms caused to children. 

WHERE TO EAT: Michelin announced six L.A. restaurants as additions to its California guide, including Lugya’h by Poncho’s Tlayudas at Maydan Market in West Adams and Little Fish in Melrose Hill. (Fun L.A. fact: Little Fish cofounder Anna Sonenshein is the daughter of Raphael Sonenshein, who quite literally wrote the book on how L.A. city government works.)

GOLDEN STATE: The California Sun has compiled an “ultimate outdoor bucket list” for California, from an often overlooked coastal redwood grove to a rural Napa Valley hike “that closely resembles the Provence region in the south of France.”

THE STORY OF BLACK LOS ANGELES: A nearly 100-year-old Black history collection — with thousands of newspaper clippings, photographs, magazines and other items — is now housed at the Baldwin Hills Branch of Los Angeles Public Library.

WILL YOU ACCEPT THIS REAL ESTATE? A 124-acre Simi Valley equestrian estate used to film reality shows like “The Bachelorette” is on the market for $78 million. Many of home’s working-man touches, like the private polo field and horse barn with individually heated stalls, were put in place by the prior owner, Metro Networks founder David I. Saperstein. (You may remember Saperstein from another L.A. real estate tale from a few decades ago, when Saperstein’s then-wife Suzanne famously modeled the family’s Holmby Hills mansion after Versailles.) 

REMEMBER THAT NEW OLYMPICS BRANDING? For those unsatiated by our quick dip into it yesterday, Olympics watchdog Alissa Walker has a whole lot of thoughts in Torched LA.

For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, a timely message for Opening Day from @hunterowens in #vanityplates.

AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “A Little Tooth” by Thomas Lux.

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