Comments
AROUND LA - Olympic and World Cup host cities maximize existing sports venues for the Olympic Games by improving mobility routes: Streets with bike-lanes, sidewalk widening for walkability and wheelchair accessibility. Also set up mobility networks, such as shuttle connectors and rail links to METRO rail systems and subways including bus terminals.
City Council motions show that starting on April 2026, it has passed resolutions to use particular funds to improve our mobility routes citywide. What are their sources of funding?
Voters have approved Propositions countywide for decades to facilitate public transportation improvement. Refer to chart below.
|
Proposition |
Approved |
Sales Tax Amount |
Program |
|
A |
1980 |
1/2 cent sales tax |
Plan & Operation |
|
C |
Anti-Gridlock |
|
Transit improvement |
|
SB1-Road Maintenance/ Rehabilitation Program Special Fund |
Enacted in 2017 for state highway/local streets |
Increases per gallon fuel excise taxes, diesel fuel sales taxes, & Vehicle reg. fees. |
Road Maintenance & Rehabilitation: Traffic control devices, drainage & stormwater capture |
|
Sidewalk Repair Program |
8/25/2016 |
No Tax— $31M per year |
Class Action Lawsuit Willits v. LA City |
|
Street Damage Restoration Fee |
|
|
|
|
Measure M |
2016 |
½ cent sales tax |
Improve freeway traffic flow, expand rail improve system connectivity |
The LA General Services Department (GSD) was contracted to improve Street mobility routes on Sunset Blvd. Presently, crews of five or more, include carpenters, masons and laborers to reconstruct the corners of intersections, stretching for two-miles on Sunset Blvd. from Figueroa to Quintero Street -- where Vin Scully Avenue is located midway to the entrance of the Dodgers Stadium. The crew captain overseeing the project said that the LA Department of Transportation (LADOT) was funding the project in preparation for the 2028 Olympics.
Separately or in part, “LADOT is using Measure M funding as part of a broader Sunset Blvd/Cesar Chavez Safety & Mobility Project,” ladotlivablestreets.org. As required by Measure M, Funds must be used to augment, not supplant, other city programs. The Cesar Chaves Safety project, “aims to close access gaps from surrounding neighborhoods directly to Dodgers Stadium entrances to improve pedestrian walkability to or from the Stadium entrance, or to catch the Dodger Stadium Express at Sunset Blvd and Vin Scully Avenue.” Then, this connector would transport the fans to either the train station downtown or a designated transportation terminal.
The Dodgers stadium’s neighborhood is Echo Park of which commercial center is Sunset Blvd-- a corridor that in some parts barely provides the standard-width for sidewalk walkability due to the area’s terrain of steep hills. When the hills were graded with houses on them at the start of the 1900’s, the grading process left 30-foot cliffs facing Sunset Blvd. Down at the street level, the average sidewalk width creats a walkability challenge in some cases.
What is Measure M? In November 2026, LA County voters approved the LA County Traffic Improvement Plan that imposed a one-half cent sales tax. to be used by city departments to improve a host of infrastructure challenges dealing with traffic, public transit, and mobility. This would make our city more sustainable and livable in terms of freeway traffic flow, expansion of rail and rapid transit systems by accelerating rail construction and building new rail lines, enhancing bus services, and improving system connectivity.
The total amount received from Measure M for the 2025-26 Adopted Budget was $113.89 million. A description of the many more possible improvements is listed in the FY 2025-26 White Book: Measure M Local Return Fund Adopted Budget, Page 919-924.
(Connie Acosta is writing as an individual, though she is a board member of the Los Angeles Neighborhood Council System, and board member of the Neighborhood Council Budget Advocates.)
