German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portuguese
Japanese
Korean
Russian
ChinesePure genius
These two words sum up Valley Glen resident Martin Korn. In his letter to the editor published January 24 in the Daily News … well the whole letter is not as important as this one single sentence:
Finally, the suggestion to take a bus to public transportation is insulting.
WOW!!! This really ought to be an internet meme, and Korn should be nominated for a MacArthur Foundation genius grant.
To preserve this wisdom for the ages, the entire letter follows the jump.
Blundering MTARe “MTA could provide 240 more spaces” (Jan. 18):
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority continues to blunder with Red Line parking. In North Hollywood, the installation of the Orange Line removed an entire parking lot from service. There is no parking at any of the three Orange Line stations east of Van Nuys. Why not enforce the “MTA patrons only” parking rule at Universal? Every day, Universal employees and visitors cross directly from the free MTA parking lot to offices and the theme park. Ticketing those abusers would generate revenue to pay for more parking spaces.
Finally, the suggestion to take a bus to public transportation is insulting. The Valley is a suburban community. Close and convenient lines are not available to most homeowners. More Park and Ride lots would do a lot to lower the number of miles driven by Valley residents.
Martin Korn
Valley Glen
Discussion
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Please keep discussions civil: exercise Troll Controll.
I agree that the MTA parking lot should not be used by those not riding the Red Line, so Korn does make a good point there.
And while what he said about taking public transit to public transit is certainly worthy of an internet meme, when you read his full letter I think you see that the quote has been taken out of context a bit. I’m not familiar with all the bus service in the Valley, but I do know it’s always being cut, so maybe it is hard to get to a bus from one of the residential suburbs. Plus, as we know the buses aren’t the most convenient way to get around, especially when there’s a transfer involved… if it could take someone 5 minutes to drive to a park-and-ride lot to ride the Red Line downtown versus having to get on a bus and take 30 minutes to get to the Red Line, I don’t think it’s terribly unreasonable to find it mildly insulting. I appreciate that Korn is trying to use the public transit system, and they he sees the convenience of the Red Line vs. driving (which is great because that convenience exists), but if he has to take a bus to the Red Line station his commute might be just as long and uncomfortable as if he drove Downtown, why would he bother?
MTA has got to remember this type of thing as they attempt to get non-transit dependent riders… it’s all about opportunity cost for these folks. And I’m on there side. As much as I hate parking lots, if it gets more people riding the Red Line and off the freeways, then all the better. A 5-minute drive to a park-n-ride lot is way better for the environment and traffic congestion than if Korn gave up due to lack of parking and just drove his car downtown.
So Mr. Korn, if you are reading this, I don’t think you’re so dumb!
i’m not sure i agree entirely with wad’s mega pwn or with camino’s rebuttal. the thing is, and i don’t live in the valley so i can’t be for sure here and therefore i will bow to any opposing voices, but looking over a metro map and regular map, it seems like there are many easily assessable bus lines that even someone in the sprawl that is the valley can get to a bus and then a train from there. a ten minute walk might be involved but that’s not just a factor in the valley. however, i can still see this being an annoyance, knowing metro like we all do. the busses being unreliable a lot of the time. and though i’d advocate taking the bus to train or even bus to bus to train transfer, i can see people annoyed by that and want to just drive to the park and ride lot, especially if it’s only 5 or 10 minutes instead of a what could be a 30 minutes bus ride. still, if it’s only one bus you need to take to get to the train i don’t see that as a viable complaint. it’s la and though we’d all love more trains, it’s a pretty superficial complaint to say “i don’t take public transit because i don’t have a train near me.” i hear everyday from the genius’ i work with.
on the other hand, camino is entirely right. even if someone has to drive to the park and ride to use the train, it’s a thousand times better than driving all the way downtown or wherever they might need to go after leaving the valley.
at the base of it all are two things. willing to sacrifice and metro (un)accountability. it’s up to the people of la and metro (and city) to take on the problems and then find solutions. though we are of course less powerful because we don’t control the money, we have to stay active and like here on metroriderLA, and many other blogs with the same goal, stay vocal. not only talk about change, but live through the change. sure i’d like for there to be a subway to the sea, i’d like to think we all want that, but that doesn’t mean i’m just not gonna take public transportation to the west side until then. then i’m just like the people who say “i wish la was more like ny” i.e. annoying and not helpful. to get where we all want to be it’ll take time for sure, but things like park and ride lots are definitely good because anything to bring those addicted to their cars out is a step in the right direction. maybe even those up in the hills… well let’s not go overboard here.
From tyke: “the busses being unreliable a lot of the time.” That’s probably the understatement of the year.
Korn’s crime is that his statement is too brief. I Metro from Los Feliz to the wilds of NoHo everyday, so depending on where he’s traveling from, I can understand. But the base statement at face value is kinda silly. It’s not “insulting” to tell him to take a bus, but if he does it, it’ll be darned inconvenient for him.
hahaha, wutz cool is i edited that from, busses are late most of the time and sometimes never show up at all. but i wanted to positive in 2007. you caught me and i’ll go back to normal now.
What I got from Korn’s letter was that Metro should have built a huge parking garage for the drivers and not force patrons to park at an Orange Line station and take a bus to the subway.
The Valley also has Division 8 in Chatsworth, which has high seniority workers. They deliver Metro’s most reliable service and have the best maintained buses.
The infrequent service is very reliable. The frequent services are more troublesome.
You know, I looked for (and found) housing based on proximity to the red line (purple line is how it ended up, really). That’s OK, there’s a certain quality in not having to wait for a bus connection to get to the subway. So I can agree with the sentiment that a bus connection is frustrating, it adds to your commute, etc etc. I’d rather be hanging out in a Wilshire rail station reading a book then sitting on the side of a busy road waiting for the right bus. We’re all transit geeks and could talk for awhile about the convenience and efficiency of an efficient bus system that effectively connects people to an efficient rail system. Nobody’s going to suggest replacing local Koreatown #18 service with a rail line, for chrissakes, but it does what it’s supposed to do, and makes for a great quick transfer to the red & purple lines at Wilshire/Shatto. Busses are an integral part of any LA long term planning.
Having said that, the notion that he’s articulating isn’t my above ‘convenience’ problem. The reason it so offends us is the use of the word “insulting.” All it does is play into, in reverse order, the BRU’s shoddy nonsense about rail being racist. “Sure, I’ll take a train anywhere but *sniff* I’m too good to take a bus.” That’s what he said. He didn’t say “Taking the bus annoys me” but instead “People of my stature don’t ride busses.”
And as a result, I find myself deeply offended by these sorts of sentiments, and this mindset is why LA Metro has an uphill battle to “sell” public transit; first we have to convince people like him that it’s not just the red line to Hollywood and the gold line to the Rose Bowl, but also the 720 so Santa Monica, the 534 to Malibu, and the other routes that also go where people want to - just not yet by rail. Sure, I made sure to be close to the subway so I can get to work without having a heart attack, but I’m a fool if I don’t think that daily life in LA won’t involve bus routes too.
So in short and directed at Mr. Korn , get over it; busses aren’t just for minorities and poor people, jerk.
It’s all a matter of semantics really. In his letter Korn does indeed say - over dramatically - that taking a bus to the train is “insulting”. But in the next sentence he also says “close and convenient lines are not available” which implies, if he is indeed telling the truth, that if close and convenient lines WERE available he would take a bus to the train. We can’t really know for sure can we. So saying he won’t ride the bus because of stature is just as absurd of an extrapolation as the BRU saying trains are only built for white people. He never SAID he didn’t ride the bus because of minorities (in fact he DID say he didn’t ride it because there were no close and convenient lines - whether that’s true or not would require his home address and his definition of close and convenient), and we can’t read minds through digital ink, so let’s not call this dude a jerk quite yet.
nah dude, we take the bus, dawg
This shows the bullheaded attitude of most (okay maybe only some) people, that a “mere” bus is NOT public transportation at all, only a train is public transportation. I assume this because he is “being forced to take a BUS to public transportation” (a train).
This idiotic sentiment is shared by far too many people who should know better, but don’t. This guy’s one Freudian slip PROVES finally that we need to build as many trains as possible, wherever practicable, because certain people will ONLY take trains. For them, buses don’t even exist, and therefore, they are not public transportation at all; they are merely smelly, ragged, polluting, disgusting, awful, falling-apart BUSES loaded with homeless goons shitting themselves in public.
Note that I don’t share such an attitude. I’ve only seen homeless people barfing on buses every other day, not every single day. But I still take buses if I need then to get where I’m going! And I do so proudly!
But there are far too many people who feel this way, and far too many of them write letters to the editor. These are the type of people we must deal with in the public transit debate.