Congresswoman Maxine Waters recently attended the South Bay Cities Council of Governments (SBCCOG) Board of Directors’ hybrid Meeting to offer her opposition to the Inglewood Transit Connector. Inglewood Mayor James Butts asked the council to commit $493.1 million in additional funding towards the Inglewood Transit Connector (ITC) project through the South Bay’s Measure M Multi-Year Subregional Programs.
The South Bay contains 15 cities, plus portions of the City of Los Angeles and unincorporated areas of the County of Los Angeles. The area is bounded by the Pacific Ocean on the south and west, and generally by the City of Los Angeles on the north and east. Its name stems from its location on the south end of the Santa Monica Bay. With early roots in agriculture and oil, the South Bay region evolved to rely more heavily upon aerospace and related industries. It has recently become a hub for sports and entertainment events, with large venues such as new SoFi Stadium, INTUIT Dome and The Forum in Inglewood. It is uniquely centered between two major transportation hubs on its borders—Los Angeles International Airport and the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. These combined factors—and its diverse cities and landscapes—make the region economically, geographically and culturally unique.
The ITC is a 1.6-mile automated transit system with three stations that will connect the Metro K Line to downtown Inglewood and the Inglewood Entertainment District. The ITC is currently projected to cost $2.185 billion and the City of Inglewood currently needs $385.1 million to complete the base ITC project budget and $108 million to complete the backstop ($$93.1) million total.
Before the Board Members voted on Butts’ request, they opened the floor for public input. Congresswoman Waters explained why she opposes the ITC, indicating concern for the disruption of more than 40 businesses that the project would cause, the prohibitively expensive cost of a transit system that only serves the Forum, SoFi Stadium and the INTUIT Dome, and the annual operating and maintenance cost that ais expected to exceed $$33 million, to name a few.
“Instead of diverting resources from some of the most urgent needs of Inglewood residents,” Congresswoman Waters said, “I determined that federal, state and local funds that have been proposed for the ITC would be better spent on programs that improve access to affordable housing and other essential community services for the people of Inglewood and the surrounding communities.”
The SBCCOG Board of Directors agreed Congresswoman Maxine Waters and voted to deny Mayor Butts’ request.
