Anti-transit freeway/tollway-building politician now in charge of OCTA: welcome, Tustin Mayor Jerry Amante

Two Mondays ago at the OCTA Board Meeting, Jerry Amante — mayor of Tustin — was unanimously elected as chair of the OCTA Board. Amante served on OCTA's Board of Directors since 2006.

The irony is that Amante is now in charge of making decisions for OCTA's bus system. Why is this bad news?

• Amante has been unabashedly vocal about his preference for road-building over bus and rail.
  • Amante wrote an opinion piece bashing Los Angeles's Metro Rail system and squawks about how awesome Orange County's freeways are.
  • Amante's platform says nothing about the crowded, unreliable bus system that he currently runs. Instead, he wants to see money funneled into streets and roads.
• Amante has great enthusiasm for freeway and tollway committees. He's part of:
  • OCTA's Central County MIS committee, which is proposing to extend the 57 as a freeway UNDER THE SANTA ANA RIVER. OMG.
  • OCTA's State Route 91 Advisory Committee, which is using OCTA funds to add lanes to a freeway that's largely clogged with Riverside County commuters.
  • OCTA's Highways Committee.
  • the board of directors in charge of the 241, 261, and 133 toll roads in Orange County (the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency). He blew his top when he found out that activists successfully blocked the extension of a tollway through San Onofre State Park, claiming that anti-road activists will "mire our residents in a poor quality of life" and threatening national security. Uh-huh. At least he didn't invoke Godwin's Law.
• Amante has hardly lifted a finger to help with the current transit crisis. He's voiced his desire to effectively double the cuts to OCTA's bus system this March 2010 — from this March's 150,000 hours to the full 300,000 hours of cuts. "...Better, he said, to make drastic cuts now and restore later. It's the old pull-the-bandaid-off-quickly theory." 

Again, this is bad news for transit riders. It's like — giving a veggie burger to a vegan, then telling him afterwards it's actually beef. Okay, maybe not that bad. But you get my point, right? It's bad news, man!

During the same meeting (this is what I've heard through the grapevine), OCTA staffers showed a spoof film of past chair Peter Buffa as the Godfather and proceeded to laud the accomplishments of the past few years, primarily freeway expansions. What they didn't mention was under Buffa's reign as OCTA Board chair, the Rapid Bus system project was killed, OCTA's bus system has become more crowded and less reliable, Metrolink cut its plans for 30-minute frequency service, and Metrolink cut 50% of its weekend Orange County service.

So good job, OCTA Board. Some other transit enthusiasts here note that it remains to be seen whether Amante will suddenly do something about OCTA's vanishing bus system (and Metrolink's vanishing train system as well). Amante will be unveiling his joint goals for the year at today's OCTA Board of Directors meeting. Hopefully he acknowledges and responds to transit rider concerns since it's his duty as OCTA chairman.

Amante is running for the state Assembly this year; you can read more about him at his website, www.jerryamante.com.