(Note: Los Cerritos Community Newspaper urges a NO VOTE on MEASURE J on Tuesday here in Los Angeles County.
By Brian Hews
Los Angeles, CA – Several key African-American leaders have lashed out against Los Angeles County Measure J with less than 18 hours before voters head to the ballot box.
“Members of our community vividly remember Mayor Villaraigosa’s betrayal of the Leimert Park Village and Crenshaw community,” said Damien Goodmon, Chair of the Crenshaw Subway Coalition.
“We have regularly sought compromise since May of 2011, but Villaraigosa has remained uninterested. Measure J is simply the latest form of disrespect. It is quite audacious to propose a $90 billion sales tax increase on South L.A. that returns not a penny for the transportation requests of our community,” Goodman told Los Cerritos Community Newspaper on Monday.
In a release to media members on Tuesday, the list of leaders against Measure J now includes South L.A. representatives on the MTA Board of Directors, County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Los Angeles Councilman Bernard Parks and former State Senator Nate Holden), Mike Davis the current Chair of the California Assembly Select Committee on Rail Transportation as well as local community newspapers including Los Cerritos Community Newspaper.
Also urging a no vote on Measure J is former LA City Councilmember Bob Farrell, the Black Clergy Community & Labor Alliance, African-American Cultural Center, Council of Black Political Organizations, South LA Power Coalition and the California Friends of the African-American Caucus, among others, according to Goodmon.
Assemblyman Davis called Measure J, “Since previous promises still go unfulfilled, can we really trust this proposition?” Ridley-Thomas – said “in an environment where … people are asking, ‘Why are we being hit by so many different tax proposals?’ Measure J is nothing more than a distraction.”
Dr. Anthony Samad from the Urban Issues Forum & Past President of 100 Black Men of Los Angeles slammed the measure by saying, “Villaraigosa has the audacity to float another half cent tax bond to complete current projects—not including the Crenshaw/LAX project. Let’s me get this straight—you want the black community to tax itself, until the year 2069, for transportation projects that won’t impact nor improve our community? Well, that’s straight-up JACKING.”
