By Julie BUTCHER

“Sometimes the decision to improve the quality of life for a community is unpopular,” Glendale Councilmember Ara Najarian reminded those assembled last Wednesday in Glendale’s Perkins Plaza at city hall to celebrate the groundbreaking of Metro’s North Hollywood to Pasadena Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.

“Leadership means pushing forward against naysayers, NIMBYs, and ignorant city officials – both in our city and next door,” Councilmember Najarian continued, noting that the public vote was overwhelming for the half cent sales tax: Measure R passed in 2008 by 67.93% and in 2016 Measure M passed by 71%. “This is what the voters of LA County asked for and Metro respects those votes, those wishes and desires and financial sacrifices that the people of LA County demanded. Metro will not shirk or ignore that responsibility.”

The goal of the North Hollywood to Pasadena BRT project is to connect North Hollywood, Burbank, Glendale, Eagle Rock and Pasadena with faster, more reliable bus service. Zero-emission electric buses will operate in dedicated lanes, offer all-door boarding and serve passengers at enhanced stations while improving travel times, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and expanding regional transit access. The project offers a sustainable east-west connection to jobs, schools and services across both valleys, according to Metro’s description of the BRT.

“Nineteen miles, 22 stations, the missing link connecting east and west – we can’t build a subway everywhere,” Councilmember Najarian described the effort to “connect the furthest reaches of the San Fernando Valley all the way to Pomona.”

“This BRT will be completed before the start of the 2028 Olympics, a short two years from now, and we will not be deterred by the shrill tantrums of elected officials or obstructionists … this is a project that I am very proud of and worked for over a decade to see it get to this milestone moment.”

Glendale Community College (GCC) board member Desirée Portillo Rabinov worked on planning the early stages of the BRT at Metro. She described the intersection of her work there and the support for public transit at GCC. When Metro introduced the GoPass for local students, GCC’s enrollment numbers crashed the system, she shared. Glendale Community College students top the participation charts in their utilization of public transportation.

Ernesto Medrano, executive secretary of the Los Angeles Orange County Building Trades Council, expressed labor’s support for the BRT, which will “all be built with union hands.” These good union jobs will come from local hiring and union apprenticeship programs, essential to “sustaining middle class jobs.”

“We’re ready to move some dirt,” Medrano told the crowd.

“Every project needs a political champion in order to succeed,” said Metro CEO Stephanie Wiggins, highlighting the work done by Ara Najarian over many years to bring this project to breaking ground.

The event speakers and local dignitaries donned Metro hard hats and picked up symbolic gold-plated shovels and the groundbreaking was completed.

Complete project details can be found at https://www.metro.net/projects/noho-pasadena-corridor/.