History records great events. Do you remember the great events of 1973? The Vietnam peace treaty was signed in Paris. President Nixon was mired in Watergate. The year would end with Gerald Ford being sworn in as President. Few remember the great event that year for South Pasadena.

The City, the Center for Law and Poverty, and the Sierra Club combined forces in 1973 and marched into Federal Court, armed with new laws which required projects to disclose environmental impacts. As Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration scrambled to comply with the federal court orders, the Long Beach Freeway ground to a halt.

A House of Cards

There have been four versions of the environmental impact report (EIR) since 1973. Since that first report, each subsequent report was built on error and bad information from the prior versions. Generally speaking, adequate reports list all of the impacts from a project and discuss potential ways to lessen or eliminate impacts. Generally speaking, adequate reports are objective, providing unbiased information to the public and decision makers.

Instead, these "710" reports are a house of cards, ready to collapse under their own weight.

Recently, the City (of South Pasadena) completed a review of the most recent report (March, 1992), which attempts to describe the noise and air pollution, housing loss, demolished historic structures, disruption to the local schools and other impacts of building the 710 extension. Of interest were the impacts that Caltrans chose to ignore.

Looking the Other Way: Safety Service Impacts

South Pasadena prides itself on first-rate police, fire and paramedic services. There are 48 members in the Police Department and 25 members in the Fire Department. Both departments are small by any objective measure. Caltrans' most recent report did not discuss any impacts to safety services or suggest any ways to mitigate the impacts from their freeway project.

That's a problem. The Fire Department responded to 56 calls on the Pasadena Freeway in 1991. They responded to 65 calls in 1992, including a two-day incident where downed power lines blocked the freeway. This amounts to an incident a week, for a small stretch of the Pasadena Freeway. What will be the impact of an eight- to 10-lane freeway on our limited safety services?

Consider, too, the impacts to our safety services during the acquisition, demolition, and construction phases of the 710. Crime, vandalism, homelessness, fires, and dumping will occur, as Caltrans begins mass relocation out of formerly stable and well-maintained neighborhoods.

During the construction of the Century Freeway, for example, the City of Downey and Caltrans fought over the jurisdiction for removal of dead bodies dumped in the vacant areas awaiting freeway construction. Angry residents burned a Caltrans house, relocated incorrectly by Caltrans; it remained a burned-out shell for two years.

During construction, trucks carrying tons of dirt from Pasadena will clog local streets, dumping dirt on the southern portions of our community and El Sereno. Police will be needed for traffic control and detours. Dust will be carried for blocks, settling on city streets and adjacent neighborhoods. Streets, already badly deteriorating, will be broken and marked with potholes. City maintenance crews will be hard-pressed to keep up with the community disruption.

Meanwhile, phones will be ringing off the hook at City Hall. Residents will need information and help during the 10 years needed to clear the route of homes and businesses, as well as the 10 years of construction. The Planning and Building departments will be strained as houses are moved, lot lines are relocated, variances and permits are required. Public works will be inundated, reviewing construction plans, completing inspections, and handling complaints about broken streets and city facilities.

Much of the city services are located underground. The freeway will cut hundreds of water and sewer mains, electrical and gas utilities, and storm drains. Portions of the city will be severed from water reservoirs. Sewer pump stations will be installed, having to pass 25 feet under the great freeway ditch separating the community. This, in turn, will increase maintenance costs to residents because sewers flow by gravity now.

The City Council will form a "Freeway Committee" comprised of residents who are left adjacent to the demolition and construction chaos. Their job, essentially, will be to serve as "watch dogs" over Caltrans to assure that noise walls are finished, landscaping is planted, night and weekend construction work is stopped, and broken water and sewer mains are repaired. Predictably, the residents will grow angry about construction vehicles blocking driveways. They will regret the loss of familiar trees shading their neighborhood, removed in the name of "transportation progress."

The Scars are Forever

Once the freeway is open, the impacts will never go away. Incidents of drunk driving will occur, as disoriented drivers wander onto local streets. Police officers and fire fighters will always wonder how the community will survive if freeway bridges collapse during a major earthquake, or are blocked by a freeway fire or hazardous chemical spill. The city yard will be destroyed, with no mention of this in the environmental documents. Gone, too, will be the quiet charm of Orange Grove Park, as noise from the freeway ditch immediately to the north will overwhelm the laughter of children at play.

Communities across the country are laboring under decreasing revenues and increasing citizen expectations. In South Pasadena, the freeway will remove hundreds of acres of properties from the tax rolls. Thousands of residents will no longer shop in the community. There will be lost gas and utility taxes, and lost population-based federal grants. The community will permanently lose hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, while service demands increase due to the freeway.

Will the House of Cards Collapse?

What is ironic and sad is that these issues are not discussed in the current report. Caltrans has chosen to ignore the massive community disruption, the impacts on safety services, and the financial instability that "progress" will bring to all of the 710 corridor communities. Instead, the report goes as far as to claim that the project will financially benefit the community. How this conclusion was reached without discussing any of the impacts is not clear.

Caltrans has had two decades and four opportunities to objectively disclose these impacts. What is truly sad is that the project is built upon outdated and missing information, and this flawed process will guide the decision to "invest" over $1.1 billion in federal and state funds.