710 Freeway battle

The battle over whether the state tunnels under Pasadena to finish the 710 or not is about as passionate a one as I have seen. The normally staid Mike Eng was fired up last night about the woes of his constituents, who have borne the brunt of abnormally high street traffic for years. His passion was matched by the normally less-reserved Anthony Portantino. From the story:

On Monday, Portantino called the feasibility study on the project "discredited" and accused supporters of trying to do an "end run" around the local legislative process.

Eng, for his part, used some strong words in describing what would happen if the project was not built.

"People are dying," said Eng, describing cities that have dealt with heavy traffic because of the freeway gap. "Children are dying of respiratory diseases, and auto accidents are happening all over the place."

Wow. There isn't a lot of middle ground between accusations of trying to subvert local democratic processes and standing idly by while children die.

Eng, who will assume the chairmanship of the Transportation Committee in the next legislative session, told me last month that the 710 Freeway project was among his top priorities. Eng sounded a lot more conciliatory at that point than yesterday.

I also interviewed Portantino for the article, and though he praised Eng as a good legislator, he seemed concerned that the legislature was about to get involved in the 710 fracas. And apparently his concerns were well-founded.