Villaraigosa-Yaroslavsky meet over MTA station

It was a rare face-to-face meeting on Monday between Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky with the topic being transportation issues.
With the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board scheduled to vote Thursday, Villaraigosa and a group of African American leaders tried to urge Yaroslavsky _ a key vote on the MTA board _ to agree to a Leimert Park stop for the Crenshaw Light Rail Line.
Among those in attendance were Los Angeles Sentinel publisher Danny Bakewell, Urban League President Blair Teller, Gene Hale of the African American Chamber of Commerce, Charisse Bremond of the Brotherhood Crusade and a number of ministers who have joined forces on the issue.
Yaroslavsky has said he is not opposed to a station as long as it is within the $1.7 billion budget for the project.
It is one of those rare projects that has brought together competing forces within the African American community, supported by both Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, who have frequently clashed over political issues.