Blue line blues

This Column One story in the Los Angeles Times, Blue Line cuts across L.A. County's invisible boundaries, takes a spectator's view of the Blue Line. As the reporter says, "Five bucks gets you a day pass to one of the most unpredictable shows in town." Wow, how offensive to the people who take the train every day. The reporter describes confrontations, pirated DVDs, people hawking water and gamblers -- "poverty porn" as one commenter aptly called it. It's an unfortunate example of reporting that skims the surface instead of immersing itself in the community it's allegedly covering. I think it's too bad because the paper missed an opportunity to respectfully show its readers, most of whom are probably unfamiliar with the light rail system and have never taken a train in LA, how important it is to many of the people who ride it.

That's what struck me when I first started taking the Blue Line a few years ago to save on gas. I sadly hardly ever take public transportation now since it's faster to drive, but I had never realized how heavily used the rail line, which connects Long Beach to downtown LA and is intersected by the Green Line, is. I saw young people taking the train to classes at Trade Tech. There were workers who presumably didn't have cars and those with cars who chose it's convenience, many like myself with packed lunches. Some of what the reporter describes is true -- people begging or selling candy was an almost daily occurrence. I also occasionally saw people talking to themselves or acting aggressively. But many were probably mentally ill and not a freak show to be made fun of. He may not have intended to make fun of them but that is what his tone implies. The first anecdote is of someone urinating on the train, something I've never seen. And I wonder if his descriptions were from several days of taking the train or one long day, rather than one commute, since he saw more than what I experienced in weeks of taking the Blue Line. On most rides, people mind their own business, are polite and things go smoothly. To the rider, it's not constant theater, as he puts it:

In a place dominated by freeways and the automobile's numbing isolation, the 22-mile light-rail line — the oldest in L.A. County, marking 20 years of service this summer — is a rolling improvisational theater where a cast of thousands acts out a daily drama that is by turns poignant, sad, hysterical and inexplicable.

I'm not sure what the point of the article was. Because of the anniversary? But I'm sure there are better stories to tell, stories of people who are often overlooked in society and by the mainstream media.