Railroaded - No Double Track, Citizens Against Double Track, Northridge Citizens For Environmental Justice

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Railroaded

THE RUNAROUND
"METRO IS HAPPY IF NOBODY KNOWS"

The Northridge South Neighborhood Council was one of the organizations mentioned in Metro's Categorical Exclusion Report as representing a major part of its so-called "outreach" to our community.

Unfortunately, the NSNC Board never directly informed anyone residing adjacent to the current track about the proposed CP Raymer to CP Bernson Double Track Project.

However, on the bright side, at the NSNC Board meeting June 25, 2015, President Chris Sales promised to vote completely in accord with whatever those with backyards next to the current track desired.




At the June 25, 2015 NSNC Board meeting, NSNC President Chris Sales promised that he and the NSNC Board would vote the way the over 100 neighbors in attendance wanted them to vote.  
America's Democratic tradition of standing firmly for minority rights is at issue here. 

While approximately 1000 individuals have petitioned to stop the Double Track, consider also that these are people who have a great deal to lose in terms of their property values and quality of life.  For safety reasons alone, it is difficult for most of us living adjacent to the current track to imagine why anyone of conscience would approve of such a potentially catastrophic, demonstrably unsafe design.

To begin with, neither Metro nor the NSNC board, nor anyone on the Sherwood Forest Home Owners Association ever directly informed anyone to be impacted and disadvantaged in our Northridge community about Metro's Proposed Double Track Project.  In the case of the SFHOA, that organization has asked for a retraction from Metro's Don Sepulveda regarding false statements made in the Categorical Exclusion Worksheet.  See LOCO CLAIMS page.

Our community found out by ACCIDENT about the Double Track project because our neighbor Stefan Mayer happened to be attending an NSNC meeting regarding an unrelated matter.  Stefan learned about the proposed Double Track project from a brief Metro presentation to a small number of people in attendance at an unpublicized NSNC meeting, a presentation which was not even listed on the meeting's Agenda.  Surprised and feeling a sense of outrage, Stefan Mayer afterward on his own informed our community.


NSNC Board President Chris Sales told all of us at the June 25, 2015 meeting that we needed to form our own Steering Committee and take complete ownership of the Double Track issue, while Sales committed himself and the Board to support us fully in whatever we decided.
 


Origins of the Citizens Against Double Track Steering Committee date to June 25, 2015.  At a Northridge South Neighborhood Council meeting, attended by over a hundred residents who felt disenfranchised and violated, a decision was made following the suggestion of NSNC President Chris Sales to form our own subcommittee of highly motivated residents. 
 On June 25, 2015, NSNC President Chris Sales addressed community members at the NSNC meeting. It was Sales himself, ironically perhaps, who directly suggested that we form a committee of Northridge South Neighborhood Council residents to achieve our objectives.  Since our foundation that day, the Citizens Against Double Track Steering Committee has continued to grow in strength and influence, with a growing database of voters and residents in opposition to the Double Track.
 
 
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