Prof opposes city subway
Cites energy, economic woes
By Matthew Kane
Staff Writer
There may be a subway in Los Angeles' future, but Peter Gordon, professor of economics and urban and regional planning, thinks it would be a "catastrophe."
The Southern California Rapid Transit District plans to build an 18-mile underground rail line connecting Union Station in downtown Los Angeles and North Hollywood via a route beneath Wilshire Boulevard, Fairfax Avenue, Central Hollywood and Cahuenga Pass, terminating at Chandler and Lankershim Boulevards, according to an RTD news release.
The subway would cost more than SI.2 billion according to RTD figures that estimated the cost in 1978. RTD budget for the project shows 80 percent of the funding coming from the federal government, 10 percent coming from the California Department of Transportation and the remaining 10 percent coming from loans.
According to the RTD funding plan, no tax increase or local sales tax is anticipated.
RTD planners concluded a subway would be beneficial because it would save energy. Gordon disagreed with the RTD, saying the subway's construction would use more energy than the project would save.
Both sides have facts and figures to support their positions. Both sides have experts who agree with them. Both sides said the other side is wrong.
Each side makes its case on its own analysis of various studies, surveys, statistics, mathematical models and other data.
The core of the conflict is a disagreement over whether buses or subways are more energy and cost-efficient. The two sides used different methods to determine the cost and energy use of each mode of transit, and each side criticized the other's method.
First, the RTD came out with its figures. Its planners estimated that 275,000 commuters would ride the Wilshire Boulevard subway. This would reduce bus and car use, thereby reducing gas consumption and pollution, an RTD spokesman said.
Then Gordon came out with his figures.
Gordon estimated that 75,000 to 125,000 commuters — 145,600 at most — would take the train.
Part of the project's high energy cost, Gordon said, was the energy used in digging subway tunnels. He said tunneling through the ground was "the most energy using method of guideway construction."
(Continued on page 10)
GLOBAL UNITY — A globe rests atop the Von KleinSmid Center Tower. The building holds the school of international relations
Stabbing victim eager to return to university
By Kathy McDonald
Assistant City Editor
Tema Clare, the emeritus professor of biologv who was stabbed on Friday, Sept. 19, was moved out of the intensive care unit of California Hospital Sunday night.
"I'm feeling better," she said Monday from her hospital room. "I'm making headway every day, for which I'm grateful."
"She looks great," said Detective Otis Marlow of the Southwest homicide division of the Los Angeles Police Department. Marlow is one of the detectives w'orking on the investigation.
He said Clare was alert when he spoke with her even though she was under medication, and in good spirits.
"She's a beautiful, verv intelligent ladv," he said.
Detectives as yet have no suspects and there is no known motive for the unprovoked attack which occurred in Clare's office in Science Hall between 6:30 and 7 a.m.
There is also no crime pattern of this nature, Marlow said.
Marlow said Clare described her attacker as a young black male with short hair and a medium build.
"To the best of her recollection, she had never seen him before, but she just didn't know' . . . Sometimes, people block these things out of their minds. We might go to hypnosis later on when she is feeling stronger," Marlow said.
He added that he is waiting to question Clare again "for a few more days, until she gets home."
Clare said she did not know' when she would be released from the hospital.
On the morning of the assault, Clare was working in her office. She answered a knock at her door to find the young man standing there holding an old notebook, Marlow said.
"The man said to her, 'I found this notebook on the (Continued on page 9)
SUBWAY ALTERNATIVE
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County supervisor leaves board of trustees
By Natalie Perlin
Staff Writer
Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke resigned from the university board of trustees last June to concentrate on her duties as supervisor and devote more time to her campaign for re-election to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, said Dan Reeder, Burke's press deputy.
In addition to her duties as supervisor of the Fifth District, Burke is vice chairman of the Los Angeles committee organizing the 1984 Olympics, a job that takes up much of her time, Reeder said.
"Her term (on the board of trustees) was up in June anyway, so she thought it would be a good time to resign," he said.
Burke also resigned to preclude any accusations of a conflict of interest between her job as supervisor of an area including the university and her position on the board of trustees. In performing her duties as supervisor, Burke must sometimes vote on matters the university brings before the board, Reeder said.
"If a major issue came before the board about USC and she had fo abstain, she'd feel bad," he said.
Although Burke has left a vacancy on the board of trustees, no one has been specifically selected to replace her. There is usually more than one vacancy on the board each vear, but elections are not necessarily held to fill those vacancies as they come up, said Betty Murray, secretary of the board of trustees.
"We don’t identify a chair as belonging to someone, and a chair doesn't necessarily have to be filled immediately," Murray said.
The board just elected three new' members, but there is not one particular person replacing Burke, she said.
When vacancies are left on the board, the names of people w'ho have expressed an interest in the university are submitted to the board's personnel committee. The committee reviews the possible replacements and makes recommendations before the board makes a final decision.
Elections are held to fill vacancies only when suitable people come along. The number of board members, which cannot exceed 42, can change each month, Murray said.
Volume LXXXIX. Number 11
trojan
Tuesday, September 30, 1980	University of Southern California