Mobility 21 is a coalition that brings together public, business and community stakeholders to pursue regional solutions to the transportation challenges facing Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. A nonpartisan alliance, Mobility 21 delivers a unified voice for the region’s transportation priorities and seeks to improve mobility in the region for all.
In 2019 The Honorable Michael D. Antonovich received the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award for his extraordinary commitment and dedication to the region’s transportation and economic development.
Transcript:
Narrator: Mobility 21 is proud to recognize The Honorable Michael D. Antonovich with the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award for his extraordinary commitment and dedication to the region’s transportation and economic development. Supervisor Antonovich 36 years of service to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, 13 years of service to the former Los Angeles County Transportation Commission LACTC, and 23 years of service to the board of directors of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, METRO, serve as testament to his career-long commitment to public service.
Michael D. Antonovich: Transportation is very important. Having been born and raised in Los Angeles County and seeing how we have grown, what has not kept pace is the level of transportation and service to the entire county.
Narrator: Supervisor Antonovich spearheaded the completion of the successful Metro Gold Line to Pasadena, the Metro Gold line extension to Azusa, and secured funding for the Metro Gold line extension to Claremont, forever connecting the cultural and residential neighborhoods within the San Gabriel Valley, downtown Los Angeles and beyond.
Michael D. Antonovich: In the future I would hope we would have elected officials who pay attention to their own communities and have programs working from the bottom up and not have one fatcat determining where all the money’s going to go at the expense of the other 87 cities, even though the other 87 cities tax dollars are paying for those programs.
Narrator: Supervisor Antonovich’s vision for sustainability lead METROs transition from diesel buses to establishing a fleet of environmentally-friendly compressed natural gas buses, decrease in carbon emissions and improving the air quality of Los Angeles County.
Michael D. Antonovich: The biggest challenge was to bring, let’s say, empower all of our communities. We have 88 cities, but one city has four members on the MTA board the other 87 cities have to share four members and then the five members on the Board of Supervisors, many of them were married to the city of Los Angeles so you didn’t have a regional approach to our transit needs.
Narrator: Supervisor Antonovich pioneer the proposed High Desert Corridor, a multi-purpose Corridor including Highway and rail that could connect the counties of Los Angeles in San Bernardino, improving East-West mobility and preparing the Los Angeles Basin for the arrival of High-Speed Rail.
Michael D. Antonovich: One success I’m very proud of, we were able to create a very viable program where are emancipated youth, foster kids, now are able to have free bus transportation and rail transportation, to allow them to go to school, to allow them to go to a job, to allow him to go to the beach, go to the mountains, to have recreation and to be part of our community and serving outcasts and creating future problems.
Narrator: Lastly, and most importantly, Supervisor Antonovich introduced the bottom of outreach model that led to the success of the 2016 half-cent sales tax, measure M, that was overwhelmingly supported by 71% of Los Angeles County voters.
Michael D. Antonovich: Well, I’m very appreciative of being a recipient of this award, but it’s the result of good staff. The staff have gone out to the community, who’ve done a lot of the work, who helped us to get these programs, that I was able to initiate, adopted and made public policy. So, I want to thank my staff for providing that teamwork and I want to thank Mobility 21 for this award.
Narrator: Mobility 21 is proud to recognize The Honorable Michael D Antonovich with the 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award for his incredible dedication and commitment to enhancing mobility and quality of life in Southern California.
