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MTA: BH Courier Story on Subway Expansion Misleading

The agency says a decision on the route for the Westside Subway Extension has not been made.

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority is asking the Beverly Hills Courier to retract a story on its website that implies that the agency has weighted a report in favor of routing the Purple Line subway expansion under Beverly Hills High School on its way to the proposed Century City station at Constellation Boulevard. The Constellation station is one of three proposed Century City stops.

"It won't be ready until the fall," David Sotero, senior public communications officer for the MTA, wrote about the final environmental impact report in a rebuttal to the Courier on the MTA's website. He reiterated that no decision has been made yet about the route of the subway.

The issue started Friday when the Courier published an unsigned "exclusive" story saying it had a copy of a report that favored running the subway under the high school, a route that residents of the area have been protesting for some time. Although the story points out that the title of the document is "Final EIR," at the bottom of the story it says the report is not, in fact, the Final EIR.

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The report is actually a series of PowerPoint slides that, according to the MTA rebuttal posted on its site, has been shown at several public meetings and forums and appeared on the MTA's website.

When Patch called the Courier about the MTA's rebuttal, an editorial employee who requested her name not be used refused to name the author of the story and insisted the paper would "stand by our story." The employee also said the MTA had not asked the paper to publish a retraction.

Find out what's happening in Beverly Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Well, not to our face," the employee said.

After being questioned by Patch, the Courier published a comment on the MTA's position. The post says MTA Regional Communications Manager Jody Litvack released an email rebutting the original story, and the Courier has not received any request to retract the story. 

The MTA rebuttal on its website, written by Sotero, asks for a retraction.

This story first ran on our sister site, Century City Patch.

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