Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority: Integrated Media Relations

ISSUE|;SUCCESS

The Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority is charged with building a 24-mile light rail line from the Gold Line’s current terminus in Pasadena across the fastest-growing part of Los Angeles County, the San Gabriel Valley. Having already secured the environmental approvals to build the first 11 miles of extension, the Construction Authority now needs funding to start construction. However, the agency with jurisdiction over funding expenditures, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, was refusing to commit funding to the project despite the transportation and environmental benefits it would bring to county’s fastest-growing region.

The Construction Authority hired Consensus Inc. to develop a integrated media strategy to increase awareness about the:

• Readiness of the project compared to other rail projects in Los Angeles County.
• Rising demand for the rail line across the San Gabriel Valley to alleviate congestion on three east-west freeways and reduce emissions from vehicle traffic.
• Looming deadlines to submit for a federal grant, so the money could be appropriated to Los Angeles County instead of another part of the United States.

Consensus Inc. designed a campaign with themes that changed month-to-month to increase the Construction Authority’s visibility in the media read by the MTA board members and to create a groundswell of discussion on transportation blogs.

ISSUE|;SUCCESS

Consensus Inc.’s integrated media program generated immediate results. The first item was an extensive piece on the latimes.com’s Bottleneck Blog explaining the Construction Authority’s mission and the work it did to get the extension project ready for funding, and how communities along the route have been planning for density around proposed station sites. The blog entry was reprinted in the Los Angeles Times with photos of the Construction Authority’s chief executive officer. Consensus Inc. also prepared the client for a Los Angeles Times editorial board meeting that resulted in an editorial calling on the MTA to fund the Gold Line Foothill Extension.

Consensus Inc. then forwarded links and other communications to bloggers who commented on the Construction Authority’s issues and supplemented them with their own opinions. We also kept up strong relationships with the Pasadena Star-News/San Gabriel Valley Tribune reporter to ensure that the Construction Authority’s messages were getting to federal, state and local elected officials and stakeholders. Multiple, positive stories and supportive editorials resulted from this effort.

As the story evolved, the Gold Line Foothill Extension went from barely being mentioned in the media to being mentioned in virtually every transit-related story in the traditional and online media outlets. The media discussion helped influence the decision making process on funding for the MTA’s half-cent sales tax increase and made the Gold Line a priority project for the MTA in its expenditure plan.

Consensus Inc. continues to work with the Construction Authority as the agency and the San Gabriel Valley communities solicit guarantees for funding.