According to its published profile, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation is comprised of nearly 2,200 employees — engineers, planners, parking enforcement and traffic control officers, school crossing guards and support staff — who are organized into four offices, which supervise 14 bureaus and 25 field locations.

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The LADOT operates three public transit systems: Commuter Express, DASH and City Ride, and is responsible for all traffic operations in the city, including 4,300 signalized intersections, 6,499.5 miles of streets, tens of thousands of traffic control devices, the ownership and operation of city parking lots and garages, parking enforcement and 11 other operations. The 16 traffic operations over which the DOT is responsible also includes preparing neighborhood-based traffic and transportation plans. And it is this responsibility over which some controversy has arisen.

In addition to slamming the DOT for its racist policies with respect to hiring and promoting African-American engineers, the department is also being hit with allegations that it implements its 16 traffic responsibilities in a racist manner. The DOT is accused of providing its top-of-the-line improvements and developments in the more affluent areas of the city, while affording South Los Angeles lesser equipment and services, or none at all.

The group of Black engineers with whom I met asserted that the DOT’s improvements, such as the Left-Turn Phasing Program to enhance traffic flow, and the installation of bike paths and bike ways and signal light upgrades are abundant in some communities but limited or non-existent in Black neighborhoods. They say the same is true about the upgrading of old and outdated traffic infrastructures, such as pull boxes, power poles and communication devices.

They also claim that non-Black communities are not getting that highly touted and extremely expensive ATSAC (Automatic Traffic Signal Actuation and Control) system that synchronizes the traffic lights that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa keeps talking about, and that they are likewise not getting pedestrian traffic enhancements, such as those push button doohickies, which are seen in intersections all over other parts of the city.

The Black engineers contend that the transportation improvements the African-American communities are getting from the DOT are red light cameras to generate more money for the city by making traffic ticketing more efficient, the aggressive monitoring of parking meters, aggressive parking enforcement and increased parking meter rates justified by what they call “bogus studies.”

They said the DOT makes its money off the Black neighborhoods and spends it in the White ones.

Betty Bradley, a former engineer who worked for four years in the 1990s in the DOT’s Southern District, which covers every bit of city territory from south of Vernon Avenue to the ocean, was heartbroken to see how badly the DOT neglected Watts.

“The area had no street name signs, no stop signs, no cross walks and no traffic signals installed where they were needed,” Bradley said. “Watts was definitely not a priority with our department, and things as basic as lane lines and double left turns were not done.”

Bradley, who did not grow up in Los Angeles, continued: “When I was sent to Southern District and went to Watts, I was so shocked by the widespread absence of traffic services that I went through the paper work and found that the last DOT work order written for that part of town was for the installation of a stop sign in 1965 — the year of the Watts riots. Nothing had been ordered for that area since then.”

Bradley said she went on a personal crusade to get things done in Watts. “I worked hard to improve things because I didn’t like that Black people — my people — were being treated like that. I did my best to get things done,” Bradley said. “DOT had crews of engineers on maintenance routes whose jobs were to drive around through the area and look for things that needed repairing or replacing or work needing to be done. But those engineers were White men who didn’t want to drive around in Black neighborhoods, so they never looked at what needed to be done in Watts. They never looked! I’m sure that if DOT had Black engineers, they would have looked and seen that the services were needed and then delivered them.”

Rita Robinson, the DOT general manager, said the Black engineers’ list of DOT services unavailable in Black neighborhoods could have come from any area in the city. “Everybody feels they’re not getting the same thing as everybody else,” Robinson said, “but that’s not true. There was a time when we didn’t have the money for upgrades, but the mayor went and got a half-billion dollars from the state to upgrade our ATSAC throughout the city, and we’re doing it now.

“We are working diligently to upgrade the entire city and I assure you South L.A. and all other areas will be getting their fair share of the entire system.” She said the left-turn phasing program is being implemented in the most congested parts of every area in the city and statements to the contrary are mistaken.

Robinson said “People get traffic tickets everywhere in the city, not just in African-American neighborhoods because it’s important that we keep traffic flowing and that we raise revenue for the city.”

Robinson sits on the board of directors of the MTA and she will begin this month to deal with the $1.7 billion allocated for a public transit system down Crenshaw Boulevard to the Pacific Ocean. Discussion is under way on whether Crenshaw should get a light rail system for the route or a bus that will travel its own designated lane. As a person who will vote on this issue, I asked Robinson what she thinks.

“They both have pros and cons and the choice will depend on what the people want,” Robinson said. “The light rail project is a monumental task, but I think the rail system is such a tremendous opportunity to link with Expo 1 and 2 and with the downtown connector. As for my personal aspiration I would love to see that happen. Light rail is exciting and I can see myself riding it from my home in Inglewood,” Robinson said.

“And besides, it doesn’t seem right that we would get an old-time bus down Crenshaw while everybody else is getting 21st century rail lines.”

I asked Robinson to comment on racism charges being leveled against her department. She said: ”I don’t think it’s ever a good thing when people feel as if they’re being treated unfairly. That’s any color of person. The city does not promote discrimination in any way. I cannot speak for the previous general manager and assistant general manager who could employ rules to fix those things as they saw fit if they felt that way.

“Now, the things that I felt and which had been brought to my attention, I tried to fix in a fair way, not just for one class of person but for everybody because my role is to make sure that every one feels that there’s a fair assessment of all the people who face an interview panel.

“I’m not sure what was done in the past, but my intention was to provide a level playing field for people,” Robinson said. Toward that end she said she agreed with the engineers’ union’s request to have employees of the city’s Department of Personnel sit in on the interview panels and review the interviewing process.

“In the interest of transparency, I agreed to engage someone from personnel in the process if that would give people more assurance of fairness,” Robinson said.

And finally, I asked her how does it feel to be a Black woman sitting on top of an entity being sued for treating Black people badly. She replied: “It puts a black eye on the department and the city as a whole. No one wants to be accused of something unfair. That’s not a good feeling for myself, for the department or for anyone else, and certainly not for a city that wants to purport itself as being fair to all.
“In being a Black person, it’s not my intention that we run a department that other minorities and other Black people feel that they’re not being treated fairly. Therefore that is one of the reasons I hope to make sure we provide an opportunity for people to be treated fairly and provide them with opportunities for promotion through our job rotation plan — a plan that will get them prepared for opportunities,” Robinson said.

Robinson seems to believe that the failure of Black engineers to get promoted from entry level jobs in the DOT stems from their lack of experience and exposure to the various job activities in which engineers are engaged.

“But don’t misunderstand my statement to say there are no problems,” Robinson said “I’m not saying there are no problems and that there are not improvements we can make! Oh, absolutely there are problems and improvements are needed, but what I want our young people to look at is preparing themselves to meet those opportunities because they are becoming fewer and farther between and the competition is fierce.”