Sometimes it's easier to decide how to vote on a statewide ballot issue, such as Proposition 35, when it affects a problem close to home, such as Lakewood Boulevard.

Proposition 35 would allow the state to speed up projects or save money by using private engineering firms rather than Caltrans employees. So, why should we care?

Just ask the frustrated officials of Lakewood, who have been trying for the better part of a year to get some action from the Caltrans bureaucracy on a simple problem involving Lakewood Boulevard, which is a state highway.

The city wants to improve the traffic flow around the Lakewood Center mall by creating a dual left-turn lane off southbound Lakewood Boulevard onto Candlewood Street. It amounts to not much more than painting a couple of yellow lines, and Lakewood Center would pay the costs.

We won't bother you with all the burdensome details, but the short version is that Caltrans changed its demands in the middle of the process and now wants something called a design exception, which on Caltrans' "fast track" would take another six months. Worse, Caltrans let it be known that the city could really move things along by agreeing to take over permanent maintenance of Lakewood's mile-long portion of the boulevard. That, in Lakewood's view, is legalized extortion.

Lakewood officials aren't caving in and they shouldn't. But we'd bet there will be some votes among them for Proposition 35. Incidentally, this episode illustrates another election issue. Sen. Betty Karnette, whose district includes Lakewood, is chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee, yet even with that supposed clout it took months to get Caltrans to do a simple piece of paperwork. Karnette also is running for re-election. Voters who approve of Proposition 35 might be inclined to take a look as well at Karnette's opponent, Marilyn Lyon.

As has been famously said, all politics is local.



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