Adios, Aqua?

In 2000, the guerrilla pop art group Heavy Trash erected several gag signs around town (above) promoting a fake "Metro Aqua Line" from downtown to the ocean.

When the MTA approved its Mid-City/Exposition Light Rail Transit Project, it actually took a cue from the Heavy Trash group and dubbed it the "Aqua line."

Here's where it gets unnecessarily complicated: City Councilman Bernard Parks has decided he doesn't like the "Aqua line" name, the L.A. Times reports today. He also doesn't like the MTA's other suggestion, the Purple Line.

Why? "Those are colors that don't resonate," Parks explained.

Huh?

Parks proposes that the new extension be called the "Expo Line" -- even though every other line on the MTA's rapid transit system are named after colors (Red, Green, Blue and Gold). His other option? The "Rose Line."

Seriously. He doesn't think "Aqua" or "Purple" resonates, but "Rose" does.

Writes the paper:

Rose represents Exposition Park's rose garden, the city councilman said. It was his second choice.

Parks and others decided his first recommendation — gray — was too similar to the San Gabriel Valley's new Silver Streak, a rapid 40-mile bus line from Claremont to downtown Los Angeles...

The Friends 4 Expo Steering Committee and the Mar Vista Community Council Board of Directors endorsed the color aqua.

Darrell Clarke, co-chairman of Friends 4 Expo, offered several reasons for rejecting Parks' color choice, including that it had not been vetted by the public.

The color rose also "is most identified with Pasadena — the Rose Bowl and Rose Parade — on the other side of town," Clarke, who lives in Santa Monica, wrote in an e-mail to members of his group.

The Aqua/Purple/Expo/Rose/Whatever Line is slated to run from downtown to Culver City, with a second phase eventually proposed to run from Culver City to Santa Monica (and the ocean -- hence the "Aqua" tag).