A Lone Preservation Victory

Councilman Michael Woo’s characterization of the role played by my wife and me in the saving of Hollywood’s historic Dunning House from demolition as only “sounding the alarm” (Times, Aug. 4) is like saying Paul Revere was only a bit player in the Revolutionary War.

For seven years we lived here and watched as house after house in this neighborhood--designated by a Community Redevelopment Agency-sponsored survey as a potentially historic district--has been destroyed; three other houses listed as potentially eligible for the National Register have been demolished, 14 others are boarded up and abandoned. Today only the Dunning House remains.

The reason Councilman Woo and the CRA point so proudly to the Dunning House is that it is the only victory for historic preservation and affordable housing they can point to in the wasteland of Hollywood.

Despite their pronouncements, my wife and I--who have been on the outs with Michael Woo and the CRA since publicly criticizing their plan two years ago to move the house across town--are fully aware of who deserves credit for saving the Dunning House, and who is also responsible for the near-destruction of yet another historic landmark in Hollywood.

PAUL GORDON, DONNA WILLIAMS

Hollywood