Explore the Real Issue in L.A. Housing Incident

Re “Consensus Builds on Need for Housing,” Feb. 17: What consistently frustrates me about land-use debates is how easy it is for committed individuals in established neighborhoods to obstruct housing development in precisely the areas that have infrastructure in place and jobs nearby.

In my built-out city, activists have been willing to put considerable talent and energy into using environmental laws and the political system to block the replacement of ugly parking lots with much needed condos and apartments. This system fuels the high prices that drive people to overextend themselves to buy their first home.

Housing development should not occur only in places where there are no neighbors around to protest. As the governor and the Legislature debate changes to our land-use laws, their goal at the very least should be to make it easier to build housing where people most want to live.

Chris Morgan

Oakland

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Re “Police Break Up Unruly Crowd,” Feb. 15: Once again, we are failing to recognize what is truly important. I pick up a newspaper with the hope that it will give me a more comprehensive perspective than the 5 p.m. news does -- not this time. The story should have focused more on the issue of very much-needed affordable housing and its impact on struggling residents of Los Angeles. Then maybe your newspaper could have enlightened readers about the severity of rising costs of housing and the disappearance of subsidized housing opportunities, such as the Section 8 freeze and cuts from which many families are now suffering.

I consider that to be more significant, eye-opening news than the mere visual image of a crowd having to be dispersed. I want to know what is really going on in my city and among its residents, so please report more than the obvious.

Nancy Mejia

Lakewood

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The real story is not the regrettable reaction of the crowd, but what brought them together: 3,000 people seeking one of 150 remaining application forms for 56 available affordable housing units. The housing crisis in Hollywood and throughout Los Angeles is the real story.

Housing is a moral issue, one that demands our attention and action so that its priority is reflected in our nation’s budget. Otherwise we will continue to see an increase in what Gandhi once called the worst form of violence: poverty.

The Rev. Kathy

Cooper-Ledesma

Assoc. Pastor, Hollywood

United Methodist Church

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Los Angeles Police Capt. Michael Downing has probably never been homeless. “You had some very desperate people.... It was as if people were trying to get the last piece of bread.”

The last piece of bread? Didn’t the French have a problem with that right before the revolution? Why can’t the wealthiest country house its citizens?

Peggy Rex

Venice