Decision on school suit a major victory

Re “Judge delays plans for new school,” Dec. 22

I am the attorney representing the Echo Park community group that successfully fought the Los Angeles Unified School District’s attempt to start construction of a new elementary school in a dangerous location near Sunset Boulevard and Alvarado Street. Although the article described our lawsuit as a “small victory against the mammoth Los Angeles Unified School District,” the victory is a major one for communities affected by school sites that are not justified by student enrollment projections and demographic studies, and that rest only on the shaky foundation of the district’s improper environmental review process.

The court’s decision will have important effects on this Echo Park neighborhood, and hopefully, on similarly situated neighborhoods across the map that are embroiled in controversies with a school board and bureaucracy that, all too often, seem impervious to logic or the law.

ROBERT P. SILVERSTEIN

Pasadena