To the editor: Regarding the enormous problems at Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park and the surrounding neighborhood, the very last thing that the city needs to do is spend a single penny on redesigning that park during this crisis. (“By MacArthur Park, the lights are out and residents are tired of empty promises,” column, Sept. 14)
I learned long ago in my landscape architecture education a truism that still holds: You cannot solve a social problem with an architectural design.
Clean up that park. Fix the damn lighting. Get people into drug rehab if they want it. Get them into housing. Do something. Do anything.
And take that money from the preposterously bloated Los Angeles Police Department budget to do it. The department is bleeding this city’s coffers dry while Los Angeles falls apart and people suffer and die.
Mickey Fielding, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Steve Lopez hits the nail on the head with what’s wrong systematically with L.A. County and city government. The nonresponse by local authorities and bureaucrats continues, with just a few exceptions.
Los Angeles cannot rebound from the current state of despair and decay on our streets unless all of the city and county leadership starts doing its job.
As for the broken lighting around MacArthur Park, at least someone please say, “Let there be light.”
Mark Silverman, Marina del Rey