Readers react: Do we need a Glendale Freeway that improves traffic or the environment?

Christopher Hawthorne’s idea of replacing the Glendale Freeway stub [“A Colorful Revamp of 2 Fwy. Spur,” July 11] may seem like fantasy to some, but improving urban spaces by taking down obsolete freeways has worked in many places. Here in the western San Gabriel Valley is an example even closer to reality: replacing the 710 stub north of the 10 with a great street. This would accomplish many of the aesthetic goals that Hawthorne champions, including creating more park space, fostering an arroyo restoration, bettering health outcomes and promoting community connections. But our plan, known as “Beyond the 710” (www.beyondthe710.org) would do the unthinkable: actually improve traffic in the area. We’re hopeful that Metro will soon abandon the shortsighted effort to build a highway tunnel through our communities and instead embrace the kind of modern mobility planning that our plan represents.

Ara Najarian

Member of the Glendale City Council

Marina Khubesrian

Member of the South Pasadena City Council

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Just a thought: Why not finish the freeway that was planned originally? Surely more bike lanes are not an answer for the commuter who lives in suburbs and works in downtown L.A.

Robert Thorson

Los Angeles

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Echo Park Lake, Elysian Park and Silver Lake Reservoir are the real gems of our community. We don’t need a concrete barrier that isolates us from Glendale, Eagle Rock and their surrounding communities.

Ken Evenhuis

Los Angeles

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The “more modest” changes to the 2 terminus resulted from extensive public discussions over the years and a realization that more radical changes would, in the view of most of the community, make our lives worse. The officials involved, to their credit, did their best to respond to these voices — hardly a “bureaucratic impasse.”

Tim Clark

Los Angeles

Awards aren’t everything

Regarding “Up for an EGOT Trip” [July 12]. With all that’s going on in the nation, it’s hard for me to work up much concern that Jeremy Irons doesn’t have a Grammy.

Stan Evans

Glendale

Getting their dander up

How perfectly your larger than life images [“Culture of Anger,” July 17] played into my Sunday afternoon at the movies. Seeing “The BFG” I was astounded at this family horror film, filled with hideous images of bullying, fury-filled giants, terrifying images and dangerous situations confronting a likable, assertive, innocently appealing orphanage refugee. Surely this is not from the same Steven Spielberg, creator of so many charming, lovable characters in the past. This film deserves an “R” rating for excessive violence and scatological “humor.”

Judy Wolman

Rancho Mirage

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The problem with what you are asking [“The Culture of Anger: Put Trust in an Ire Power”] is that no writer of talent today has the patience of an Ibsen or Miller or Williams to construct a powerful statement through art.

Beth Brickell

Sherman Oaks

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Regarding “The Culture of Anger: When Films Really Got Mad”: I suggest watching any film with Marlon Brando if one wants to experience the thrill of unadulterated anger being expressed by one of America’s greatest actors.

Giuseppe Mirelli

Los Angeles

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Don’t let George Jefferson find out he was left off of the list [“The Culture of Anger: Testy Tube Creations”]. He might declare that he should rightfully be at the top of the list; perhaps the angriest (and funniest) TV character by which all others should be measured.

Paul Gase

Huntington Beach

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There is a notable omission: Dr. Martin Ellingham, played by Martin Clunes, in the “Doc Martin” series. His perpetual scowl and withering retorts rank with the best.

Henry Hespenheide

Hermosa Beach

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Tom Morello apparently is proud of the fact that his music was the background for illegal destruction of private property [“The Culture of Anger: Songs of Truth in Dangerous Times”]. . I’m going to start a band called Rage Against a Broken Moral Compass.

Bruce A. Fisher

Woodland Hills

Misty Copeland deserves better

Why on earth would you publish a letter [“Calendar Feedback: Ballerina May Be Overrated” July 17] trashing Misty Copeland’s body? Saying that she doesn’t have the body for classical ballet is exactly the racial stereotyping that she’s worked her entire dancing life to disprove. And she’s disproved it magnificently. The letter was mean-spirited and not worthy of print in a reputable paper.

Nancy da Silveira

Claremont

Circus should be free of animals

Regarding: “Circus Minus Its Biggest Attraction” [July 15]. Ringling Bros. recently phased out elephants but still forces dozens of animals to travel and perform. These animals are denied everything natural and important to them. It’s past time for Ringling to remove all animals from its shows.

Delcianna J. Winders

Harvard Law School