Readers React:  Save San Pedro’s Red Car line

To the editor: A number of U.S. cities are realizing an increase in tourism and shopping due to the fact that “heritage” streetcars, some operating along with modern streetcars and trams, have created a convenient and street-level way for the public to travel within a community. (“The Red Car’s last stop,” Sept. 26)

By discontinuing the Red Car line in San Pedro, the developers are spending millions of dollars only to isolate their community and tourist-friendly efforts.

Morley J. Helfand, Arcadia

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To the editor: I am 75 years old and a Southern California native. I rode the Pacific Electric Red Cars in my youth and realize the historic role they played in the development of Southern California.

I admit to being a train enthusiast (I am curator of the Pacific Railroad Museum in San Dimas.) But the imminent demise of the San Pedro line, as chronicled in The Times, is an action I adamantly oppose, as do my fellow members of the Pacific Railroad Society.

Pacific Electric is part of our heritage; it should not be allowed to fade away again.

It upsets me greatly that we in Southern California are so willing to ignore our past in the name of “progress.”

David B. Housh, Glendora

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