Readers React: A more ‘Latino’ L.A., but not for Latinos

To the editor: How ironic it is that your article on L.A.’s new street life featuring Grand Central Market on Broadway would be titled “Latino Urbanism,” because the development is designed to attract the new downtown urban hipsters, effectively shutting out the Latino population that had frequented the area. (“‘Latino Urbanism’ influences a Los Angeles in flux,” Dec. 6)

Furthermore, the traffic lanes taken away for street-side dining tables and bicycle lanes cause a traffic nightmare for those who work on the east side of downtown but live elsewhere.

So pardon me if I don’t jump for joy at the opportunity to eat an overpriced sandwich three feet from bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Nina Jackson, Culver City

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To the editor: In recent years, immigration activists and populist politicians have promoted such things as relaxing regulatory requirements for street vendors, spending taxpayer money on healthcare for illegal immigrants, giving driver licenses to illegal immigrants, hiking the minimum wage to about $15 for jobs that require no education and requiring ethnic studies classes in public schools.

And now, as the article states, city planners are taking cues from immigrants who have “remade pockets of American cities to feel at least a little like the places they left behind.”

To each his or her own, but my personal and apolitical preference is to live and work in a place that does not feel like downtown Tijuana.

Joel Anderson, Studio City

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