Opinion: For noncommercial music lovers, it’s often DIY venues like Oakland’s Ghost Ship or nothing at all

To the editor: People who are not members of an underground music community may find it easy to declare that they would never patronize a venue such as the Ghost Ship in Oakland, a converted warehouse where dozens of people were killed in a massive fire Friday night. (“Scrutiny grows over conditions at Ghost Ship warehouse where at least 24 died during a fire,” Dec. 4)

But if you’re interested in noncommercial music, the concerts you attend will probably be in DIY venues. These places don’t make a profit and consequently are excellent community spaces: Tickets are cheap, enabling individuals of diverse means to attend and artists without a commercially significant fan base to perform. Much of the news coverage ignores this part of the story in favor of the sensationalist narrative that implies that the Ghost Ship was so obviously dangerous that anyone attending was irresponsible.

Certainly, there were lapses in oversight — by the city government, promoters and warehouse owners — but the fans who came out that night were simply supporting local musicians and enjoying the music, like they had many times before.

Rose Dwyer, Los Angeles

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To the editor: The year 2016 is our very own American annus horribilis.

With a monstrous election that decimated illusions of democratic ideals finally ended, it seemed for a moment that California might hold up some standard of fairness and equity with our proud declarations that we would protect our immigrant population, that we would not give way to the grasping greed and hatred loose in the country.

But, no. The pictures of the young — surely some of our best and brightest destined for artistic achievement — destroyed by a wholly unnecessary raging fire gave truth to our dirty secrets. We have no protections, no fire safety, no housing for those embarked on a journey not defined by money.

I say to immigrants, “Watch carefully where you live and watch what we do, not what we say.”

Lynne Culp, Van Nuys

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