Grave Error

The article regarding using “inactive or inadequately maintained cemeteries as open space” (“City Workers Put Tombstone Issue to Rest,” Feb. 23) really appalled me.

I can understand using some unused cemetery area for open space perhaps, but to bulldoze over gravestones and sites is unthinkable. Are we really that desperate? Some of these graves date back some years, but others apparently are of relatives known and remembered by those still living. Is this really what the Legislature had in mind when it passed whatever law permits this?

It makes me angry that the mayor and other leaders of San Diego took no steps to prevent this tombstone fiasco. I am convinced that although I have lived in California for 18 years, my decision to have my remains returned to my native state of Ohio, where the dead are still given proper respect, was a good one.

AUDREY L. ROBINSON

Encinitas