LIFE IN L.A.

Thank you for “Special Report: The Quality of L.A. Life,” by Kevin Roderick and Stephen Braun (April 2). It’s time Angelenos stopped patting themselves on the back for all of the city’s recent “progress” and acknowledged what a truly miserable place this is to live. You did, however, omit the single most annoying factor in L.A. life: The attitude, apparently shared by most Los Angeles residents, that “My time is more important than yours.” Witness drivers cutting each other off on the freeway; people cutting in line at restaurants, grocery stores and movie theaters; drivers endangering the lives of pedestrians by speeding through yellow and red traffic lights--and my personal favorite, the car horn. Los Angeles drivers have a belief bordering on the mystic that honking their horns will make everything better.

After enduring L.A.’s constant assault on my senses for three years, I am returning to San Diego. My message to L.A. residents who have also considered this move, however, is: “Don’t do it. Stay here.”

LESLIE A. HATTER

Los Angeles