Please, No More ‘Development’
As a homeowner in the San Fernando Valley for 38 years, I wish to protest the building of more apartments and condominiums in this Valley. What we need is more open space and less crowding.
In 1974, when I become a volunteer for this city, I heard our city fathers talking about putting a moratorium on growth to preserve open space. What happened to those plans? The developers somehow convinced the city/county that “more is better.”
Most developers don’t care about quality. If they did, they wouldn’t build right up to the sidewalk and on every inch of space so children have no place to play and so high that the mountain views are gone for everyone else in the area.
It has to be greed that causes them to build ugly, minimum quality apartments and condominiums, while living services are deteriorating, such as play areas, streets, sewers, schools and health services. We are being gobbled up by greed and the city/county fathers are helping the builders and developers swallow us.
What have been the results of this overbuilding and consequent overcrowding? Freeways jammed, sometimes 14 hours a day.
No subway, tram or train, elevated or otherwise is going to solve the problem. Two or more passenger lanes and direct route lanes on the present freeways will bring a little relief.
That won’t solve the emission-polluting problem. Every day the air we and our children breathe is making us sick, only to send us to the overcrowded hospitals and doctors’ offices.
The trauma centers and clinics are closing and more and more people are forced to do without needed care. Overcrowding of our schools contributes to student dropout, which leads to mischief, crime and gang violence. Jails and juvenile centers cannot handle the overflow.
My prediction is, if nothing is done, the greed of the builders will destroy the city I have come to love, Los Angeles. Without halting the rapid building and consequent overcrowding, I predict that this city will become a wasteland with unhealthly air, land and ocean.
JYNNY RETZINGER
Reseda
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