Saudis Secret Stake in Marina

Jeff Rabin and William Rempel’s series on Saudi investment in Marina del Rey (Part A, Nov. 12-13) and Abe Lurie, its most powerful lessee, though a great piece of reporting, comes as no surprise to me. Through the years I’ve watched our Board of Supervisors accept large campaign contributions, notably from important developers, and then give away the store to those same developers. I honestly don’t see any way to reform the current corrupt system, though, until people start paying more attention to just how powerful these county fiefdoms are. Maybe then they’ll vote in politicians with integrity--or is that an oxymoron?

As chairperson of Friends of Ballona Wetlands, I must comment on one headline: “Marina del Rey Development Rose Out of Mud” (Nov. 12). Mud it may have been, but it was the most productive mud on earth. The Times’ own Richard O’Reilly put it best when he said: “Of all the places along California’s magnificent, 1,100 mile coastline, the most fragile and least appreciated are the wetlands. They are where the earth suckles the sea, a nursery of unbelievable fertility. If the planet can be thought of as having nests, its coastal wetlands are those nests. They are the places where much of the earth’s food chain is born” (May 15, 1981).

Marina del Rey didn’t rise out of just mud--it rose out of a wetland. A part of the once 2,000 acre Ballona Wetlands, now reduced to the 300 or so acres the Friends have been fighting to save for over a decade.

When the Marina was built no one cared about wetlands--or much else, when it came to nature. Now we know better and because of that new knowledge what remains of the Ballona Wetlands will survive and even be restored to its former productivity.

RUTH LANSFORD

Playa del Rey