Reeling From Invasion by Hollywood Crews

Cliff Roseman, a location manager for some film company, is dead wrong. I, and many others, will not say “damn” when the film crews are gone. Good riddance is more like it.

My neighborhood, with its old houses, was one of many favorites of the film companies. I haven’t seen much of them lately, perhaps because of letters to Charles Weisenberg, director of the city’s motion picture and television affairs office, and tactics such as asking for the crew’s film permits. These permits have a definite ending time, and if they aren’t cleaned up and out of there by that time, my neighbors and I let Weisenberg know.

As for Weisenberg’s assertion that the industry generates $5 billion a year for California, I ask for whom? Does $5 billion go into the coffers of the state or cities of California? I bet most of it ends up in the pockets of the producers and stars, those people who don’t allow filming in their neighborhoods.

If more companies were like Avnet/Kerner, which helped the community and improved the area instead of trashing it, maybe I’d sing a different tune. But they are not. Most just go for the bucks, everyone else be damned. It is time the production companies shape up or ship out. ANDREW CARRILLO, Los Angeles