Articles on Alcohol Problems Lauded

Kudos to you for Richard Lee Colvin’s recent articles on the laudatory efforts to de-alcoholize the community in the Pacoima-San Fernando area.

Their self-help activities deserve the full support of the district’s school-board member and city councilman, who have failed even to send a representative to respond to the alcohol-is-a-drug concerns of the residents and alcohol-abuse professionals attending an all-day conference on alcohol use and related issues.

While much of the discussion centered on ways to reduce the proliferation and over-concentration of noxious alcohol outlets in this largely minority area, it is particularly ironic that its newly redistricted county supervisor, Ed Edelman, has twice failed in recent years to join Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Kenneth Hahn in voting to establish a conditional-use-permit zoning ordinance regulating alcoholic beverages in unincorporated areas.

Perhaps now that Gloria Molina has dealt with the rampant distribution and placement of alcohol outlets in the 1st Councilmanic District of the city, she’ll have the local experience to cast the third vote for a countywide conditional-use-permit ordinance in consonance with the best features of the L.A. ordinance.

RAY CHAVIRA, Lancaster. Chavira is chair of the High Desert Alcohol Policy Coalition