Clarification on Parking Lot Opposition

I was delighted to read the June 6 article, “Libraries Await Needed Face Lifts,” but I was disturbed by one statement in it. In describing the proposed renovations for the Wilshire Branch Library, a library spokeswoman expresses regret over the deletion of a parking lot from the plans and indicates that the decision was made in response to neighbors’ concerns that it might become a gang hangout.

I am one of those neighbors. Gangs were not our concern. The neighborhood objected to the parking lot because it could be included in the plans only if an adjacent property, on which stands a historic Craftsman home, were purchased by the city, the house demolished and its family evicted. I and others in the neighborhood felt this was an expensive price to pay for a parking lot.

KEVIN O’CONNOR

Los Angeles

O’Connor is president of the Ridgewood-Wilton Neighborhood Assn.