2 Groups Share Same Concerns

We were pleased to see your article, “Gabrielinos Join Battle Over Barrington Plaza” (Times, Oct. 24) reporting the unity that is growing between our two groups to protect our common ground from overdevelopment and to preserve the great heritage of our community.

However, we were dismayed by the misrepresentation of the relationship between our groups as a quid pro quo exchange of “money (for) . . . a cultural center . . . in return for . . . opposition to the Barrington project.” No one in the tribe ever made such a request and no one in the West Los Angeles Community Organization has received such a request. Your reporter drew the false conclusion that there was a linkage between the two activities and then presented it as a fact.

Members of both the Community Organization and the Tongva (Gabrielino) tribe have spoken and will continue to speak from their hearts concerning their outrage at the threat to our common environment such overdevelopment will cause.

Developing the springs at University High School as a community resource for gardening, preserving and presenting our multicultural heritage over the past millennia, and simply providing a quiet place in our urban environment to contemplate the cool, calm waters that naturally flow from our land will continue to be a common goal for both of our communities to achieve, and then maintain long after current proposals to ruin our environment have been laid to rest.

GENE LA TOUR

CINDI ALVITRE

Editor’s note: La Tour is president of the West Los Angeles Community Organization. Alvitre is chairwoman of the Gabrielino Tribal Council.