Concerned Citizens Change Community

Thank you for your recent article on environmental racism, and particularly for featuring the work of Concerned Citizens of South-Central Los Angeles (“The Eco-War Hits the Streets of the Inner City, Dec. 23). I am a public interest attorney in the South-Central community, but Concerned Citizens taught me the true meaning of the term public interest.

Their work illustrates how the environmental movement can and must be utilized to improve the quality of life. The members of this group care deeply about South-Central L.A. and work tirelessly to protect the community from pollution, crime, neglect and exploitation. They take the approach that residents of every neighborhood have a right to decent housing, good schools, safe streets, jobs, access to shopping and recreation, medical care--the things that everyone wants, and things that encompass our complete “environment.”

Moreover, Concerned Citizens functions in an inclusive style, seeking to empower community residents to speak up, to become activists and advocates. They have demonstrated their ability to successfully negotiate the corridors of power typically believed to be off-limits to ordinary people, and they have exploded the myth that low-income and minority communities are apathetic and unsophisticated.

I hope you will continue to focus attention on extraordinary community groups like Concerned Citizens and the Mothers of East L.A., who are truly helping to make Los Angeles a better place to live.

MARY M. LEE

Los Angeles