Chamber Didn’t Pressure Police on Station Opening

* I must take exception to the Sept. 18 story “Canoga Park Police Substation Operation Delayed.”

It seems to indicate that the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce was responsible for the premature opening of the substation.

We have indeed been excited about its opening but we have not pressured the police to speed up that opening, nor did we desire its grand opening to be a gesture without substance. The police themselves selected the date for the grand opening, and we simply complied.

I found it interesting that you found the delayed operation of the substation newsworthy but not the news of its opening.

RICHARD G. MELLINGER

Canoga Park

Mellinger is president of the Canoga Park Chamber of Commerce.

B-25 Should Remain at Burbank Airport

* Thanks for publishing the story on the effort by Media Aviation to expel the World War II vintage B-25 Heavenly Body from Burbank Airport.

Now we’ll have to see whether the airport authority will make it possible for the Heavenly Body to stay. Thanks to Mercury Aviation for providing temporary space.

I must point out that this B-25 was parked in the open air during its stay at Media Aviation. Thousands of aviation and WWII buffs had a close look at this vintage aircraft.

I hope that the mayor, City Council and airport authority recognize the historical importance of this plane and keep it at Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport.

R. C. (CHAPPY) CZAPIEWSKI

Burbank

Czapiewski is the founder and past president of the Burbank Aviation Museum.

Fair Pay for Police Is an Absolute Necessity

* I am a deputy city attorney and as such an employee of the city of Los Angeles. As a city employee I have not received a cost-of-living increase in my salary in two years. This situation makes it very difficult for my family to keep up with rising prices and continued demand caused by two young children. Although my situation is difficult, it is far better than the plight of the police officers that are demanding a pay increase.

As a prosecutor in the San Fernando Valley, I have contact with more than a dozen officers a day. Many are expected to spend hours each day in court after their regular shifts. Every day and night, they hit the streets knowing they will get too little assistance, too much grief and too few resources to stop the crime that embraces the city.

Every night, the chance that they will lose their life on the job is higher than any profession in the city.

They no longer expect admiration, respect or wealth from the job they do. They do expect, however, that they will be fairly paid for their service to the community. We can no longer support the hypocritical argument that Los Angeles deserves the best police force but is unwilling to pay more than minimum wage.

Los Angeles residents must start to realize that a well-staffed and fairly paid police force is not just a priority but an absolute necessity.

GARY G. GEUSS

Van Nuys

Isn’t It Possible to Be a Little Quieter?

* Thank you! Thank you! I thought I was losing my mind with all this noise pollution in our city, but your article titled “The Noise Plague” (Aug. 22) confirmed that others have the same concerns.

I have lived in North Hills since 1971, near the intersection of Nordhoff Street and Hayvenhurst Avenue on the approach to the Van Nuys Airport.

So much has changed since 1971, including the arrival of the Lear jet and boomboxes.

With the cars zooming and varooming, boomboxes, motorcycles and jets skimming my trees (especially at night), there are no quiet moments at my house.

Can’t we all just be a little quieter?

MELISA HAGGAI

North Hills

Crackdown on Street Vendors Is Troubling

* I was troubled by the article “County Cracks Down on Vendors” (Sept. 12), especially in light of your encouraging report of several weeks ago in which you highlighted the praiseworthy efforts of Penny Young of Los Angeles Mission College’s Business and Professional Center to obtain training for the street vendors on the Blythe Street barrio, an area with more than its share of problems.

To be sure, established retail enterprises have a legitimate complaint when street vendors force them into an unequal competitive situation. I understand that city government is currently addressing the issue, and it is my hope that an enlightened response will ensue, one that takes into account the genuine service the vendors provide to those neighborhoods that are highly, though not exclusively, Latino populated.

I am a native of the Valley, of European stock, yet my mother’s family has lived in the Southwest for almost two centuries--some ancestors even became Mexican citizens of pre-revolutionary Texas. I find much to be proud of in the culture left us by the early Spanish/Mexican pioneers. I haven’t forgotten the gay pinatas and festive barbecues hosted by my Mexican-American neighbors where I grew up near San Fernando.

Moreover, as an ex-Chilango (a former resident of Mexico City, our sister city), I haven’t forgotten the calls of the street vendors echoing up to the third floor of the upper-middle-class apartment in the Colonia Roma where I resided, hawking their beautiful flowers, tortillas and, of course, elotes (corn on the cob on a stick).

Consequently, I was delighted when eloteros began to appear at the apartment complex where I live.

The vendors are hard-working folks who often face real danger in our frequently mean streets to earn a modest living. I find that they add a certain charm and color to our streets.

They will not be vanishing anytime soon, no matter how many raids the Los Angeles County Health Department stages.

There must be a better way. The Health Department can come to some sort of hassle-free modus vivendi with the vendors while they pursue their training, for it is surely preferable to have them employed in respectable sales as opposed to drug dealing on the streets, a real likelihood for someone without decent prospects.

PETER SCHUCK

Tarzana

Roberti Will Cripple LAUSD Breakup Effort

* I agree with Mark Pierce (Letters, Aug. 22), who advocates having someone else take over the lead of the breakup of Los Angeles Unified School District.

It’s bad enough that state Sen. David Roberti has spent public funds to promote himself as the leader of this popular and critically important issue, but at the earliest opportunity he used the breakup as a Trojan horse to sneak in another property tax. Joel Fox of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. once told me that Roberti never met a tax that he didn’t like.

After a quarter of a century of being bought and paid for by the educational bureaucracy, I don’t believe Roberti has changed his spots. He will cripple the district breakup if we don’t have someone else lead the charge.

LARRY MARTZ

Van Nuys

CSUN Provides Good Start for Undergraduates

* The National Science Foundation recently reported the results of a study called “Undergraduate Origins of Recent Science and Engineering Doctorate Recipients.” The results show where doctorate recipients received their undergraduate education, a direct reflection of the quality of training received at those institutions.

Of the comprehensive baccalaureate institutions in the United States and its territories, Cal State Northridge ranked sixth overall in terms of total number of students in science and engineering who went on to receive doctorates.

These results stem from the exceptional opportunities that our undergraduates have in many areas, such as participating in faculty research activities. For example, in my lab alone, 123 student names appear on our publications, helping scores of them achieve admission to advanced programs at research universities such as Harvard and Stanford.

We pride ourselves in excellent undergraduate training because our attention is focused on undergraduates, not on doctoral or postdoctoral students.

STEVEN B. OPPENHEIMER

Northridge

Oppenheimer is director of the Center for Cancer and Developmental Biology at Cal State Northridge.

Early Pregnancy Is Not Necessarily a Good Thing

* Michael Arkush’s article of Sept. 17 on the literacy program being provided for teen-age mothers at El Nido Family Centers in Pacoima documents a wonderful example of volunteerism.

The Los Angeles section of the National Council of Jewish Women has demonstrated the ability to engage these young women despite cultural and socioeconomic differences. They are a group of warm, dedicated and capable women. El Nido is grateful to have assistance in working with our teen-age mothers.

I do take issue with the notion that “getting pregnant and quitting school might be the best thing that ever happened to them.”

Early pregnancy is for girls what gang-banging and other negative behavior is for boys. It stems from a need to belong, not feeling successful in their lives and having little hope for the future. Pregnant teen-agers focus on the miracle of a new life growing inside them and feel a sense of achievement and hope.

But once the baby arrives, the young parent is faced with the realities of too-early parenthood. Life is harder. Too many young mothers never return to school and remain welfare-dependent. Child abuse often rears its head as toddlers become willful and young mothers don’t have the skills or the understanding to deal with them.

That is why these high-risk young families need the comprehensive services that El Nido provides.

We are thrilled when our teen-age moms go on to college, as some do, with the help of an El Nido scholarship.

FRITZIE DAVIS

Los Angeles

Davis is executive director of El Nido Family Centers.

Plan for Laurel Plaza Mall Has Drawbacks

* Thank you for being the only paper to cover public hearings concerning the Laurel Plaza Mall (Sept. 22).

Here are some additional facts.

The North Hollywood Chamber said the expansion would produce 2,400 jobs but failed to mention the 300 jobs and 22 businesses that would be lost when the Laurel Plaza Mall is torn down at the May Co.

It said more than 21,000 car trips a day would be created by the new mall but failed to say a freeway traffic study will not be conducted and that traffic gridlock would likely occur around the mall.

It said that new jobs are needed but failed to say the Sears shopping mall at Victory and Laurel Canyon boulevards would probably succumb to the new expansion as would many small, local businesses and jobs.

By the way, the jobs would be produced only if the new mall and office tower were operating at full capacity, which could take years.

It said they would have 24-hour security at the mall but failed to mention the likely increase in crime and traffic accidents.

We want to see a project that is a credit to our community and not one that just puts a dollar in the developer’s pocket.

BOB CARCIA

North Hollywood

Carcia is president of Slow the Overdevelopment Process.