Earthquake Preparedness

* As Mike Davis so correctly points out (“The Charade of Preparedness,” Opinion, Jan. 23), planning for an earthquake or any other natural or man-made hazard has been too much under the control of developers, dependent and friendly politicians and the corporate bottom line.

Too often, politicians allow self-regulation and compliance while reassuring the public that inspections and building codes will protect us from financial and personal harm. Buildings are allowed in areas that should never be built upon. Developers are allowed to do their own testing and write their own reports. The courts and the Legislature restrict and delay the ability of citizens to recover losses caused by poor planning and building decisions, fraud, and negligence.

More stringent building codes and penalties would be a step in the right direction, but the reality is that the financial and emotional investment we make in our homes and businesses is still dependent upon the will and backbone of people who seem to have other priorities.

JEAN RUECKER

Simi Valley

* My family moved to Northridge in 1963 and most of us still live there. Now that the immediate danger is over, we found that we all had a good cry from the loss of some of our favorite places and things that over the years we grew to love.

But I think that the true story of the Northridge earthquake is still to come. It was the massive response by our city government to the crises.

In particular, we were impressed with the Department of Water and Power, the Gas Co., Caltrans, and the Building and Safety Department along with the troops of police, fire, and clean-up crews that are helping our area recover. My family would like to thank all of those people who worked so hard for us.

Northridge will soon tell us about many things that failed, from shoddy construction to poor design, but it may yet serve as the model of a city’s rapid, efficient and coordinated response to an urban earthquake.

CHRIS TATE

Granada Hills

* Yes, we want safe freeways--but they aren’t free, and they’ve never been partially safe, even without earthquakes. James Moore II (“Fix the Freeways Before Funding Trains,” Commentary, Jan. 25) brings us the engineer’s point of view about where to put our priorities and funding, but leaves out the human factor. Driving in Los Angeles is a negative, stressful and anti-social activity. It will only get worse in the future unless our leaders “ . . . focus public resources for the greatest benefit of the greatest number of people” as Moore suggests, and dedicate funding to public mass transit systems (light rail, subways, electric buses.)

As the British Economist opinion (same page) says, we’re at our best when we look forward. Public transportation, not private cars, is the best future for Los Angeles.

LIZ MERRY

Venice

* Thanks to former Mayor Tom Bradley’s persistence and vision we have Metro Link and the subway and expanded public transportation. Thus we are better able to commute during the earthquake crisis.

PALMYRA CAMERON

Los Angeles

* The most interesting thing to be learned from the article on the Northridge earthquake by Ian G. Buckle (Commentary, Jan. 24) is that the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research is located at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

What’s next--an article on frostbite from the National Center for Hypothermia Research at UCLA or--better yet--at the University of Hawaii?

LEW B. STEARNS

Pico Rivera