Bureaucrats Should Remedy Eyesore

* The bureaucrats at City Hall certainly have selective--if misguided--concepts of their responsibilities. Here a woman in Sylmar has worked wonders to beautify a miserable alley, and an “anonymous” complaint brought out the Upholders Of The Law with threats of cease and desist or else we’ll come out, tear it down, and charge you for it.

Yet more than three years of open, written and oral complaints about the contractor-created slum between Woodman Avenue and Ventura Canyon Avenue on the south side of Ventura Boulevard has evoked not a ripple from our law-interpreting, publicly paid employees.

Vagrants have been living in the derelict building, which doesn’t give our neighborhood a sense of safety. Dope deals are going on there (I’ve seen this myself). There are rat infestations. The constant fight with graffiti should in itself be enough for City Hall to take action. Our protectors of the public and interpreters of the law don’t seem to care.

Those buildings are an eyesore and an insult to the community and should not be allowed to remain standing. This is particularly true since the builder admits he cannot raise the funds to build on the site standing. Give the banks credit. Despite our former Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky’s efforts to force through an unneeded apartment complex for low-income senior citizens (who can get apartments in the area for much less than they would pay here), they knew a bad deal when they saw it.

Let’s get those buildings demolished. And if the owner or owners have to pay, so be it. They shouldn’t be treated any better than the poor woman who tried to improve the looks of her community. Indeed, they should be fined for allowing such a miserable mess to exist so long.

ALFRED E.F. STERN

Sherman Oaks