Downtown Site for New Cathedral

* Re “New Cathedral Won’t Be on St. Vibiana’s Site,” July 23:

In regard to Cardinal Roger Mahony’s decision to relocate the new cathedral for Los Angeles from its present site, the consideration of property “just west of downtown” (west of the Harbor Freeway, between 4th and 6th streets) will not be “a crucial boost to downtown” at all.

The preliminary ideas for an “urban plaza” and a “cultural/ religious center” planned at (or near) the current location would indeed revitalize the heart of downtown.

If the new cathedral for Los Angeles is constructed west of the Harbor Freeway, it might as well be in Rome.

PHILIP J. DeBOLSKE

Los Angeles

* Clearly it is a happy circumstance that Cardinal Mahony has decided to keep the new Los Angeles cathedral within the downtown core after many threats to move elsewhere. Less happy has been his and L.A. City Council members’ insistence on creating such dramatics in the first place and their ongoing crusade to demolish one of the oldest structures existing within the city of Los Angeles.

With the exception of the original City Hall building itself, much of the Civic Center is an eyesore of characterless dreck, posing as architecture, from the 1950s. A well-executed cathedral would be of great benefit, both artistically and economically, for that area of downtown.

But what of St. Vibiana’s? The Catholic Church is hardly short on funds. A concerted effort to restore this cathedral, perhaps as an adaptive reuse project--say a rescue mission or community center--is far wiser than demolishing it.

With real luck (and some help from the courts), may St. Vibiana’s continue to impress long after Mahony and the council have been forgotten to history.

TOM TREVOR

Los Angeles

* Hurrah for Cardinal Mahony! The Los Angeles Conservancy tried to barge in on his dinner party--demanding prime rib, no less. The cardinal gave ‘em a knuckle sandwich instead. It is sometimes pleasurable to see such self-anointed “guardians” as the Conservancy get their lumps, especially when they try to dictate an agenda for someone else--at someone else’s expense, of course.

WALT KILMANAS

Redondo Beach