Immigrant Mobility

I agree with Joel Kotkin’s comment that Pico-Union is a locale from which immigrants might advance, somewhat like New York’s Lower East Side at the turn of the century (Opinion, Sept. 28). However, his point that “government activism” stimulated the earlier group’s mobility is well off the mark. Self-control, frugality and family pride were more likely contributors.

The Lower East Side has been receiving immigrants for 150 years. All four of my grandparents arrived there in the 1880s, formed families and small businesses and within 15 years had moved away. Their children became professional people, with no “shipyards” or “aircraft” factories playing “a catalytic role.” A generation later the GI bill assisted their grand- children’s attending college, but by that time the family’s transition from the immigrant enclave was long past. “Public employment” had nothing to do with it.

ARTHUR M. COHEN

Los Angeles