Cities Rated on Child Safety

The rating of cities by Zero Population Growth (Aug. 25) has produced the startling conclusion that children who grow up in affluent suburbs are much better off than those who come from poor inner-city neighborhoods. The tragedy of this meaningless “beauty contest” is that it reinforces the stereotype of low-income, usually ethnic neighborhoods, thereby depriving them of economic development that is needed to address the very issues that produced the low ratings.

If the members of ZPG are truly interested in the welfare of our children, they would instead focus on issues such as the inequitable disbursements of state sales and property taxes to the cities, which are most in need of providing quality education and human services.

ALAN COLES

Long Beach

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You accompanied the article with a picture of a woman and her two children with a caption that read “a woman struggles with a shopping cart over train tracks at Cogswell Road in El Monte.” The caption further explained that El Monte received an “F” compared with most cities as a safe and sound home for children.

Excuse me, but how is El Monte responsible for the situation shown in this picture? It looks to me like the mother is the one not providing a safe and sound home for her children. The caption should have read “Setting a bad example for her children by stealing a shopping cart, an El Monte mother places her toddlers in danger as she struggles to get the stolen cart over a railroad track crossing.”

GREG THORNEYCROFT

Los Angeles