Historic Site

Patt Morrison, in her eloquent column (“Does Historic Site Have a Ghost of a Chance,” April 23) addresses the “powers in the towers of Universal’s shining studio on the hill” about the importance of preserving a precious bit of history.

It was a really nice try. Would that those mysterious “powers” had ears to hear, let alone hearts that could respond to passion and reason.

Morrison speaks of two previous great battles that were waged in the Cahuenga Pass, one in 1831 and the other in 1845, over the issue of “home rule” in a different sense, and it has been waged over the last three or four years, as Universal has brought to the neighboring community its proposal for expansion of its theme park, CityWalk, and its other commercial-entertainment business enterprises.

The Tomas Feliz adobe is not the only “vanished adobe” that has fallen victim to “the power in the towers,” and neither will it be the last in the process. I miss my beautiful home of 20 years, my own “vanished adobe” with memories spilling down its garden paths and loving ghosts walking its hallways. I miss the old hearth, where the 1927 fireplace kept the coals glowing till morning. I miss the thick walls and the high ceilings, the rooms where friends and family gathered. I miss the citrus blossoms, the rose garden, the freshly cut grass, the beating of wings as morning doves flew from the tile rooftop to rest in privet branches and await the day.

But life is too short to spend any more days of it being angry and resentful. After being advised by police one too many times, when the noise from the hills became just too much, that if I didn’t like it, I’d better move “because they’re bigger than City Hall,” I finally did.

Bottom line here? As MCA / Universal goes, so goes the neighborhood. We will long continue to feel their crushing footprints on the fragile pathways of our lives.

But “Bravo” anyway, Patt Morrison.

SALLY STEVENS, Studio City