Eli Broad
Mark Arax’s Aug. 6 article on Eli Broad was fascinating. None of us, Broad included, should regret Broad’s contributions as a developer. Broad’s decision to build detached, single-family homes was not selfish. His firm provided many thousands of home buyers with exactly what these buyers wanted most, homes with the correct mix of affordability and location.
Kaufman & Broad’s “far-flung subdivisions” never “sucked life out of the core of Los Angeles,” and suburban growth is not what “eviscerated” downtown. Los Angeles’ form is neither inefficient nor chaotic. Los Angeles is the sum total of what local home buyers wanted this region to be. Broad’s decisions to build at the periphery helped turn L.A. into a vital, dispersed economic engine, the likes of which the world has never seen before.
JAMES E. MOORE II
Associate Prof., Civil
Engineering, Public Policy
and Management, USC
*
If Broad wants to do something for Southern California, let him take his money, which is more than enough for the job, and buy back those developments that have helped make the area the infrastructural joke it is and dismantle them. True, density is the future, making cities such as Siena, Italy, and ancient Assyria the coming thing, and Los Angeles obsolete, as it has been for years.
If Broad wants to bring his clout into effect, he might work behind the scenes. He would stop embarrassing himself and ticking off those of us who remember when it didn’t require 2 1/2 hours of driving to clear Southern California sprawl.
ELISSA TOGNOZZI
Santa Monica
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If I were the reporter interviewing Broad, my first question would be, “If you are so committed to downtown L.A., then why isn’t your business or home located there?” For his crusade to come across as truly genuine, Broad should move SunAmerica from Century City to the city’s core, and he should sell his home in Brentwood and live you know where.
Those actions would make headlines, inspire others, and thereby help implement his self-vision for a revived downtown.
CALVIN NAITO
Los Angeles
