Talking Filth: Different Takes on the Cleanliness of Our City

Re: “Has L.A. Forgotten the Party?” (May 21). Had we imploded that building that still will not be functional when $300 million has been spent, maybe we could have had a first-class City Hall and had money left to repair the rest of the town that is falling apart.

--MITCH RABUCHIN

Van Nuys

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What a colossal hatchet job you did on our state of readiness for the Democratic convention. I’d be the first to agree that Los Angeles could use a lot of cleaning up, but I doubt that any of the convention-goers are going to notice the condition of the Moses statue or the fact that the Triforium no longer sings. As for comparisons with Philadelphia, it didn’t get the nickname “Filthydelphia” for nothing. My last remembrance of that city was streets full of trash and lots of people standing around drinking quart bottles of beer.

--LOU EINUNG

Santa Maria

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After reading your article, I took a quick drive through downtown Los Angeles. Shame on Mayor Riordan, on every single member of the City Council, on the collective membership of the Board of Supervisors, on the Editorial Page of the Los Angeles Times, on the L.A. Chamber of Commerce, and shame on me and every person who calls this wonderful and neglected city home.

We are having a party. We sent out invitations. However, none of us seems to know that our home looks like a pigsty. Our clothes are all over the living room, our dishes are dirty and piled up high in our civic kitchen. We haven’t flushed our toilets, old cars on blocks are strewn over what once was our garden and we don’t seem to care or notice.

I know it is impossible to keep our homes spotless all the time. We are just too busy. Nevertheless, we try to keep them presentable and on those rare occasions when we actually invite friends over, we put in a little extra effort to make them look “pretty.” We dust, vacuum and get flowers. We don’t want people to think we actually live in a dirty house.

Imagine the stories our much-sought-after guests will take home with them. La-La Land indeed. If we have any civic pride, now is the time to show it. Or do we know or care what civic pride means?

--EDGAR NELL

Los Angeles

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In your list of “unsightly public areas and damaged structures” that could be a blight on the Democratic National Convention, you include the wording, “Homeless are found downtown, including near Staples Center.”

The nerve of those unsightly indigents! Don’t they know that $70 million in public funds helped build that place? We need it tidy for the politicians, who will then see that we give away even more to Ed Roski and his billionaire developer pals. After all, it is clearly a better way to spend taxpayer money than to actually assist those in need.

--KAREN KLABIN

and MARTIN SCHLAGETER

Los Angeles