Manufacturing: a Jewel in the Crown of L.A.

Re “Citing Health Hazards, State Halts Jewelry Making in an L.A. Building,” July 28: We know there is a problem with toxic materials in the jewelry district, but here is another case of “Big Brotherism” in the form of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

This sort of thing has been responsible for most of the corporate flight from Los Angeles over the last 45 years. How many of us remember the extensive auto and furniture manufacturing industries in this city?

Now we have a focus on the jewelry industry. Los Angeles needs all the industry and jobs it can get; $11 million is a significant amount of tax revenue. The city needs revenue from industry and can’t keep raising homeowner property taxes to make do.

The jewelry industry must be allowed to find a solution to this problem without Orwellian-style government interventions and shutdowns.

David Schwartz

Sherman Oaks