Citizens Advise Mayor James Hahn

Regarding the advice given to Mayor James Hahn from 41 people (Opinion, July 1): Not one of them mentioned the San Fernando Valley. I would like to offer Mayor Hahn a 42nd piece of advice: Remember who elected you.

Mary S. Morgan

West Hills

Congratulations on the most imaginative use of the Opinion section in a long time. You succeeded in creating a list of advisors with many surprises. Not only the usual pontificators but also some very special figures not often included in public political discourse both amused and instructed.

Special thanks for asking Norman Corwin, Stan Freberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as Arianna Huffington, Connie Rice and all the others from the multiplicity of interests that constitutes the diversity of this great city. I hope Mayor Hahn pays attention.

Ethel Greenfield Booth

Los Angeles

Your July 3 story on federal Judge Harry Pregerson swearing-in Mayor Hahn was riveting. I was in and out of Pregerson’s court weekly for more than four years as a Caltrans lawyer in the Century Freeway litigation. My initial astonishment that any judge would have the temerity to halt a billion-dollar freeway project gave way to understanding. His former law clerk, Felicia Marcus, said it best: “It’s about people, stupid.”

The corridor of the freeway-to-be resembled an elongated war zone. Homes may not have been as pretty as ours in the suburbs; they were nevertheless homes in which people lived their lives. Complicated relocation allowances did not touch the trauma of uprooting kids from their schools and friends or the disruption of being evicted. Hopefully, Pregerson’s efforts with Century Housing provided a palliative.

Bob Cohune

Truckee, Calif.