Don’t Shoot the Messenger
James Ricci highlights a conceptual problem that many of us share in analyzing demographic forecasts (“Another Absurd Act of Blind Faith: 611,000 More Angelenos,” Metropolis, Oct. 7). He refers to the City Council’s blind faith in adopting a 2010 population forecast that envisions 611,000 new residents. But acknowledging that we will need to share our city with those additional souls is a far cry from sending out invitations for them to immigrate. In fact, if history is any guide, most of the additional folks will be our own children, yet unborn.
We need to find the means of addressing growth and its consequences by encouraging more dense residential land use, expanding existing public transit, developing new transit modes and routes and increasing public services. Criticizing the City Council for acknowledging its demographers’ forecasts is a cheap shot.
James A. Fawcett
Los Angeles
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