The Ambassador Hotel’s future

I want to thank Christopher Hawthorne for the thoughtful and thought-provoking article on the debate over the Ambassador Hotel (“The Equivocal City,” Jan. 9). Although I do not agree with everything he said, I appreciated his extensive thoughts on the matter. As one who supports the LAUSD decision to build a school on the site, I found his arguments quite strong and genuine.

Thank you, Christopher Hawthorne, for providing another perspective from a point of view that takes into account a more global and much more complicated view of our community.

Rosa Maria Hernandez

Whittier

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The Ambassador Hotel presents a unique example of historical preservation. The hotel has a rich history of great events but also tragedies. While I am for historical preservation, the outcome of what to do with the existing buildings should consist of what the current hotel has to offer as a school that would represent the needs of the community surrounding the site.

The article seemed to note that the conversation about the future of the hotel was two-sided: on one side, the Los Angeles Conservancy, and on the other, the school board via Roy Romer. What the article neglected was input from the community that will be impacted by the school. Whether the whole hotel is razed or only parts of it should be the result of a serious and thorough debate in which the community, civic leaders, educators and local parents have had ample input, and not just a proposal coming from the Los Angeles Conservancy or the school board.

Edgar Sandoval

San Fernando

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Thank you for Christopher Hawthorne’s perspective and incisively written article. He successfully demonstrated, in my view, the shortsighted thinking of Supt. Romer.

As a 35-year veteran of the construction and real estate industries, I think there surely must be additional, and possibly unexplored, alternatives available to preserve and renovate the historic buildings for the school use the neighborhood so sorely needs, at a feasible cost.

Finally, Robert Kennedy left an indelible mark on our country and its psyche, and it would be shameful to disrupt a historical site associated with the magnitude of his death.

Paul Christ

Newport Beach