Hedges May Be Attractive and Neighborly After All

Since I read Greg Goldin’s article about hedges, I have been completely bewildered while driving around the city (“The Paradox of the Hedge,” Home Design Issue, May 22). Just how many ghastly frontyards can the citizenry tolerate? Homeowners, you should be ashamed!

I’m serious. If we can’t legislate that weedy, sunburned lawns be plowed under and replanted with attractive, drought-resistant foliage, then they should be banished behind Indian laurel. Furthermore, to those who are intimidated by a neighboring hedge, perhaps if you made a sincere effort to get to know who lives behind it, you would discover what an embracing environment such places can be. If your worst suspicions turn out to be correct and the inhabitants are thoroughly unrepentant louts, well, wouldn’t you prefer not to see them?

Roger Bowers

Los Angeles

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Goldin is one of the brightest and broadest thinkers we have on the subject of architecture and urban design, and it was a pleasure to read his insightful article. As a longtime pedestrian advocate, I feel compelled to correct one misimpression in the article, in which I’m quoted as opposing a parade of pedestrians on my street.

I chose the street I live on precisely because it has such a lively parade of pedestrians and bikers headed to the beach, along with a manageable number of cars. Such parades--i.e., heavy use by nonresidents--are not to everyone’s taste, are not appropriate for every public street and should not be legislated everywhere. There are many different kinds of street environments, and variety is both appropriate and desirable.

Doug Suisman

Suisman Urban Design

Santa Monica

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You missed one important point, at least as it pertains to Venice. Many of us have been forced to put up fences and hedges because some of our neighbors feel entitled to use our lawns as dog toilets. It wasn’t enough that they have taken over our parks and sidewalks, I guess.

Jack Schwartz

Los Angeles