L.A.’s lost soul

Re “Tears for an Icon That Was Home,” Feb. 2

Nothing in our disaster-prone natural environment is as devastating as the erosion of the very soul of Los Angeles.

While it was still a crumbling film location, I wandered through the halls of the abandoned Ambassador Hotel. It made me experience an incredible sense of time and purpose. It was a Los Angeles of nightlife and music, of celebrity and dreams.

Clearly, our city is being stripped of its romanticism and mythology by politicians and bureaucrats. And if we continue this way, we’re destined to find ourselves living in just another faceless Third World city, devoid of character, place and history.

RICHARD ROTHSCHILD

Los Angeles