West Hollywood

THE issue is not the percentage of heterosexuals coming to visit and live in West Hollywood. Rather it is the taste and sophistication level of those that are coming here now [“Which Way, WeHo?” May 28].

Since the ‘20s West Hollywood has been a place where progressives, artists, intellectuals and designers have lived. Many a famous actor has lived here over the decades.

What has happened with the overall dumbing down and coarsening of culture is a new, lower standard of people who have been coming here, and it has changed the character of the neighborhood. Once again The Times is about 10 years late in its reporting of the story.

Today gay is a nonissue except to heterosexuals unsure of their own sexuality, so West Hollywood is now a destination for the type of culturally inarticulate heterosexual vulgarian who never used to come here.

For a comparison of gay and straight behaviors in the same setting, just go to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and see the nonstop fun in the gay section and fights and vomit in the straight section.

The message from longtime residents is not “straights stay out” but “vulgarians stay out.”

JEFF SOFTLEY

West Hollywood