Housing is needed for workers near their jobs

Re “There Goes the Enrollment,” June 11

Why should it surprise anyone that the middle and upper classes are moving into Pico-Union, North Hollywood and other formerly cheap areas when slow-growth activists have choked off so much housing development on the Westside? Employment has soared in such places as Santa Monica, Westwood and Century City during the last few decades, but the residential populations surrounding those areas have not even begun to increase correspondingly. For all of the whining one hears about overdevelopment, the majority of residential streets on the Westside appear much as they would have in 1960.

The Los Angeles Planning Commission needs to grow a backbone and stand up to the “not in my backyard” crowd by changing the General Plan to allow housing to follow jobs, in accordance with economic reality. Until then, traffic and gentrification will continue to wreak havoc on the city.

PETER MCFERRIN

Los Angeles