Skid row plan

Re “Good signs downtown, but vision still lacking,” column, Aug. 12

As usual, I agreed with most of what Steve Lopez had to say, but not all. One of my strongest objections was to his comment “that downtown will scare most people away until there’s a commitment to build, and scatter across the region, enough supportive housing to clean up skid row once and for all.” As creator of the Skid Row Development Corp., I can assure Lopez that we spent a great deal of time on this subject and concluded that it was not a good idea to scatter skid row across L.A. Our plan was to contain it within its existing area, which is close to the governmental service providers these people need.

Harold L. Katz

Los Angeles