Readers React: Old L.A. and new mansions don’t mix

The late comedian George Carlin used to say, “A house is just a place to keep your stuff.” My corollary is, “The bigger the space, the more stuff.” (“Return of ‘mansionization’ has some L.A. homeowners grumbling,” May 4)

The issue of mansionization in Los Angeles is the perfect manifestation of this principle. Our culture has become about stuff. And we need lots of space to house it, plus space for new stuff.

The question for me is not how many bedrooms, bathrooms and offices are necessary, but what is an appropriate size? Bathrooms are now the size of small bedrooms. Walk-in closets (for all that stuff) could accommodate a bed. New kitchens have enough working space and gadgets to be a commercial kitchen.

In a world where nearly 800 million people don’t even have access to clean water, this obsessive (and greedy) ethic of “bigger is better” is ugly and destructive.

Evelyn Baran

Beverly Hills

The bloated Cape Cod and Santa Barbara Mediterranean mega-homes are not only changing old neighborhoods like mine into de facto tracts (the same design is repeated over and over with minor exterior variations), but developers are removing mature trees to make way for them.

My Studio City neighborhood is losing large old trees at an alarming rate, and developers are not replacing them. The Los Angeles City Council should require that new trees be planted whenever a mature tree is destroyed.

Perhaps someday these new trees will provide shade, clean the air — and block the view of these grandiose structures.

Jo Perry

Studio City

It looks like Los Angeles is just starting to have the same problems we are having out here in the San Gabriel Valley.

Lovely old Spanish bungalows and various houses in neat little neighborhoods have been torn down and replaced with mansions. Residents here have been doing this for years. All these mansions come in either the big square kinds or slightly smaller ones with the garages in the front. The backyards are small or nonexistent, and the front lawns are tiny.

In the city of Arcadia alone, the owners of these “cookie cutter” mansions have put up as many Grecian columns as they possibly can fit onto the front of the houses. It’s almost as if those residents are having a contest for who can have the most elaborate house on the block.

So don’t complain to me about the mansionization of L.A. It’s been a trend in the San Gabriel Valley for several years now.

Linda Rourman

Temple City