L.A.’s great December power outage; the debate over the payroll tax cut; a big payout to L.A.’s former Housing Authority chief

The powerless

Re “Outrage over power outage,” Dec. 7

Come on, people, it’s not the end of the world. Yes, the power outages are an inconvenience, but it’s not like we live in Nome, Alaska.

I can’t find fault with Southern California Edison’s efforts to restore power. Like thousands of others, I lost power for a few days. This was an extremely rare wind event that felled many trees, and the response by local utilities has been impressive.

L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich should ease up; he lambasted Edison officials for failing to communicate with customers who had no access to phones, radio, television or the Internet. What should Edison do? Send smoke signals?

Matthew Mackenzie

Arcadia

A real “shovel-ready” project would be to put our power lines underground.

It would take planning and much cooperation from the power companies (perhaps we’d even be asked to kick in a couple of bucks), but the problem of our fragile power grid, not to mention our unsightly power lines, would finally be resolved.

Janet Goldberg

Idyllwild

I sort of know what it’s like to have the power out. Several weeks ago in the late afternoon a truck clipped the power lines to my building and left us with half of the power needed. Crews showed up at 2:30 a.m. and were finished in an hour.

Edison crews do work 24 hours a day. With all the trees blocking roads and resting on power lines, I don’t see how Edison could work any faster. It’s up to the local cleanup crews to remove the trees to make room for Edison.

Michael Richman

Santa Ana

Cut tax now, pay later

Re “Senate Democrats revise proposal on payroll tax,” Dec. 6

The insincerity of our politicians is being demonstrated with the debate over an extension of the payroll tax cut.

For years, the thrust was to increase the income cap on this tax because Social Security was going to run dry. Do they cut other taxes to help the economy in a recession? No, they cut only this one.

The people who need help are not the employed but rather the unemployed who don’t pay the tax. The real reason for this move was for immediate political gain, but the result may be a reduction in retirement income provided by Social Security.

Whose interest has been served?

Tom Kimler

Red Bluff, Calif.

House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) seeks to “sweeten the deal” by strong-arming through the environmentally devastating Keystone XL pipeline and by the relaxation of boiler emissions regulations projected to prevent 8,100 premature deaths.

There is only one possible explanation: The Republicans are bulking up their resumes for corporate lobbyist jobs when they are thrown out of Congress in 2012.

Wendy Blais

North Hills

Big payday for housing official

Re “Ousted L.A. official gets $1.2 million,” Dec. 4

There was never a better argument against increasing taxes than the $1.2 million being paid to ousted Housing Authority chief Rudolf Montiel.

Raising taxes and continuing these insane practices (like many others The Times has reported on recently) is the easy way out. No conflicts, no difficult decisions and no antagonizing unions.

Reforming the way our government does “business” with taxpayers’ money, however, will result in a stream of new revenue without the negative effect on the economy of more taxes. It requires work and courage, though.

The only bright spot is that Montiel will pay taxes on his settlement. Or is there a loophole for that?

Wim Scholten

Culver City

Our church is working with a formerly homeless mother and her daughter. On Dec. 1, their Section 8 rent went up 10% (from $597 to $655 per month) because the Housing Authority doesn’t have enough money.

Montiel’s $1.2-million severance would cover this 10% increase for 1,724 families for one year.

This government is not ours any longer.

Joseph Becci

Los Angeles

Occupy’s toll

Re “L.A. facing $72-million budget gap,” Dec. 3

I am an L.A. city employee who is on my third year of forced furloughs. It’s disheartening to hear of the ever-increasing budget deficit because the mayor and City Council weren’t proactive.

These city leaders allowed the Occupy L.A. protesters to squat on city land, vandalize city property and leave tons of trash to be removed, all at city expense. I am a 911 supervisor, and if I had made a bad decision costing the city a lot of money, I would have been terminated.

Shame on the mayor and City Council for their adding these expenses to the taxpayers’ bill.

Lillian Brock

Chino Hills

Children first

Re “Protecting the most vulnerable,” Opinion, Nov. 28

I commend Marcy Valenzuela for sharing her experiences with the dependency courts and speaking out against L.A. County Superior Court Judge Michael Nash’s order to subject our most vulnerable victims of neglect and abuse to public scrutiny.

As a child welfare advocate for 11 years, I share Valenzuela’s concern for fostering an open process that protects our youth from harm. The biggest priority for child and family advocates is the safety of our clients. Exposing the traumas of young victims in public would undermine the confidentiality necessary to nurture the trust and security that is needed to restore an environment for healthy families.

David Green

La Crescenta

It’s capitalism

Re “Kodak’s long fade to black,” Column, Dec. 4

Many enterprises have come, flourished and ultimately flamed out. Eastman Kodak could be next.

In a free market, the strongest succeed while the weak dissolve. Without adaptation, you are deservedly vanquished.

Lately, the federal government has, with billions of taxpayer dollars, decided which companies to bail out. Kodak may fail, and if it does, the consumer will have spoken.

Daniel J. McNamara

West Hills

Parsing Potter

Re “Harry Potter and the imagination thief,” Opinion, Dec. 5

English literature doctoral student Talya Meyers doesn’t like that J.K. Rowling is releasing additional information about the world of Harry Potter after the books have been published because scholars don’t get to “parse” the works for meaning.

Parse, peel, extract and pummel to your heart’s content, scholars. Not everything literary has to be so mysterious.

Just enjoy the stories and their message about important things like friendship and bravery, whether or not extra details about beloved characters from the person who lovingly created them mar your profound analysis.

Karen Lindell

Camarillo