Letters to the Editor: Boyle Heights elders feel left out of 6th Street Viaduct celebration
To the editor: I have been a resident of Boyle Heights since 1987. My family has been living in this community for more than 40 years, and I’m a bit disappointed that we did not hear anything about the grand opening of the new 6th Street Viaduct.
Our elders have considered Boyle Heights their second home since migrating from Mexico, China, Japan, Israel, Russia and many other countries. They should have had the privilege of attending the grand opening of our bridge — well, not necessarily ours, but it’s what we know. We see it going west on Whittier Boulevard or going north or south on Boyle Avenue.
I know there were probably announcements on social media and other places, but not once did I see or hear anything regarding the opening of this bridge. Our elders don’t really know how to navigate social media, so people should have been sent to our community to promote this grand event. After all, there are often people from outside our community knocking on doors to get us to vote or support a bill or candidate for office.
This bridge is what makes us. It’s who we are in Boyle Heights.
Juan Trillo, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Is there another bridge anywhere in the world so huge and grand that soars over a trickle of water as insignificant as the diminished Los Angeles River? Someday, we’ll regret not building a system of water-collecting reservoirs with all that concrete.
Warning signs keep accumulating, often published in this newspaper, but the desire to overbuild is still more popular than less flashy solutions for sustainability and quiet beauty.
Lynn Aldrich, Glendale
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To the editor: I went downtown recently and drove over the new 6th Street Bridge. It is most impressive and beautiful as an architectural and functional wonder, but disappointing that the colorful lights shown in photos were turned off.
Also, crazily, right in the middle of the bridge in a fast-moving lane, all of a sudden the traffic jammed up because several drivers decided to park right there and then get out and look over the railing and snap pictures.
So we have a beautiful new addition to L.A. that I imagine adds a sense of pride to the very obvious problems of the neighborhood it is in (we drove through blocks of homeless people living in tents near the new $588-million bridge). The beauty of the bridge heightens the despair over the apparent unsolvable plight of the unhoused nearby.
Meanwhile, like everywhere now, the self-entitled do what they just feel like doing — stopping traffic with no concern for others and in the process detracting from others’ ability to experience something that otherwise could unify disparate urban spirits in need of cityscape to celebrate.
This is another reason to feel sad, though admittedly mine is perhaps one also-entitled person’s take on a small out-of-neighborhood, one-night experience.
Marjorie Marks Fond, Sherman Oaks
