Readers React: A think tank in the Santa Monica Mountains? Leave the land unspoiled instead

To the editor: More development in the Santa Monica Mountains? No thanks. (“On his Santa Monica mountaintop, a billionaire envisions lofty thoughts on politics and culture,” April 30)

If billionaire Nicolas Berggruen wants to “think long,” he should donate those 450 acres in the Sepulveda Pass to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area as open space in perpetuity instead of building another think tank. If his ego requires a monument, let’s name it after him; better yet, name it for his kids.

If we continue developing our mountains at our current rate, by the time infants Olympia and Alexander are Berggruen’s age, their father’s donation will seem truly remarkable and deeply generous to the people of Los Angeles. Let his architects build something brilliant in the city where regular folks can see it without needing an invitation to the exclusive refuge that his think tank will be.

Keep the Santa Monica Mountains open as the absolutely essential escape valve that it is. I can’t think of a better “secular monastery” than, say, the Nicolas Berggruen Family Open Space Preserve.

Sarah Tamor, Santa Monica

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To the editor: The exciting Berggruen Institute promises to be an important addition to the Los Angeles cultural landscape, and Nicolas Berggruen sounds like the right kind of person with the right kind of thinking to bring this dream to fruition.

We should all help in whatever capacity we can. Forward thinking of this kind is a precious commodity and deserves to be treated with great care if Los Angeles is to remain one of the leading cities in the world.

The experience of creating the nearby Getty Center should be a useful guide. Most who opposed it are now supporters, as they realize what an important contribution it has brought to our local culture. We cannot have enough of these efforts.

William Bergmann, Hollywood

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To the editor: Berggruen has answered the question, “What does the billionaire who has everything and is bored with his possessions buy himself?” Why, of course, a matched set of human beings!

Berggruen, who has no interest in marriage, “created a boy and a girl” via surrogates and a donor egg. These Brave New World babies are cared for by hirelings, so as not to interrupt Berggruen’s busy schedule.

This is the man who is designing a think tank to help improve society. Something this chilling cannot be made up.

Jim Tanksley, Lancaster

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