Letters to the Editor: Does anyone really believe luxury tower residents will take transit?

To the editor: Your editorial invoking the film “L.A. Story” in response to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s quest to preserve the Amoeba Music building in Hollywood and some of its architectural and cultural elements, as well as revisit a luxury housing development that fails to meet even the minimum number of legally required low-income housing units, surely brought a Sunday morning smile to many readers’ faces.

However, a more apt film reference might be “Field of Dreams,” for if you build it — more and taller luxury housing at rail stops — they still will not ride.

In June, the L.A. Times reported that Metro was “hemorrhaging” bus passengers, as ridership has fallen by more than 25% over the last decade. As you note, the project in question is “about a half-mile from a subway station,” but does anyone in Los Angeles honestly think residents of this new luxury building will be taking the bus or train?

As the twin crises of homelessness and housing affordability continue to roil Los Angeles, our elected officials supercharge gentrification of the city and the destruction of neighborhoods with ill-considered approvals of developments like this that do little, if anything, to address the actual problems.

Ged Kenslea, Los Angeles

The writer is senior director of communications for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.