To the editor: I couldn’t assist however cry whereas studying Steve Lopez’s newest column on the intractability of the habit and homelessness round MacArthur Park. (“The time for excuses is over. L.A.’s MacArthur Park needs a champion now,” column, Dec. 21)
Politicians is not going to repair this downside. It’s a social downside, with the “wealthy getting richer and the poor getting poorer.”
You realize these on the road with habit are there as a result of medication have been our salvation, in keeping with TV commercials and pharmaceutical corporations. Others have psychological sickness and, in the end, have simply fallen off the cliff of life.
We as a society can do higher, however politicians are manipulated by “stakeholders,” a euphemism for lobbyists.
Good luck to our youngsters and grandchildren.
Gene Dorio, Santa Clarita
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To the editor: Lopez rightly asks the place the political will is to scrub up MacArthur Park for the kids and households who stay within the space.
Mayor Karen Bass has promised, simply as mayors have earlier than her, to take motion towards gang exercise and drug dealing, however little occurs.
A lot of the exercise in and round MacArthur Park described by Lopez is unlawful. California has legal guidelines towards drug possession and distribution. Why are they not being enforced within the MacArthur Park space in the present day?
We’d like management from the mayor’s workplace, the Los Angeles Police Division and the brand new L.A. County district lawyer to eradicate this open-air drug epidemic and prison exercise for good.
Mary M. Emmons, Los Angeles
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To the editor: When is it proper to make life-saving selections for others who can’t ask for assist?
A lot speak about this revolves round sustaining the dignity of the individuals struggling and permitting them to make the selection to get assist or not. This offers us a approach out of serving to them as a result of we will say, “They select to remain of their habit, so what can I do?”
To assist public discourse about this subject get extra momentum, we have to additionally speak about ourselves. Consider it this fashion: Will we wish to turn out to be a society that helps to alleviate struggling, or one which perpetuates struggling by means of our inaction?
A primary responder pulls somebody out of a burning constructing and we rightly applaud. However when somebody is so hooked on a drug that they’ve misplaced the power to make the selection to get assist, we are saying, “Let’s not power something.”
We should name out our personal hypocrisy and begin making choices as if we’re the best model of the society we dream America can nonetheless someday turn out to be.
Matthew R. Jensen, San Pedro
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To the editor: Kudos to Lopez for calling out the damaged guarantees of generations of metropolis leaders who vowed to repair the social ills of L.A.’s Westlake neighborhood, which incorporates MacArthur Park.
There’s a resolution, and it’s referred to as taxes.
If we had a greater, extra equitable tax system that required the snug truly to pay their justifiable share, town finances wouldn’t be at all times too strained to allocate the wanted sources to make an enormous distinction.
Patrick Frank, Venice
