CORRECTION: Our Nov. 2 article “Redemption Songs,” about the documentary “Mighty Ground,” reported an incorrect date for a screening of the film in Playa Vista. We regret the error and apologize for any inconvenience it caused.
Don’t Be Fooled by the ‘Do Nothings’
Re: “What’s Best for Ballona?” News, Nov. 2. (Please turn to page 8 in this week’s issue for a follow-up story.)
I’m sure Mr. Lamb, Dr. Longcore and others had more to say about Ballona than The Argonaut could relate, but if their overarching gripe is to argue over seman-
tics and whether we call this restoration, creation, reconstruction or something else, then the future of Ballona is promising.
We don’t give a rat whether the Do Nothings call it fake habitat or an alien invasion from Jupiter. We just want them to get out
of the way so we can get our wetlands back.
Let the Do Somethings tear out the fill dirt, weeds, trash, bicycle chop shops, gas wells and concrete, and replace them with wetlands vegetation, daily tidal exchange, blue water channels, clams, worms, birds and walking trails, like we’ve already done so successfully at San Dieguito, Bolsa Chica, Malibu, etc. Just get out of our way!!!
David Kay, Playa Vista
The High Cost of Transient Techies
Re: “Still Standing Tall: A Controversial Mar Vista Development is Moving Forward Despite Concerns about Height and Scale,” News, Oct. 19
Regarding developer Pamela Day’s highlighted quote, the developer’s “goal” is really to capitalize on the (overpaid and non-saving) transient tech community, for whom excessively high rents are not an issue.
This comes at the expense (in quality of life and sense of scale) of the actual community of permanent residents and the
Mar Vista community at large.
Call a spade a spade.
J. Kurland, Marina del Rey
FROM THE WEB
Re: “The Politics of Tragedy: Fatal crash in Venice casts a bitter shadow as Bonin’s opponents pull recall papers,” News, Nov. 2
These recall people are disgusting. Blaming Bonin for a traffic fatality is like blaming the leader of the anti-war movement for military casualties. He is the leading voice for traffic safety in Los Angeles. The leaders of the recall campaign have been demanding the city eliminate and de-fund its traffic safety programs.
Mark Collins
It’s sickening that people would stoop to such a vile level to take advantage of a grieving family. These recall proponents had their chance last year during the election, and the voters overwhelmingly picked Bonin. These recall backers have no decency or shame.
Pete Brown
Shame on people using the tragic death of a pedestrian to further a political agenda to remove Councilman Bonin from office for trying to improve road safety. They are against him for trying to do more, and now they are criticizing him for not doing enough — which is it? This is clearly a pathetic, ironic and Trumpian twist using alt-right shock jocks to promote the egomaniacal ambitions of two failed council candidates and a wannabe in the overwhelmingly progressive community of Venice. Bonin was reelected last year by almost 70% of the vote. Some people just can’t get enough attention.
Linda Lucks
David Kay’s letter (Don’t Be Fooled by the ‘Do Nothings’, 11/15/17) is the epitome of man over nature, rejecting sound science and espousing the ‘Know Nothing’ approach to Ballona Wetlands rather than developing a science-driven, conservative restoration and enhancement alternative. He mentions projects, such as San Dieguito, projects that created particular types of habitats that were needed for mitigation of projects that were impacting coastal wetlands. There is no such requirement for creating habitats in the Ballona Wetlands to meet mitigation requirements. I would ask the proponents of the ‘Get Out of Our Way’ alternatives to explain why we need to turn wetlands into uplands and uplands into wetlands (see Rex Frankel’s comments at the public hearing on the DEIR)?
Why not use sound science to enhance where we need to and restore what we can to improve the ecological function of the Ballona Wetlands for the many plants and wildlife that currently exist, some of which are rare or threatened species. The DEIR dismisses any true range of alternatives by describing project goals that are so narrowly drawn only a tidal wetland alternative can be chosen – the DEIR alternatives – or as Mr. Kay so eloquently puts in ‘Get Out of Our Way’.
In this day and age, I believe we should examine more closely potential alternatives that work with what is in the landscape, which by the way received very little wetland fill soil from either construction of Marina Del Rey or the Ballona Creek flood control project. The County of Los Angeles LIDAR shows areas on the edges that likely received the wetland soil from these projects. The ‘Get Out of Our Way’ alternatives truly ignore the potential of the Ballona Wetlands as a mosaic of habitats and micro elevations that would flourish with a more modest project, using what is there in creative ways that allow the public to view and enjoy the wetlands. We owe it to the wetlands and ourselves to examine a true range of alternatives that would truly enhance and restore Ballona.
And, Mr. Kay, it is not semantics to call out the current alternatives in the DEIR as ‘not restoration’. There is an actual science of ecologically driven habitat restoration with principals and definitions that result in appropriate habitats being revived. Check it out sometime. The science of ecological restoration was developed by thoughtful scientists to be used to truly restore natural habitats in the face of many inappropriate, mitigation-driven, habitat creation projects. So please tone down your ‘Get Out of Our Way’ rhetoric. We are in the comment period of the DEIR, and I hope people will educate themselves about the project and make thoughtful comments on the project as presented.