LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Disrespectful Developers

Living in the Alphabet Streets, you see multiple homes on every block being torn down and rebuilt. Many of us are currently dealing with disrespectful developers.

We currently live next to a home that has been torn down and is being rebuilt by a developer. We got off to a rocky start when they tore the house down and glass shards were all over the side and back yard.

Due to the current lack of rain, the ground is hard packed and dusty. They have been digging, and dirt has been soaring over into my yard and pool. It has been looking like I live in a dust storm.

After I mentioned the glass and initial dirt, the developer sent his crew to hose down the yard. As they continue to dig, dirt has been gathering in my pool. My backyard is filthy. The barbecue cover looks like it has had dirt poured over it.

The developer’s response to my current text was, “You should have your pool man come more often.” So we, as neighbors, should have to put our own money into cleaning up their messes?

There are a few other nuances I have been living with. After the trashcans were left out for two weeks, I asked him to put them behind the fence. He did, but now they haven’t put them out again. All the workers use these trashcans and it smells horribly. I am just beside myself. It smells like I am living next to a dump.

Now we tore down our current house we live in, so I can understand being on the other side of this. Our contractor did everything he could to be respectful of the neighbors around us. That is all I ask of JP Dudzinsky and his team. If you speak with the neighbor on the other side of this house being built, I believe she would say the same.

This is only the beginning. If he is being so dismissive and rude to begin with, how is he going to be over the next two years of his building?

I think many of the people in this village have had similar experiences but feel we just have to live with it. We do not and should not. Developers and builders should be respectful of their neighbors and clean up after themselves and do what they can to avoid ruining other people’s property.

Jewlz Fahn | Alphabet Streets

We Can Do Better

The proposed senior assisted living residence to be located in The Highlands has created a vocal crowd of opponents who have grouped together under the name HUG (Highlanders United for Good). While this cuddly acronym may sound benign, the actions of its members has been anything but.

Reading about the issues raised by opponents of the project on Nextdoor, I took it upon myself to start asking questions. A lot of questions. I contacted LAFD Station 69, Atria, Fire Chief Patrick Butler, developer Rony Shram and I read up on the history of the Highlands development.

My conclusion at the end of this search was that while I was not an avid supporter, I was also not opposed, as I could find nothing to support the claims made by HUG that a permit for the project should not be issued for the reason they had given.

The problem, and why I am writing, is that when I offered a different perspective on this project, whether it was through Nextdoor or when I spoke at the City Hall meeting, I was either accused of having some kind of vested interest in the Shram project (I have never met Shram) or shouted down by the attending HUG group.

Mr. Chu, the commissioner at the meeting, had to repeatedly ask the crowd to let me speak. Amazingly, one woman from the back of the crowd a the City Hall meeting actually said “She should shut the f— up!”

We as a community can do better.

At the City Hall meeting, people clapped for the Caruso project, saying it was the perfect community project. In doing so they seemed to conveniently forget that there were adjacent neighbors in the Alphabet Streets who were opposed to the project and were very concerned about the construction impacts.

But why should the HUG group be bothered with those Caruso complainers because they were safely ensconced … in the Highlands, far away from the dirt and noise?

We need to search out the facts. We need to stop the name-calling. We need to stop the threats. We cannot distort the truth as a means to an end. We can do better as a community and to the people we call our neighbors.

Jane Frey

Fruit Napper

Two years ago, we were ecstatic with our first harvest of persimmons from the three trees we planted in front of our house, only to have the trees totally denuded in the dead of night. A fruit napper!

We were mighty angry. And our trees produced no persimmons last year, having been severely wounded.

This year, one tree has produced 25 precious persimmons. Hooray!

Just now a young man working on a house down the street rang my bell. He explained that he loved persimmons, had been longingly passing mine each day and might he have just one? I was so thrilled to share with him.

My faith in the decency of (most) people has been restored!

Betsy Brown Braun