To the editor: As I sit right here in Rancho Park, trapped in my home by site visitors eight hours after the Los Angeles Marathon, I’d sincerely prefer to know which bureaucrat at Metropolis Corridor thinks it’s a good suggestion to separate West L.A. — and different areas — in two for almost a day.
A Westside the place site visitors is borderline or past insufferable for 10 to 12 hours per day. A Westside the place, for the previous two months, we’ve got added innumerable vehicles as a result of Pacific Coast Freeway closures. A Westside that’s, as I write this, utterly gridlocked, that means if there have been an emergency individuals may die earlier than assist arrives.
L.A. doesn’t want a marathon to be an awesome metropolis. But when it have to be run, let it finish in all components of the town, not simply on the Westside or in Santa Monica. Finish it on the Eastside, in South L.A., within the downtown space, in one of many valleys, and even in one of many fire-damaged areas as a tribute to their resilience. Solely have an effect on the Westside (and the opposite areas) as soon as each 5 years or so.
Brent Byrd, Rancho Park
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To the editor: The Los Angeles Marathon has come and gone with too little dialogue of the prolonged site visitors catastrophe that it creates yearly. There are a number of main points with the route and operation of the marathon that ought to be addressed.
One essential downside is how lengthy streets (particularly the cross streets) stay closed; they reopen at one thing near a brisk-walking fee. After 4 or 5 hours, the walkers can await the crossing indicators.
Second, there is no such thing as a actual on-the-ground publicity concerning the route. Residents should search out info on avenue closures and opening instances.
Third, the fee to the town. The celebration parade following the Dodgers’ World Collection victory final 12 months bought numerous consideration because of the value to the town for site visitors management, however the staff paid about $1.7 million for the occasion. How a lot does the marathon pay the town for site visitors management and disruption for an occasion that lasts longer, covers a bigger space and attracts far fewer individuals?
Keith Value, Los Angeles
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To the editor: Oh, there it’s, lastly, on B3 of Monday’s California part (“An American wins the L.A. Marathon for the primary time in 31 years,” March 16). Was protection of the L.A. Marathon, with 1000’s working by the town the L.A. Occasions represents, not a large enough story to offer higher protection? I ponder if it might have been coated in any respect had an American not gained the competitors for the primary time in 31 years.
Invoice Glazier, Fullerton
