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 might sincerely wish to know which bureaucrat at Metropolis Corridor thinks it’s a good suggestion to separate West L.A. — and different areas — in two for practically 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 now have added innumerable automobiles resulting from Pacific Coast Freeway closures. A Westside that’s, as I write this, fully gridlocked, that means if there have been an emergency individuals might die earlier than assist arrives.
L.A. doesn’t want a marathon to be an awesome metropolis. But when it should 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 necessary downside is how lengthy streets (particularly the cross streets) stay closed; they reopen at one thing near a brisk-walking price. After 4 or 5 hours, the walkers can anticipate the crossing indicators.
Second, there isn’t a actual on-the-ground publicity concerning the route. Residents should hunt down info on avenue closures and opening occasions.
Third, the associated fee to the town. The celebration parade following the Dodgers’ World Sequence victory final yr received a number of consideration because of the value to the town for site visitors management, however the workforce paid about $1.7 million for the event. 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 Worth, 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 first 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 provide higher protection? I’m wondering if it might have been lined in any respect had an American not received the competitors for the primary time in 31 years.
Invoice Glazier, Fullerton
