Regarding Carolina A. Miranda’s “Remaking the Miracle Mile” [July 14]: A calamity perhaps is the word to describe the design process our Los Angeles County Museum of Art has been suffering for the last half dozen years, and let me stress that is our taxpayer-supported museum.

A catastrophe certainly will be the word to describe the museum if the $600-million-plus design becomes, as feared, the nightmare construct and a failed Southern California conceit, orchestrated by a self-aggrandizing art crowd.

I join the chorus of critics and taxpayers to urge the county Board of Supervisors to stop feeding funds to what will be, by the time it is built, a one-billion-dollar mistake.

The board is poised to release $117.5 million for the calamity, having to date been wined and dined, and their egos massaged, by wily museum director Michael Govan. Talk about an edifice complex of a star-struck arts administrator and of what is ostensibly a public institution.


Meanwhile, the clearly overwhelmed Govan and over-his-head architect, Switzerland-based Peter Zumthor, have been putzing around with the design for what seems like dog years, the latest study inexplicably reducing the proposed gallery space, when obviously more is needed to house the collection. Less in this case is less.

As for the proposed design, it is no longer colored black as the muck in the adjacent tar pits, but it is still a biomorphic blob sprawling across Wilshire Boulevard. The galleries might be one floor, as Govan wanted, but the structure is ugly and awkward.

It is time for the county supervisors to bring this farce of a design process to a screeching halt.

Sam Hall Kaplan


Malibu

The writer is a former Los Angeles Times architecture and design critic

Sir Paul’s return to Dodger Stadium

Re: “A Fittingly Fab Finale,” July 15 by Randy Lewis: You do know how many of the rest of us can only wish we were at a Sir Paul McCartney concert, so thanks for going to this one and sharing a little bit.


We are lucky he cares about the fans despite his own not-so-pleasant long and winding road to 75 and beyond. He made the music industry better. He helped James Taylor. God bless him and his Jersey Girl wife, Nancy.

Mark Isenberg

Tarpon Springs, Fla.

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Randy Lewis’ review of Paul McCartney’s show at Dodger Stadium perfectly captured my enjoyment of the concert. Thanks for filling in some details.

David Feldheim

Los Angeles

A reader believes in ‘Yesterday’


I read the letter from reader Jay Berman in Sunday’s Calendar about Justin Chang’s review of “Yesterday,” and I couldn’t agree more [“Chang far away on ‘Yesterday’,” July 7].

It was a fun movie, maybe not Academy Award-winning, but to not like it because of the preposterous setup is not fair.

Like Mr. Berman, I hope Justin’s review doesn’t deter people from seeing this one. I usually agree with Justin’s reviews but on this one he was simply a killjoy.

Wendy Mollett


Studio City

A reunion plan for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young?

Regarding: “A Long Time Gone, Revisited” [July 14]: The Doors were the greatest omission in “Echo in the Canyon,” which otherwise was a splendid flick that was able to do via video and audio what the two books on Laurel Canyon did in print.

I have long predicted that the only way Graham, Stephen and even Neil would ever again appear on the same stage with David Crosby would be in a limited tour to benefit the campaign of whichever Democratic candidate is nominated to face off against President Trump.


So if this blessed event occurs — and just think how high (double entendre!) ticket prices would be — we can all go to our graves thanking Trump for “making CSN&Y great again” before it’s too late.

Howard P. Cohen

North Hills

‘I’ is for ‘integrity’


I must take exception to letter writer Dan Ford’s comments about U.S. Soccer star Megan Rapinoe [“Calendar Feedback: Not as Valuable as She Thinks,” July 14]. It may be true, she cost herself “millions in endorsements,” because of her convictions and beliefs. If I could borrow a quote from Ford, take it from this “West Coast lefty,” there may be no “I” in “team,” but there sure is one in “integrity.”

Patrick Cervantes

Eagle Rock

Save the last dance studio


Regarding Makeda Easter’s article “L.A.’s High Rents Tap Dance Studios Out” [July 7]: There’s only one thing to say about the loss, one by one, of our wonderful diverse businesses here in our city of Los Angeles — it’s heartbreakingly sad.

Marat Daukayev needs a new home for his ballet school. The sculpting studio for 80 or so years standing empty — rent increase — bought by the car detail place next door.

The Adam Daneshgars of our city just don’t get it. They are destroying one by one our diverse life here. In destroying a dance school, all he’s concerned with is “bringing it up to the standard that a building of that caliber should be,“ and we’ll probably get another “mixed use” property.

Patricia Mace


Los Angeles

Language of blame

Regarding “Epstein, R. Kelly Needed Plenty of Help” [July 15]: Thank you for Lorraine Ali’s commentary, but I have to admit I did not read very far into it because I kept getting stuck on this paragraph:

“Superstar singer R. Kelly and billionaire businessman Jeffrey Epstein openly enjoyed the spoils of success, which according to federal prosecutors included soliciting teens for sex over several decades, with little to no consequences thanks to acolytes, permissive officials and a culture that lionizes the successful man’s pursuit of younger women. In other words, all of us.”


There are two parts of the above paragraph that trouble me: “soliciting teens for sex” and “pursuit of younger women.”

I ask that in future pieces, or if this piece can be changed, that the language used is more accurate: “sexually abusing teens” instead of “soliciting teens for sex.” The abusers and criminals may have solicited sex but using the word solicitation makes it sounds like the children were somehow willing to participate. They were children, therefore, they were abused.

“Pursuit of younger women”: Some of the victims may have been legal adults, but from what I’ve read they were mostly minors, therefore, they are children, not women.

Allison Quam


Winona, Minn.

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It is a slap in the face to those of us who have been speaking with gravitas about women’s issues for decades. We were marginalized, called “feminazis,” and worse.

Thus, the way you ended the following paragraph is inaccurate, and I think your editor should have caught it.


“Superstar singer R. Kelly and billionaire businessman Jeffrey Epstein openly enjoyed the spoils of success, which according to federal prosecutors included soliciting teens for sex over several decades, with little to no consequences thanks to acolytes, permissive officials and a culture that lionizes the successful man’s pursuit of younger women. In other words, all of us.”

Would you make the argument that feminists are part of our collective culture? Actually, most of the time they are working outside of it, as if they don’t belong.

How about investigating if a movie is in the works for the unsung heroines who moved the ball on this issue, an inch at a time? Probably there is no movie in the works, and a good article would be about all the reasons why not.

Liane Kufchock


Detroit, Michigan

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