Life in Orion Avenue Neighborhood

Re “Orion Ave.: A Life Apart,” series, May 25-28: Twenty years ago we owned an apartment building around the corner from Orion Avenue. We carefully evicted the troublemakers and the Los Angeles police stopped by and thanked us for eliminating the need for them to stop by a couple times a week.

When rent control was put in effect by the city of Los Angeles, we sold the building. We knew the bureaucrats would make sure the tenants were in charge and would see to it that owners lost control. It takes only a little common sense to determine that rent control has contributed as much to this problem as anything. Permit and help the owner to evict problem tenants and this problem can be solved.

JAMES T. HUMBERD

La Quinta

* Your May 25 article states that Orion Avenue is home to drug dealers “when police are not around.” This is too often true. The war on drugs is failing because no battle has ever been won without occupation by the infantry, yet thousands of undercover police continue tracking the drug generals while leaving the neighborhoods unguarded.

Put these troops back in uniform; show more police presence; add bike patrols; give us more shots with 35mm cameras and less with 9mm guns; more photos and fewer police pursuits; replace confrontations with explanations.

PHILIP ANDERSON

Los Angeles

* My hat is off to [reporter] John Johnson and [photographer] Carolyn Cole. The Times needs more reporters out in the field. The LAPD could also use a few more creative officers on staff!

JOSEPH IRVINE

Los Angeles

* Surely conditions in Mexico must be bleak if people are willing to subject themselves and their children to the perils of drug and gang culture. Innocent little boys transformed into hardened street thugs is a metamorphosis to be abhorred by all loving parents.

A call for some sort of social action on this side of the border is apparent in your series. Noted. Strangely lacking, however, is reference to the growing question of why these people are still pouring over the border, despite the fact that NAFTA has generated billions of dollars of trade to their nation. Surely, the national government and capitalist class of Mexico have been hugely enriched by the new trade relationship. Why is there no apparent change in the conditions of its population?

GLORIA J. RICHARDS

Simi Valley