Readers React:  Villa Carlotta tenants still have reason to hope

To the editor: As a 17-year resident of the Villa Carlotta in Hollywood, I was delighted to see my neighbor Sam Fuller and my family’s home featured on the front page. (“Changing neighborhood engulfs their Old Hollywood home,� Jan. 30)

However, the article implies that the hotel conversion is a foregone conclusion. This conversion would require a zoning change that Franklin Village residents and Council District 4 candidate Tomas O’Grady have openly opposed, mostly because of the invocation of the Ellis Act and the plight of residents like Fuller.

While this piece is a poignant homage to a man who has dedicated his life to the glory of the Villa Carlotta, the real story is about the breakneck pace of Hollywood development, the changing face of her neighborhoods and the many people who are being forced to leave the community they helped to shape.

Anna Robinson, Hollywood

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To the editor: What a warm and sad story about all of those strangers, people who out of curiosity peeked in to the Villa Carlotta, liked what Fuller had created in the building using his own money and moved in to become acquainted and create a community of friends.

The people who lived there often had lived lonely lives after work, but living at the Villa Carlotta, they came home after work and enjoyed the closeness of their new friendships, like a big family. Life became interesting again.

All of this will be lost as they individually try to find satisfactory apartments somewhere around Los Angeles so they can return to that lonely life they led before Fuller and the Villa Carlotta, just so somebody can make a profit. Sad, isn’t it.

Does that profit really justify ruining the lives these people made for themselves?

Albert V. Weaver, Newbury Park

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