Build Rail Lines, Not More Freeways

* Re “Highway vs. Hearth,” Dec. 19: Will Caltrans ever learn? Back in the ‘60s, building freeways through Boyle Heights and East L.A. displaced many of my family and friends. Disrupting people’s lives and communities sends the wrong message about government, and the pain lives on for generations.

Back then no one cared what happened to the lives of Latinos on the Eastside. However, times have changed, and we should not make this same mistake twice in one lifetime. The region needs to stop investing in freeways that will be over capacity in a few decades. The region needs to start building light and heavy rail and creating livable communities.

SANTIAGO ROJAS

Los Angeles

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Ah, another highway project that will use my tax dollars to build carpool lanes that I will never be able to use because I am self-employed and unable to carpool. I agree that large employers and companies should support carpooling and other methods of reducing traffic and pollution. I agree that the state should offer incentives to those companies. I vehemently disagree that the portion of the population who cannot carpool should be punished by not having access to every form of transportation funded by our tax dollars.

It’s time to get rid of the diamond lanes and find inducements that don’t penalize one segment of the population for the encouragement of another.

PETER RUTENBERG

Los Angeles