Leimert Park Is Nothing Like a ‘Little Ghost Town’

Many Leimert Park residents are dismayed, puzzled and deeply incensed regarding the negative, misleading comment by photographer Akili Ramsess in the article on South-Central Los Angeles (“What It Is. [And What It Was.],” by Lynell George, Oct. 8). A “little ghost town” is code for deserted, dilapidated, in decline and decay. Where, within the commercial or residential core of Leimert Park, are these characteristics rampant or dominant? Where are those “still shuttered” places?

The possibilities and potential are still there! Despite corporate and political manipulation and pressure, the activism and vigil- ance of neighborhood groups have served to increase property values phenomenally. We too are “weary of semantic hocus-pocus.” We agree that we need to “define who we are” rather than “someone else,” and to defy presumptions and delineate what we are and where we live.

Shirley Walker

Los Angeles