DOOM ME AGAIN, HARDER
Wow, your March 19 cover [the monochromatic once-and-future Armageddon designed by Matt Frazier and Heather Swaim for Megan Brescini’s “When It Comes” earthquake story] was the best ever. Keep up the good work.
JAY WEBB
Via thedistrictweekly.com

Sue Hough, a United States Geological Survey seismologist at Cal Tech, recently estimated that the chance of a major rupture along Newport-Inglewood fault (akin to the one in 1933) is “about 50 times less likely” than along the San Andreas in the next few decades.
835
Via thedistrictweekly.com

Most of the LBC needs a face-lift anyway.
LBFAMILY
Via thedistrictweekly.com

CONNECT THE DOTS
Great article on the Lowenthal spiderweb [Dave Wielenga’s “Lowenthology,” March 19] but you missed Councilmember Patrick O’Donnell (former staffer to Bonnie’s ex-husband, Alan Lowenthal) and his Chief of Staff, Bridget Sramek (also former Alan Lowenthal staffer). Talk about stacking the deck against Tonia Reyes Uranga!
LB GUY
Via thedistrictweekly.com

What a concept—that staffers to political people might be political themselves! Oh, and would you really think that anyone who cares enough to work for a politician would support their OPPONENT? Your article is not news, nor is it relevant. Uranga’s comments are just sour grapes, and I wonder why you are giving her so much room to air them.
LELAND BICELANDERS
Via thedistrictweekly.com

Dave Wielenga responds: The story and diagram aren’t intended to imply a scandal. They simply display the infrastructure of a political alliance that has been constructed by a family around some of its family members—an alliance that has become perhaps the most-powerful in Long Beach. That may not be news to you (sounds like you follow the city’s politics closely) but it may be a revelation to many others, and the Democrats’ Pre-Primary Endorsement Conference offered an especially clear opportunity to illustrate it. I believe that understanding our political system—how alliances are formed and how they function—is very relevant. And I hope you noticed that Reyes Uranga’s “sour grapes” didn’t go unanswered. The story included Bonnie Lowenthal’s unapologetic agreement that her family name and connections might give her advantages—along with her assertion that she has earned them with a long history of activism and office-holding, which she believes are what will best influence voters on election day.

WATER OUR PRIORITIES?
Since we started discussing this restore-the-beach theory [Jennifer Stockdale’s “O, How Happy We Will Be!” March 12] there have been multiple shootings and murders in Long Beach, including the murder of an 11-year-old boy. Now tell me again how your war on fecal coliforms is going. Maybe you could send the Surfrider people into the ’hood with their clipboards and see what neglected Long Beach (gangs, infrastructure, schools, crime, sub-par and non-code housing, etc.) has to say about money and resources going toward your neglected beaches. It’s all about priority. Let’s work on straightening out the inner-city cesspool before the beach cesspool.
BILL
Via thedistrictweekly.com

CALIFORNIA PREENING
Thank you for such a wonderful article [Theo Douglas’ “Two Families in 72 Years,” March 12]. The Cal Heights Neighborhood Association board was so hopeful that Craig and Christine Bouma would find a way to purchase this house, and we’re so glad they did. Our fears of a McMansion or a Tuscan remodel were relieved.
JOHN ROYCE
President, California Heights Historic District Neighborhood Assn.
Via thedistrictweekly.com

DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS
Keith Higginbotham’s plan to clean Long Beach’s dirty waterfront [Jennifer Stockdale’s “O, How Happy We Will Be!” March 12] does not—repeat: does not—include bending the course of the Los Angeles River so that it empties into the Port of Long Beach. The color coding of the story’s accompanying map created an incorrect impression of the plan, which was reported in the story. The District regrets the error.