_______________IS MIKE DAVIS' LOS ANGELES ALL IN HIS HEAD? BY VERONIQUE DE TURENNE (12/07/98)

Regarding Veronique de Turenne's article on Mike Davis, I'd like to point out that Bunker Hill has not always been the accessible, minority-filled spot that she describes. Until the Angels Flight funicular was restored and the Spanish Steps installed, Bunker Hill was almost totally inaccessible from Broadway and the other streets on downtown's flats. Angels Flight was removed in the 1970s as part of the urban renewal scheme that gave us the corporate skyscrapers of Bunker Hill, and it was not rebuilt until critics like Davis publicized the segregation of downtown and the fortress quality of Bunker Hill. That Davis does not acknowledge the changes in downtown L.A. since he wrote "City of Quartz" is troubling. I do not believe, however, that this lapse is evidence of bad journalism or a lack of objectivity on Davis' part. -- Patricia Morton Los Angeles Veronique de Turenne tasks Mike Davis for the sin of tendentiousness in his books, "Ecology of Fear" and "City of Quartz." This is ironic, given the tendentiousness of her own piece, as the most cursory familiarity with Davis' work reveals. First off, "Ecology of Fear" didn't "catapult Davis ... to the cultural mainstream"; "City of Quartz" did. Second, Davis didn't gain the attention of leftist audiences with "City of Quartz"; he did it a few years earlier with "Prisoners of the American Dream," a book on the decline of the American labor movement. Third, you have to wonder if the attacks on Davis aren't just a tad bit politically motivated. His Marxism is harped on, and Jill Stewart is quoted as saying that Davis is a "city-hating socialist." If you ask me, the reactions to his work indicates that he's doing something right. Fourth, the claim that Davis' publicity machine promotes him as a native Angelino is a flat-out lie. Check out the authorial bio-blurb at the end of "Quartz": It clearly states that he was born in Fontana. No wonder Davis calls L.A. the "City of Quartz": Turrenne's house, at least, is obviously made of glass. She should watch where she throws those stones. -- Tresy Kilbourne Speaking from a Latino viewpoint, it is laughable to read that Gregory Rodriguez objects to the way that Mike Davis treats Latinos. Gregory Rodriguez's criticism of Davis is like Rodriguez accusing himself. One only need to take a cursory glance at the articles that he has written in the last few years to know that Rodriguez has done more harm to the Latino community than any white journalist ever could. With these statements about Davis, Rodriguez indulges in the same cheap, blatant ethnic stereotyping he claims to decry. As most people involved in politics, leadership and community in Los Angeles know, Davis has shown much more commitment, support and caring to the Latino community than Rodriguez ever will. Rodriguez's commitment is to the conservative middle class and he will continue to pander to them for his own self-promotion. -- Pilar Perez I'm a little surprised that Salon gave so much space to the critics of Mike Davis, consisting as they do of a slightly dotty real estate agent, a Getty scholar (read: corporate-financed college instructor) from the notoriously right-wing University of Southern California and a shrill hack from the New Times, a yuppie shopping paper headquartered in Phoenix. Davis' work may indeed be somewhat fanciful, and his scholarship might be quite suspect. Nonetheless, he is one of the only authors to examine the increasing privatization of public space (and its consequences) and point out the simple fact that Malibu is fire-prone and L.A. is an earthquake-plagued area with no natural water supply and breathtaking inequalities in income distribution. The fact that he's an avowed Marxist might get all these nice company mouthpieces' undies in a bunch, but the fact remains that he's the only guy that's pointed out the emperor's nudity. -- Michael Treece Mike Davis' description of downtown L.A. may be technically flawed, but it captures the eerie, soullessness of the place. In an era where people who care about ideas have to wade through dogmatic, right-wing hypocrites like Horowitz and William Bennett or self-serving, unreadable postmodern dreck, it's nice when someone writes with clarity and can actually stir up people. -- Richard A. Jenkins N E X T+P A G E+| Don't lump postmodernists with Marx-sympathizing left-wingers!