To the editor: I think this is one of the most important opinion articles that Times has published since I have been reading it (“My neighborhood, Skid Row, is not exactly what you think is”, May 13). At a time when Governor Gavin Newsom is pressing the Californians to think about the discouragement or severely impoverished as unworthy people of sleeping and living in public spaces, we need voices such as the guest collaborator Amelia Rayno who remind us that these are real people and communities affected by vindictive policies.
The suffering and the dangers of living in Skid Row should not be ignored. However, they cannot be magically set treating people as unwanted criminals. I think David Graeber and David Wengrow declared him better in his book, “The dawn of everything.” Paraphrasing, “security” does not have a singular definition. There is the security of knowing that one has a statistically small probability of being triggered. And then there is the security of knowing that there are people who will worry deeply if you are.
Matthew Neel, Sherman Oaks
