To the editor: When I was a child in the 1950s, no trip to Marineland of the Pacific on the Palos Verdes Peninsula was complete without my parents taking us through Portuguese Bend to show us evidence of the earth's movement: buckled and cracked streets, and above-ground utility pipes with flexible joints.
Earthworks on the peninsula have been a well-known problem for nearly a century, and those who built or bought there must accept some personal responsibility for the inevitable result. The same applies to local government entities that have permitted or enabled construction zones in this obviously high-risk area. The original builders are probably gone, but those who are not and the civic entities that permitted them must be held accountable.
The area should never have been urbanized, but rather left as a nature reserve for endangered species endemic to that peninsula. That can and should still happen.
Robert Huber, Yorba Linda
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To the editor: I'd like to read more about the history of landslides and home loss in the Portuguese Bend area. My grandfather lost a home there to a landslide decades ago, and the topic was covered in a geology class I took at Occidental College in the early 1970s.
Why has so much development occurred since then? What construction requirements, if any, were put in place to help minimize and prevent the current round of problems? What lessons should be learned to prevent further emergencies?
Fred Linthicum, Bend, Oregon.
