Letters to the Editor: There are countless reasons to resist the pressure to return workers to the office
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To the editor: I love Steve Lopez’s columns, but I quibble with “Mr. Downtown” and with the beloved Los Angeles Times journalist urging Mayor Karen Bass (and the rest of the government and the business sector at large) to bring people back to the office (“After COVID, raids and other blows, DTLA is hurting. But ‘Mr. Downtown’ believes it will rise again,” March 28).
Think: greenhouse gas emissions, traffic, loss of work-life balance, viruses swarming as people go to work sick, a colossal waste of time to commute. Nope! Staying at home for those who can is the optimal solution to a great many societal ills and the climate crisis.
Too many in government and business feel this pressure to return workers to the office and, to me, this is like choosing to step back into Los Angeles’ smog-filled history.
Restaurants can open fewer days per week. Shuttered sites can be converted to housing. The very last thing we need is to force people back on the freeways.
Tessa Charnofsky, West Hills
