{"id":697278,"date":"2026-04-01T12:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/697278\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T12:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:52:14","slug":"letters-to-the-editor-some-not-so-fond-memories-of-los-angeles-smoggy-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/697278\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the Editor: Some not-so-fond memories of Los Angeles\u2019 smoggy past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

To the editor<\/b>: I lived through those horrible smog years and was struck by the accuracy of the photo with this article (\u201cThe inspiring, infuriating, even comic tale of how we defeated L.A.\u2019s smog and why we may have to again,\u201d<\/a> March 26). It clearly shows the cat\u2019s cradle of overhead wires that darkened the view over every major street and intersection. They served the network of red cars, electric trams and buses that connected the city.<\/p>\n

And woe to anyone, like me, who had an early Volkswagen Beetle. The wheels were exactly the width of the red car lines. In the rain, you could not stop when you applied the brakes, but skidded along the tracks until you turned the wheel hard right or left.<\/p>\n

Usually those overhead lines are edited out of photos of the era. Thank you for your accuracy and some pretty bad memories.<\/p>\n

Meg Quinn Coulter, Los Angeles<\/p>\n

..<\/p>\n

To the editor<\/b>: Extremely well-written article about the smog in the L.A. basin (\u201cSmoglandia: We haven\u2019t always been smoggy, but we\u2019re built that way,\u201d<\/a> March 26). I had to take a break while reading it because I remembered my childhood asthmatic responses too well. In particular, there was a day when the sky cleared and we could see mountains near the Altadena home of our grandmother.<\/p>\n

I asked, \u201cWhat is that?\u201d<\/p>\n

My mom declared, like I was a fool, \u201cIt\u2019s the San Gabriel Mountains!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou mean they\u2019ve been here all along?\u201d<\/p>\n

Thank you for the excellent historical background during these times when the safeguards to our health are being threatened.<\/p>\n

Janice McCormick, Ojai<\/p>\n

..<\/p>\n

To the editor<\/b>: Halfway through blithely reading the Sunday column, part of the Smoglandia series, I thought I recognized the writing style and checked the byline. Sure enough, it was written by our very own L.A. icon, Patt Morrison. What a singular writer\u2019s voice she has and a gem of a local historian! We are lucky to have her.<\/p>\n

Katie To Bresee, Culver City<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To the editor: I lived through those horrible smog years and was struck by the accuracy of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":697279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[72883,347,1582,276,2451,7129,6276,2961,19945,224,5337,3250,291731,291729,20517,291728,96447,291730,126943],"class_list":["post-697278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-accuracy","tag-article","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-city","tag-editor","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-letter","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-march","tag-meg-quinn-coulter","tag-not-so-fond-memory","tag-photo","tag-red-car","tag-smog","tag-smoglandia","tag-wheel"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116329548816896475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/697279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}