All Aboard!

Once again, you seized the moment with two back-to-back derogatory and negative articles regarding the new Metro Rail stations’ art (“How L.A. Missed the Train,” by Christopher Knight, and “The Red Line: Architecture as Afterthought,” by Nicolai Ouroussoff, June 25). Excuse me, I thought I was riding a subway, not spending the afternoon at the Getty.

The reality is that the public, not John Q. Art Critic, will mostly be utilizing this valuable addition to L.A.’s transit system. And on Metro Rail’s opening, it was mostly oohs and aahs from the public, not boos and hisses from biased Times reporters sent from Times Central with a mission.

Los Angeles desperately needs a comprehensive transit system, and while there have been major errors and cost overruns in past projects, this latest project was completed ahead of schedule and within budget. The Times should modify its reactionary attitude and celebrate a visionary and long overdue achievement.

ANGELA RUBIO

Orange

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As an interior designer, I am all for beauty, order and good design in all areas of human life. However, did anyone ever think to create simple, clean, efficient Metro Rail stations (that are part of the fabric of the city instead of glaring and self-conscious gaps in their neighborhoods) without all the ornamentation and spending the bucks to make the thing actually go somewhere?

Just what we need, another thing about our city to be made fun of.

LORI ODDINO

Los Angeles

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Excluding the Red Line’s first developed leg downtown (more reminiscent in style of a former Soviet Bloc country’s subway), what other American cities have approached their subway stations with any artistic attempts at all? Knight and Ouroussoff seem quick to nit-pick L.A.’s stations, when Manhattan’s, Chicago’s, D.C.’s, Boston’s and most likely every other American city’s are dismally devoid of any comparative art or architecture.

The majority of the L.A. second-leg and now third-leg stations (excluding the appallingly schizophrenic trash job on the station level of Hollywood and Vine) are unique and interesting. I agree, we should expect more from our stations. We should also expect more from developers who build in this city, expect more from redevelopers who take over the city’s old and historical buildings, expect more from the engineers who design our streets and freeways, expect a lot more from our government that approves of the designs. In terms of population to usage ratio, perhaps Knight’s and Ouroussoff’s skills would best be utilized critiquing these areas of architecture.

As my friends and I traveled the stations, we had different likes and dislikes. Most of us liked the tile murals at Lankershim/Chandler, most of us disliked the colored floor tile at Hollywood/Highland. Half of us liked the historical tile murals of Universal City--but we all were thankful that the Red Line was doing something. I wonder if Knight and Ouroussoff thought of this, that the Red Line developers are in the business of developing subways, not art.

MARC CALDWELL

Hollywood

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None of the Hollywood area Metro stations except Hollywood and Vine--with its old cameras and take-up reels--has a hint of what made Hollywood world-famous: movie stars.

What design genius decided to omit pictures or drawings of such beloved international stars as Bogart, Wayne, Monroe, Presley, Sinatra, Hayworth, Chaplin, etc., in the stations? Aren’t these people the reason tourists come to Hollywood?!

JOHN HOLMSTROM

Hollywood