Which Way to Go on the Long Beach Freeway?

In “Freeway: Link to Community Disaster” (Aug. 13), Sam Hall Kaplan did not do his homework and takes literary license in mouthing the pap that South Pasadena has fed us for 36 years, creating congestion by reducing freeway and surface traffic to one lane through its city and such other restrictions.

Did it ever occur to Kaplan to:

--Check with other concerned foothill communities such as Pasadena, Glendale, La Canada, La Crescenta, Montrose, Alhambra, Arcadia, San Gabriel and beyond?

--Why is he including El Sereno on the side of South Pasadena--has he checked their needs, feelings and desires?

--Why does he not report the Maginot Line that South Pasadena has constructed between El Sereno and South Pasadena streets?

--Has he ever experienced firsthand the congestion and gridlock of Valley Boulevard at Fremont Street? At Valley Boulevard where the Long Beach Freeway ends?

--Does he know that one accident, one flood, one electrical failure, creates a gridlock on the Eastside of Los Angeles for an entire day?

--Why should I use the Golden State, Glendale and Foothill freeways when the direct route to the foothills is shorter and faster? . . . How much pollution do I produce in driving more and longer?

Caltrans has been far too kind to South Pasadena for 36 years--when they should have imposed the extension of the Long Beach Freeway without any ramps through South Pasadena and opened up that congestion and misery that South Pasadena has imposed on all its neighbors.

GEORGE A. BOUKIDIS

La Crescenta