Local Economy

* While all the news indicates a local and national economic return, thank you once again for proving the glass is half empty. Your feature on “Rude Awakening” (June 9) insults all of us who have fought to bring economic vitality back to this area. And, in case we missed the page-one story, your “Down and Downsized” trash rehash in the Valley section was a further debasement of our city. Your constant division of races only rubs salt in the wounds of a complex area trying to pull its economic and racial constituencies together. What would make you happy, to publish a newspaper in a city where no one can afford, or read, your bitter, insolent words?

MANUEL PADILLA JR.

Van Nuys