Alice Callaghan

This is ground zero of the latest hot-button initiative to confront Californians: a roomful of chattering children ruled by a no-nonsense Episcopal priest on the urine-scented fringe of Los Angeles' skid row. It is here, in Alice Callaghan's storefront center for garment workers' families, that she and a group of Latino parents launched a rebellion against bilingual education, inspiring software millionaire Ron K.

Nearly a month after Mayor Tom Bradley interceded to keep portable toilets off Skid Row sidewalks, activist Alice Callaghan struck again on Thursday, delivering six of the pale green potties to three locations in downtown Los Angeles. This time, unable to secure city permits to put them on public property, Callaghan and her social services organization, Las Familias del Pueblo, reached agreements to place the latrines on privately owned lots--one of them within easy view of City Hall.

As police and the mayor's staff prepare for a summit today on controversial new methods to clean up Skid Row, sources close to the issue say the city will attempt to ease the LAPD's hard-line policy slightly, while still backing the thrust of the new strategy of confining transients to specific street corners.

Alice Callaghan laments the issuing of jaywalking citations to the homeless on skid row (" 'The Night Lit Up as Day' on Skid Row," Commentary, Dec. 25). Clearly this is an unfair practice, she and others tell us, because the homeless can't afford to pay the ticket and thus wind up being arrested and jailed. I drive through skid row on my way to work each morning. I am convinced that, one of these days, I'll run over someone who decides to take a leisurely stroll across the middle of 6th Street.

Re "Restore Skid Row's Portables," Commentary, Sept. 30: On behalf of the business association Alice Callaghan refers to, we agree with her statements that public urination and defecation are a problem. We disagree on the solution. Portable toilets are not the permanent solution to the problem. The toilets are crime-ridden and used more frequently for drug activity and prostitution, as evidenced by the fact that the cleaning contractor had to get a hazardous waste certificate to dispose of all the needles and drug paraphernalia that are in the toilets.

"Unusual Crusade: Que Pasa Aqui?" (April 5), on Alice Callaghan, brought several thoughts to mind: I appreciate the work she is doing on skid row. I'm sorry her experience with bilingual education has been so negative. Bilingual programs vary in the amount each language is used. Where I work, English is used between 80% and 100% of the day. Parents can place their non-English-speaking children in an English-only program at any time. Limited-English-proficient students in English-only or bilingual programs generate funds for their districts.

Re "Schools Are Subverting the People's Will," Commentary, Sept. 3: I think that Alice Callaghan would rather subvert the will of the parents. According to Proposition 227, parents must request the waiver in order for their children to receive instruction in a bilingual program. As written, there are no limitations for school districts to grant waivers. As written, the law states that instruction should be overwhelmingly in English. If the intention of the law was for instruction in English only, then it should have been written as such.

I applaud the account of the efforts of Alice Callaghan ("The Savior of Skid Row," by Joy Horowitz, Nov. 10). It is very encouraging to see that not all hope is lost for these greatly disadvantaged people. I would like to thank her for giving of herself to those who so desperately need it. TIMOTHY LEE NEUMANN Irvine

Writer Joy Horowitz said of Alice Callaghan: "Though it is true that Callaghan lives a Spartan existence--she earns a paltry $26,400 a year. . . . " In San Francisco, a city rated as more expensive than Los Angeles, the starting salary for teachers is $26,000. In Los Angeles, it is $28,500. Can I assume therefore that pressure will be brought on the powers-that-be in the state to raise the "paltry" salaries of some of our most important citizens, so that they are not relegated to a "Spartan existence"?

As a long-time worker with the poor of Los Angeles' Skid Row, I am greatly dismayed over the forced exit of Ed Helfeld, director of the Community Redevelopment Agency, (CRA). Probably no other big city redevelopment agency enjoys the level of support and trust of those who work with the poor and dispossessed to the degree that Los Angeles' does. This is solely because of Helfeld's leadership. The CRA plan for Central City East, developed under Helfeld's administration, is a forceful and eloquent statement that the politically impotent and economically impoverished of Skid Row are of major concern to the city and the mayor.

Alice Callaghan laments the issuing of jaywalking citations to the homeless on skid row (" 'The Night Lit Up as Day' on Skid Row," Commentary, Dec. 25). Clearly this is an unfair practice, she and others tell us, because the homeless can't afford to pay the ticket and thus wind up being arrested and jailed. I drive through skid row on my way to work each morning. I am convinced that, one of these days, I'll run over someone who decides to take a leisurely stroll across the middle of 6th Street.

Re "Befouled Businesses Near L.A.'s Skid Row Seek Relief in the Law," May 30: Rather than ticket the homeless $1,000 and send them to jail for a costly six-month stay, the City Council should declare it illegal for the homeless to eat or drink. Burials are cheaper than the proposed draconian sanctions. The very businesses demanding a law against public urination have opposed every effort to place toilets on skid row. They signed petitions and lobbied the council to remove the woefully inadequate number placed in 1994 after an eight-year battle.

Re "Restore Skid Row's Portables," Commentary, Sept. 30: On behalf of the business association Alice Callaghan refers to, we agree with her statements that public urination and defecation are a problem. We disagree on the solution. Portable toilets are not the permanent solution to the problem. The toilets are crime-ridden and used more frequently for drug activity and prostitution, as evidenced by the fact that the cleaning contractor had to get a hazardous waste certificate to dispose of all the needles and drug paraphernalia that are in the toilets.

Re "Schools Are Subverting the People's Will," Commentary, Sept. 3: I think that Alice Callaghan would rather subvert the will of the parents. According to Proposition 227, parents must request the waiver in order for their children to receive instruction in a bilingual program. As written, there are no limitations for school districts to grant waivers. As written, the law states that instruction should be overwhelmingly in English. If the intention of the law was for instruction in English only, then it should have been written as such.

"Unusual Crusade: Que Pasa Aqui?" (April 5), on Alice Callaghan, brought several thoughts to mind: I appreciate the work she is doing on skid row. I'm sorry her experience with bilingual education has been so negative. Bilingual programs vary in the amount each language is used. Where I work, English is used between 80% and 100% of the day. Parents can place their non-English-speaking children in an English-only program at any time. Limited-English-proficient students in English-only or bilingual programs generate funds for their districts.

This is ground zero of the latest hot-button initiative to confront Californians: a roomful of chattering children ruled by a no-nonsense Episcopal priest on the urine-scented fringe of Los Angeles' skid row. It is here, in Alice Callaghan's storefront center for garment workers' families, that she and a group of Latino parents launched a rebellion against bilingual education, inspiring software millionaire Ron K.

Nearly a month after Mayor Tom Bradley interceded to keep portable toilets off Skid Row sidewalks, activist Alice Callaghan struck again on Thursday, delivering six of the pale green potties to three locations in downtown Los Angeles. This time, unable to secure city permits to put them on public property, Callaghan and her social services organization, Las Familias del Pueblo, reached agreements to place the latrines on privately owned lots--one of them within easy view of City Hall.

I applaud the account of the efforts of Alice Callaghan ("The Savior of Skid Row," by Joy Horowitz, Nov. 10). It is very encouraging to see that not all hope is lost for these greatly disadvantaged people. I would like to thank her for giving of herself to those who so desperately need it. TIMOTHY LEE NEUMANN Irvine

Writer Joy Horowitz said of Alice Callaghan: "Though it is true that Callaghan lives a Spartan existence--she earns a paltry $26,400 a year. . . . " In San Francisco, a city rated as more expensive than Los Angeles, the starting salary for teachers is $26,000. In Los Angeles, it is $28,500. Can I assume therefore that pressure will be brought on the powers-that-be in the state to raise the "paltry" salaries of some of our most important citizens, so that they are not relegated to a "Spartan existence"?

COMING UPON SKID ROW FOR THE FIRST TIME along 7th Street, a visitor is struck by the trash and blight. Many of the old storefronts and hotels are scarred and crumbling or boarded shut. Some doorways are covered not with boards but with sleeping people; others are blocked by locked grates, with garment workers seemingly caged behind sewing machines inside.