Ellen Stern Harris

Ellen Stern Harris, the aggressive conservationist considered to be the mother of the California Coastal Conservation Act of 1972, who was an original member of the commission it established, died Monday. She was 76. Harris died of cancer at her Beverly Hills home, her family said. "The California coast would not look the way it does without her efforts," Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, told The Times last month.

When Ellen Stern Harris died of cancer five years ago at age 76, the pugnacious conservationist left a vast and chaotic collection of letters, research files, photos and publications. Last Wednesday,, a UCLA van pulled up to a chilly storage warehouse in West Los Angeles to pick up 28 cartons of materials, carefully organized by an archivist hired through Craigslist. Over the coming months, UCLA plans to digitize the contents to make them available online to scholars and others interested in California's political and environmental history.

Decades before voter initiatives joined death and taxes as the only certainties in California, Ellen Stern Harris invited a group of environmental activists concerned about rapid growth along the state's coastline to sit around her dining table and fashion the framework for Proposition 20.

A celebration of the life of Ellen Stern Harris, the activist who helped establish California's Coastal Conservation Act, will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. in the formal garden of Greystone Mansion, 905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills. Harris died Monday of cancer at her Beverly Hills home. She was 76.

When Ellen Stern Harris died of cancer five years ago at age 76, the pugnacious conservationist left a vast and chaotic collection of letters, research files, photos and publications. Last Wednesday,, a UCLA van pulled up to a chilly storage warehouse in West Los Angeles to pick up 28 cartons of materials, carefully organized by an archivist hired through Craigslist. Over the coming months, UCLA plans to digitize the contents to make them available online to scholars and others interested in California's political and environmental history.

With both the Bushes recently afflicted, can Graves' disease now be attributed to acute broccoli deficiency? ELLEN STERN HARRIS, Beverly Hills

What's the difference between a property tax increase and mandatory homeowners' earthquake insurance (front page, Sept. 22)? Property taxes are deductible from income taxes and insurance premiums aren't. ELLEN STERN HARRIS Beverly Hills

A celebration of the life of Ellen Stern Harris, the activist who helped establish California's Coastal Conservation Act, will be held Sunday at 11 a.m. in the formal garden of Greystone Mansion, 905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills. Harris died Monday of cancer at her Beverly Hills home. She was 76.

Re "A Wave of Desalination Proposals," March 14: Tourism has long been a major job-producing industry in California. And our beaches are one of tourism's top attractions. If we obliterate ever more of our once-scenic coast with desalination facilities, we will have lost this state's golden shore. We cannot continue to accommodate exponential demand for growth, supply infinite additional water supplies -- in the coastal zone's finite space -- and expect California to maintain a desirable quality of life.

Re "Pruning the Thickets of Cellular Antennas," April 17: Aesthetics may be the least of our concerns, with regard to the proliferation and concentration of cellular phone towers in our urban midst. Although the FCC has declared radio frequency emissions from these antenna to be safe, many are skeptical about the evidence upon which that opinion is based. This skepticism includes apprehension regarding possible adverse health effects. In turn, this may also adversely affect property values of homes located in close proximity to such installations.

Ellen Stern Harris, the aggressive conservationist considered to be the mother of the California Coastal Conservation Act of 1972, who was an original member of the commission it established, died Monday. She was 76. Harris died of cancer at her Beverly Hills home, her family said. "The California coast would not look the way it does without her efforts," Susan Jordan, executive director of the California Coastal Protection Network, told The Times last month.

Decades before voter initiatives joined death and taxes as the only certainties in California, Ellen Stern Harris invited a group of environmental activists concerned about rapid growth along the state's coastline to sit around her dining table and fashion the framework for Proposition 20.

Re "A Wave of Desalination Proposals," March 14: Tourism has long been a major job-producing industry in California. And our beaches are one of tourism's top attractions. If we obliterate ever more of our once-scenic coast with desalination facilities, we will have lost this state's golden shore. We cannot continue to accommodate exponential demand for growth, supply infinite additional water supplies -- in the coastal zone's finite space -- and expect California to maintain a desirable quality of life.

Living in La Crescenta, in the San Gabriel Mountains foothills, we lose power an average of four times on any given windy day. So "Down to the Wires" by Leslee Komaiko (Feb. 9) really interested us. Not only would putting electrical and cable wires underground help alleviate the problem, but it sure would clean up the view. We've wished for years that the city of Glendale would consider moving the lines underground. $10,000 billed on my property tax and paid off over 15 years? That would be money well spent.

Re "Deregulation Didn't Foster Competition," Feb. 7: Perhaps the authors of California's 1996 utility deregulation law stole a page from the 1996 Telecommunications Act in Washington. The Telecommunications Act was yet another major law announced with a PR blitz promising to increase competition. In practice, it cleared the way for an unprecedented wave of mega-mergers that consolidated the number of companies that dominate the media from roughly 23 to 10--thus severely limiting competition.

Re "Pruning the Thickets of Cellular Antennas," April 17: Aesthetics may be the least of our concerns, with regard to the proliferation and concentration of cellular phone towers in our urban midst. Although the FCC has declared radio frequency emissions from these antenna to be safe, many are skeptical about the evidence upon which that opinion is based. This skepticism includes apprehension regarding possible adverse health effects. In turn, this may also adversely affect property values of homes located in close proximity to such installations.

Cal State Fullerton and Group W cable officials are correct. The rules governing the use of public access channels on cable TV do encourage the widest range of ideas and voices. The concept of public access is to create a democratic forum on a first-come, first-serve, non-discriminatory, non-commercial and affordable basis. For those disagreeing with Metzger's views, the remedy is to tape a show of their own. Cal State's Instructional Media Center might even facilitate this process by contacting the local NAACP, Anti-Defamation League and others to encourage their participation by producing programming that conveys the views of these organizations.

Regarding Robert Smaus' Aug. 30 "In the Garden" headlined "The Pole and I": Undergrounding of utility lines provides tremendous advantages in terms of preventive maintenance of electrical systems, fire prevention, minimizing of accidental electrocutions and the avoidance of any utility company expense or problems with the trimming of trees. Edison's recent pruning of greenery at my house along the alley and under the utility lines is instructive. Every two years, this trimming requires a crew of two with heavy-duty equipment (cherry picker, big truck for hauling, another piece of equipment for lifting the debris into the truck, etc.)

The art review, ironically titled "Good Environment" (May 3), neglected to mention that the outdoor public art project, "California Wash," leads up to and overlooks one of the historically most polluted, debris-filled spots on the entire Los Angeles County coast. It is called the Pico-Kenter storm drain and empties onto the beach near the Shutter Beach Hotel at Pico Boulevard. Your reviewer is correct in stating that "the site becomes an occasion to ponder not only Southern California's prehistory, but also the practical and ethical demands of the modern urban environment."