Neighbors

Barbara Jones said she had a warning ready for her grandchildren whenever they visited her Compton home. Keep an eye out for her neighbor, Julian Carter.  "I'd tell them, 'If you see Julian walk up, come inside. I'm too old to be fighting with him,' " the 61-year-old Jones said Monday. "I'll fight with him, but I don't think I can win." Carter, 25, on Monday was accused of killing his 5-year-old niece, placing her body in a plastic trash bag and stuffing it into the closet of the family's home, which is next door to Jones' home.

The body of 75-year-old man sat decomposing on his Marina del Rey balcony for days because neighbors thought the lifeless figure was part of a Halloween display and didn't call police. Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead since Monday with a single gunshot wound to one eye. He was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment on Bora Bora Way, said cameraman Austin Raishbrook, who owns RMG News and was on the scene Thursday when authorities were alerted to the body.

Last spring's upheaval dramatically altered our moral landscape, and we have all been forced to think again about what it means to live in Los Angeles. My job for the next seven months is to work to ensure that only the positive changes created by the unrest will endure for our children and grandchildren. That's what our Neighbor-to-Neighbor program is all about. Through the ashes and rubble we saw neighbors coming to the aid of their neighbors. That activism is still alive.

A federal appeals court issued an order today that apparently allows neighbors of the Stringfellow Acid Pits in Riverside County to sue the state and federal governments over cleanup of the former toxic waste dump. The action by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reverses a ruling by former U.S. District Judge Malcolm Lucas of Los Angeles, who had said the neighbors' interests were adequately represented by the government agencies in the case.

Sandy Banks' column "Donning Scarves in Solidarity" (Sept. 25) brings home to others the humanity of people who are in the minority or may be misunderstood. If we truly claim to be a "melting pot," we have to understand who our neighbors are. TODD RIZVI Los Angeles

The Times asserts that Soka University's plan to enlarge its student body is opposed by "most" of Soka's neighbors ("Ahmanson Site Suggested for Soka," Times Valley Edition, Dec. 12). How does The Times know what "most" of Soka's neighbors think? Has it conducted a public opinion survey or systematically and objectively interviewed a majority of Soka's neighbors? Or is it merely a presumption, a guess? Based on informal conversations I have had with many of Soka's neighbors, I feel comfortable in asserting that "most" of Soka's neighbors welcome the presence of an enlarged university.

Re: "I Am Not a Murderer" article, Dec. 8. I am seldom compelled to write letters to newspapers regarding articles that I have read, but I simply cannot ignore writing about Jaroslav Skoda. His neighbors have every right to live in fear of this man. Anyone who would strap a handgun to his hip and who could beat an animal almost to death, then throw its body in a trash can, would seem to be very capable of violent actions. It isn't Skoda who should be building eight-foot walls around his house but his neighbors.

Rep. Gary A. Condit signaled his willingness to be interviewed a fourth time by authorities investigating the disappearance of former federal intern Chandra Levy. Police expressed frustration with the silence of some of Levy's neighbors. "Far too many people, more than a handful" in the building have so far refused to answer questions, Executive Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer said.

A Tujunga man who tormented his neighbors for years and falsely accused them of making illegal drugs has been sentenced to nearly 14 months in jail, authorities said. Ludovit Salka, 80, was sentenced to 420 days in jail in San Fernando Superior Court on Thursday after he was convicted for the third time since 1996 of disturbing the peace, city attorney's spokesman Mike Qualls said. Salka may spend up to 330 days in a lock-down mental hospital instead of jail, Qualls said.

Congratulations to Isobel Oxx! What a wonderful service she is providing to her fellow human beings [by opening a home for the terminally ill on Westlake Lake]. Too bad her neighbors are too mean-spirited to see what a valuable opportunity she is giving them to teach their children compassion for the sick and dying. Instead, they'll pass along their intolerance and hostility to create another generation of uncaring and selfish people. If anything is making that neighborhood undesirable, it is the actions of Ms. Oxx's neighbors against her, not her efforts to make a difference by helping people die with peace and dignity.