Readers’ comments: June 6, 2025

‘Dancing about architecture’ spurs memories
Dear editor:
I remember the low, long, flat roofline of Valencia Elementary just as it appears in the 1966 photograph you reproduce in your article, “Dancing about architecture” [May 30]. I remember the mountains looming above the roof and the clean lines of brick below. That photo was taken a year before I was born, but the school looked the same when I attended third through sixth grade there.
Some days we could not see the mountains a mile behind the school, because smog was much worse than today, with the area booming and most cars still lacking catalytic converters. Inside the entryway, we had a small plaza of grass and walkways, with every classroom opening into breezeways here or out onto the surrounding playground.
I remember the waxy blue plastic chairs and glossy plywood tables inside, and the sliding partitions between many classrooms. This was an architectural fad, probably influenced by traditional Japanese homes, and intended to allow teachers to reconfigure the space. If you sat near one of those thin, sliding walls, you could communicate with taps and low voices with the nearest kid in the next class, so I bet teachers would have been happier with masonry. But we opened them up for music time, so two whole classes could sing together, and at least on that occasion the architect might have been pleased.
It is often hard to discover the optimism in modern architecture after living with it for long: The glass and metal of the airport and the hospital begin to look more expedient and cheap than bold and daring. The brick of Valencia and the long, low proportions of schools like it, though, offer a warmth and humility to balance the austere rectangles. And surely children still enjoy the light and sky always perceptible through the ribbon of glass flanking every door.
Scott Banks
Claremont

Trump has no shame
Dear editor:
Corruption: A criminal offense by a person in a position of authority to acquire illicit benefits for their own gain.
Trump and his administration are very corrupt. Here are some examples:

• Trump has accepted a $400 million airplane from Qatar, which he will use after he leaves office (if he leaves office).
• Trump has sold more than $200 million of his $TRUMP cryptocurrency, much of it to foreign billionaires. The buyers got to have dinner with him.
• Chinese entrepreneur Justin Sun invested $75 million in the Trump owned World Liberty Financial and then the SEC dropped an investigation into him.
• A United Arab Emirates state-backed investment firm has put $2 billion in the Trump owned World Liberty Financial.
• Trump Media, which owns Truth Social, has raised millions of dollars from investors and gets income from advertisers, including foreign billionaires.
• Facing tariff threats from the U.S., Vietnam has fast track approved a Trump Organization plan for a $1.5 billion real estate development.
• A company with ties to the Chinese government announced they would buy $300 million of the $TRUMP cryptocurrency.
• Trump has ordered the Department of Justice to stop enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
• Trump and DOGE have removed the people and funding for virtually every regulatory body, so what they are doing can’t be investigated or reported on.

Trump has done all of this and so much more in only the first four months. This is not a complete list of the corruption Trump is involved in, which includes real estate, cryptocurrencies, bribes, payoffs, and intimidation. Trump has no shame.
Sydney Pollard
Claremont