California’s newcomers and their culinary skills

Re “California, Here They Come,” Column One, June 26

How can California accommodate more people? It’s not as if newcomers settle new farmland to feed themselves, as did the early pioneers. On the contrary, now that California is settled, farmland must be sacrificed to house newcomers. A society that destroys the resources that feed it has surely grown past sustainability to overpopulation.

KENNETH PASTERNACK

Santa Barbara

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If so many people have moved here from Manhattan, why are there still no good pizzas or bagels in Los Angeles? Surely a few of them are pizza chefs. And don’t give me phony baloney about the water. Could it be they are just feeling guilty about trading all that great culture for a sunny day?

DAVID KAY

Los Angeles