Fair to the Fair?

I must take exception to the negative tone of your article on the San Fernando Valley Fair (“Fair Directors Undaunted by Losses, Plunge in Attendance,” July 23).

Perhaps the reporter’s preconceived notion that the event was a “failure” got in the way of the facts.

When fair officials first met with our community, they estimated no more than 15,000 would attend the fair . . . but that no matter what, it was important to maintain the continuity of the fair, and “the show must go on.”

The fact that, as even the reporter states, the fair drew over 29,000 attendees must surely indicate success, especially when the fair ran only three days this year.

Our area is one of the last in the Valley where you still find farms, livestock and farm animals. This is an important part of our heritage, as Los Angeles County was once known as the most prosperous agricultural area in the nation.

I look forward to next year’s fair at Hansen Dam with more days, a carnival and midway and even bigger crowds. I urge your reporter to come back next year. Perhaps then the glass will not have been half empty, but half full.

LEWIS S. SNOW

Lake View Terrace