CSUN Mall

* Re “It’s Time to Develop CSUN Site,” March 9.

Cal State Northridge President Blenda J. Wilson uses bureaucratic obfuscation to compensate for myopic vision.

Leasing vacant North Campus property to developers to generate a profit is not an inherently bad idea; a shopping center on university property is a bad idea.

Instead of leasing the land to a strip mall developer who has no ties to the university, CSUN should build something that has a permanent, direct connection to the educational process. A community sports complex and fitness center or a football stadium with links to the university’s kinesiology department would have been a better idea. Something like the Kellogg Center on the campus of Michigan State University, a hotel and convention center aligned with the university’s Hotel Management School, would have been a better idea. A miniature golf course would have been a better idea.

No one wants a strip mall--even an upscale one--on the North Campus property except Wilson and her cronies. They should rethink their shortsighted, unimaginative proposal. It’s OK to make piles of money from the property--if it’s done the right way.

JON KAISER

Northridge

* The difficulty facing the proposed mall at CSUN is not only with the immediate neighbors of the university or the local small-business community, but the manner in which the administration appears to be ignoring the views of the whole Valley.

Over the years that this state university has had jurisdiction of the 65 acres, a number of proposals have been developed. These include a performing arts center, additional educational facilities for the new high-tech and entertainment demands of our economy and other programs that can only be provided through the rich environment that should exist at CSUN.

The administration now informs us that the best possible use of the most valuable property is what seems to be an improbable development of another shopping mall. Arguments that students will be able to work at the so-called MarketCenter ring hollow in that numerous malls already exist throughout the Valley. The fact that the university has been less than open in dealing with the manifold questions regarding the entire 65 acres is offensive.

CSUN, regardless of its name change from San Fernando Valley State, does serve this entire area. Although the land is now significantly underutilized, it simply does not make sense to enter into a bad business deal that benefits the developer and whoever the lease is transferred to in the near future.

This property is a legacy from the past for the future. To simply have an attitude of “take the money and run” exemplifies not only poor judgment but also an arrogant insensitivity to the mission of the university to its many communities.

ALEXANDER L. SOSS,

Board Member and past Vice

President, Governmental Affairs,

United Chambers of Commerce

of the San Fernando Valley

Studio City

* This prime property at the southwest corner of Devonshire Street and Zelzah Avenue in Northridge has been an item of controversy for many years.

I am a longtime resident and onetime activist against the transfer of this land from the 51st Agricultural District to the college. But the land was transferred, and for educational purposes. A retail shopping center with a 50-year lease is not acceptable under the transfer conditions.

As to Wilson stating that this development could bring new business into our community and perhaps retain business being lost to places such as Thousand Oaks, Pasadena and Santa Monica: I have lived in Granada Hills for 43 years and I have never been tempted to take my shopping dollars to Thousand Oaks, Pasadena or Santa Monica. I doubt if any of my neighbors would either.

We already have many small businesses struggling to make a living along Chatsworth Street and Devonshire. They cannot afford the competition. We need to support local merchants, not enrich the coffers of Cal State Northridge. It is not the responsibility of the community to solve the financial problems facing the university.

JOAN McCORMACK CLARK

Granada Hills

* Wilson’s article again hammers home the point that CSUN is not listening to the outraged voices of the neighbors it claims to befriend.

[The Northridge Chamber of Commerce] has suggested dozens of times that CSUN should jump into the 21st century by becoming the world’s premier teaching college for students who want to make entertainment a career choice. The entertainment industry is the Valley’s largest employer and is growing. Sound stages are simply not available, and there is no place to learn post-production sound and film editing, computer graphics and other skills much needed in today’s high-tech mediums.

CSUN should listen to its neighbors and scrap the shopping center. It should then concentrate on finding a builder who can construct a world-class entertainment complex on North Campus. The rental income would make the shopping center lease look like chump change. And the facility would provide hundreds of high-paying jobs for CSUN students and graduates who dream of being tomorrow’s Spielbergs, Katzenbergs and Disneys.

WALTER N. PRINCE,

Northridge Chamber of Commerce