Editor:

Would you please tell me why you would build a shopping mall like the Streets of Brentwood where you have to walk in the hot sun in the summer and cold, wet weather in the winter?

This covers a lot more property for people to walk from store to store rather than build a covered-over mall where you could possibly find a food court and some benches to sit on. That way there would be somewhere to people watch and enjoy an afternoon. Instead you build something like an Outlet Mall, where you get tired walking from store to store.

In talking to a lot of people who have expressed that this might be something they would go to a couple of times a year, it won't keep the stores in business. As it is nice to have a few upscale stores, those could have been put into downtown Brentwood where there are still vacant stores for you to fill up.

We have so many strip malls here now that show leases available, and now we have the Streets of Brentwood, which might come up with a lot of empty spaces, too. Unless you find a large department store and some extra-special place to eat to draw people there, myself I feel this will wind up a big failure.

I realize the mall has just opened, but did anyone stop to think of the turn off onto Sand Creek and the traffic that already was backing up for the left-hand turn lane even before the mall opened? Now it will be quite a mess.

We do not live in Walnut Creek, and if we want to walk from one store to another in the weather, we can do that at all the other shopping centers in the area. Unless I want something extra special, I guess I will go to Tracy. At least I won't get hot or wet and can enjoy sitting down with an ice cream cone without it melting all over me.

Joyce Eldred

Brentwood