BIGGER, LONGER AND OUTDOORS

The biggest news to come to Woodland Hills and the larger shopping community of all of Southern California is the Westfield Group's proposed $750 million shopping center - the Village in the San Fernando Valley. This 3.8 million-square-foot complex would theoretically provide as many as 10,000 temporary and permanent jobs and $6 million in sales tax revenue for our fair neighborhood. It would connect the two neighboring malls on Topanga Canyon Boulevard in Woodland Hills with a retail-commercial-residential "bridge" of some sort. It would also draw an additional 10 million visitors each year on top of the combined 24 million annual visitors for the two malls who already drive down Owensmouth and the surrounding streets.

While I'm all about increasing the fabulousness of our city through retail excitement, I've got to say the developers missed one big, glaring complication: the Sun. That's right, I said it. The Sun. In case you dudes haven't noticed, the Sun shines bright deep in the heart of Woodland Hills. In the Summertime, it can even be downright grueling trying to go Al Gore-style eco-friendly and walk to get a cup of coffee rather than drive and bring down the guilt of global warming or some such yaya. Who will walk OUTSIDE in 100 degree weather when there are other malls right there that are entirely enclosed and air conditioned? I'm still trying to picture the meeting where the demographics/marketing people go to painstaking lengths to sell this project as BIGGER than South Coast Plaza and LONGER than South Coast Plaza all the while failing to mention that large parts of the mall will require people to walk OUTSIDE in a part of Los Angeles County that routinely hits triple digits during four months of the year. I can't even imagine the gift basket that made that idea palatable.