When people see the partial closing of Etiwanda Avenue, between Halsted and Plummer streets, reactions that have most likely come up in their minds are: “Why was this section Etiwanda cut off? And who in the world decided to permanently close it off?”

It was the community, specifically several community members living along Etiwanda Avenue, who voiced their concerns and ultimately influenced Facilities and Planning at CSUN to close part of the street.

And the bad news is that the closure is not temporary but permanent.

When members of the community moved to CSUN, I am almost sure they knew about the extra traffic that would be in their area as a result of being next to this university. In the past, the university was not as big as in population as it is today, of course. But what still remains is that residents should have expected traffic. When you move to an area, there are some things you have to accept. For residents in the area, the population of CSUN is one of those thing they, well, have to accept.

To me, it seemed as though they had the upper hand in determining the partial closure of Etiwanda Avenue. Now that people cannot go through Etiwanda, they are detoured to take Reseda Boulevard, which means more traffic.

No one wants to be in bad traffic, obviously, and Reseda Boulevard, on most days and especially during the afternoon, is packed. Not to mention that it is quite difficult for drivers to get on Reseda Boulevard if they try to enter through a street that does not have a traffic light. Ultimately, the closure is more an inconvenience than a benefit.

One benefit of the partial closing, however, is that pedestrian safety will likely increase. Decreasing danger is always good.

What still remains, however, is that more students, faculty and staff that I have heard from are more upset about the closure than Etiwanda residents are happy. A questionnaire was recently passed out to residents on Etiwanda Avenue, but was a survey passed out to people at this university? I could be wrong, but I did not hear of one being passed out, and several people seemed to be unpleasantly surprised by the closure. As much consideration as residents on Etiwanda Avenue received, students, faculty and staff should be considered to be of greater importance. We are a larger population than those who live on or close to Etiwanda Avenue. The closure affects us on a larger scale.

When it comes down to who has the final say, the ball should be in our court.

Samuel Richard can be reached at editor@csun.edu.