Walmart's good, bad effects

Walmart is the biggest and strongest department store in the world. And we could see it in Burbank soon (“Walmart to engage community,” July 20).

It will have its good and bad effects on our community. After the public’s swift and blistering reaction online to news that Walmart may move into the Great Indoors store next to the Empire Center, a “No Wal Mart in Burbank” page on Facebook was created. I and lots of people joined this page to share our opinions and suggestions.

There are many retailers nearby, such as Best Buy, TJ MAXX, Marshalls, Target, Nordstrom Rack, Costco and Kmart. If Walmart moved to Burbank, it would be overwhelming having another retailer in the area.

It [probably] is true that by Walmart’s moving in, we will have more job opportunities in Burbank and nearby cities, and better deals because of competition. But what will happen if other retailers and small businesses lose their customers and close their businesses?

Arthur Arakelian

Glendale

A traffic calamity every day

This is regarding your news story on July 13, “Preparing for ‘Carmageddon,’” noting the chaos that could be caused by a missing link in the freeway system and the spillover effect projected for “all freeways in L.A. County,” because of the disruption of “263,000 cars.”

The massive attention to the 53-hour calamity on the 405 Freeway brings emphasis to the plans underway to fill the 4.5-mile gap in the Long Beach (710) Freeway, where similar effects are caused every single day for the thousands of vehicles that are forced onto surface streets and nearby freeways, such as the Golden State (5), Glendale (2) and Ventura (134) freeways through Glendale.

Nat B. Read

Glendale

Editor’s note: Read is chairman of the 710 Freeway Coalition.