Interview of Arts Park Official Was Appalling

I was appalled by reporter Doug Smith’s interview of Ross Hopkins (May 25).

The article reads like a press release rather than an interview and omits several important issues while leading the reader on with half-truths and outright lies.

One lie is the statement that “the last obstacle” in negotiations to sublease 49 acres beside Lake Balboa from the Recreation and Parks Department is the final environmental impact report. This implies that no obstacles will be found within the document itself.

Overwhelming public opposition, joined by the Coalition to Save the Sepulveda Basin and other environmental, homeowner and user groups, has already proved that issues such as noise, loss of habitat, traffic and crime risk are all obstacles to this location for the Arts Park.

What Ross Hopkins and other members of the Cultural Foundation have ignored these past seven-plus years is that those of us opposed to the Arts Park in the Sepulveda Basin (a flood basin, I might add) are not opposed to culture. We support an arts park, but in a more appropriate location.

KAREN A. OHLENKAMP

North Hills