Isla Vista Tragedy and Sidewalks

Re “4 Die as Car Plows Into Pedestrians,” Feb. 25: As a member of the UCSB/Isla Vista community, I feel I need to correct a statement made in this article--”Sabado Tarde has sidewalks, but on weekend nights many walk the streets, the better to mingle.” Although there are sidewalks on portions of this and other streets in Isla Vista, they are so infrequent and in such disrepair that it leaves us no choice but to walk in the street.

I feel that the media are suggesting that the victims are to blame for walking in the street, as if they had a choice. This tragedy could not have been avoided, regardless of the location of the walkers: David Attias is a very troubled young man and a sidewalk would not have stopped him from taking the lives of four innocent people.

LESLIE MOSS

Isla Vista

* Twenty years ago when Isla Vista was my stomping ground, my home away from L.A. and a safe harbor from the real world, I would stroll down Sabado Tarde. There was usually a gentle breeze from the ocean, and it seemed the party would never end, that everything was possible and wondrous.

When Attias, by accident or design, took four lives, that insular world was shattered. With the help of the UC Santa Barbara students, Isla Vista should heal itself, and its residents can once again roam unfettered by fears and cares that shouldn’t yet touch their young lives. One can hope.

DENISE CLARY-WILSON

Culver City