Letters Letters (December 03, 2003)

True definitions

Editor,

The Palo Alto Weekly article about Downtown North street closures (Nov. 19) quotes the president of the "neighborhood association" as saying that children in the neighborhood are safer since the barriers went in.

The article doesn't mention that the association has consistently drawn its borders to exclude many neighbors adversely affected by the barriers. Association members have taken for themselves the right to define terms like "children" and "neighborhood," and city staff has largely gone along with those definitions.

It's important to keep this in mind when reading statements about the project, because the words don't always mean what you might think. When they say children are safer, for example, they certainly don't mean mine. Hal Prince Middlefield Road Palo Alto
Convenience vs. quality

Editor,

As we enter the final phase of the Downtown North traffic-calming trial, let us seek a balanced perspective.

That Everett and Hawthorne Avenues were heavily used as cross-town connections between Middlefield Road and Alma Street is clear from both personal experience and city statistics.

There is also no doubt that much of this traffic was speeding (often egregiously), and that it had tremendously increased over the 29 years that I have lived in the area (as both renter and homeowner). These streets, unlike Middlefield and Alma, were not previously feeder arterials.

Those who favor the barriers value safer and quieter streets (for which they have paid if they are homeowners). Those who oppose the barriers value convenience in getting to their homes.

I do not doubt that this inconvenience can be annoying. However, nowhere is one obliged to drive more than six extra blocks; usually much less. The residential quality that many of us chose (and paid for) long ago, on the other hand, is not a matter of a couple of minutes of extra driving each day.

If there is no compromise that satisfies both sides, I believe neighborhood quality is the greater priority.

The barriers, while perhaps imperfect, have gone far toward returning the quality of life of the neighborhood. It is not selfish to demand that community-use patterns be maintained.

Refinements to the system should be considered to maximize everyone's satisfaction, but it absolutely must prevent the use of neighborhood streets as cross-town thoroughfares. James Sheats Webster Street Palo Alto
Ignoring 'firewall'

Editor,

The Cordell campaign team is reinforcing the point that the election of LaDoris Cordell was legitimate, and that the City Council was to be commended for its efforts to "tweak" a more-than-century-old law that prohibits city governments from signing contracts with entities employing members of the City Council.

Neither the Cordell campaign team nor the City Council have spent much energy discussing one import issue -- would the voters have voted for Ms. Cordell had they known that this conflict of interest existed at the time of the election?

The dictionary defines ethics as: a set of principles of right conduct. With the City Council not taking to time to hold open hearings about what to do, or even to conduct studies about what should have been done, we're left with the distinct sense that for those "in power" it's not import to even avoid the appearance of impropriety. The Palo Alto City Council has decided to simply change the rules so that the problem goes away.

This year, City Council members from Compton, San Diego, Las Vegas and a Santa Clara judge have been indicted for various improprieties. City Councils are only human, and sometimes succumb to temptation.

Having laws that insert "firewalls" between large institutions (such as Stanford) and City Councils (such as Palo Alto) protect everyone. Seeking to remove the protections of this "firewall" is unwise -- demonstrating how easily ethics can fall by the wayside in the conduct of the public's business. Wayne Martin Bryant Street Palo Alto
Caltrain cutbacks

Editor,

An important decision will be made soon concerning weekend train service for the cities of Atherton, Belmont, San Mateo, Burlingame and San Bruno.

Caltrain is considering two options. Option A calls for the elimination of weekend service at 14 stations, with train service every hour at the other stops. Option B calls for more stations to be served, but every two hours instead of hourly. The service to the other stations would continue to be hourly.

While ridership numbers may be lower than desired at certain stops, public transit is very important to businesses as well as to individuals. I strongly urge concerned residents to contact Caltrain and their city councils and express their preference for one of the two options, option B.

Elimination of weekend service at 14 stations could have a devastating effect on businesses and the sales-tax revenue they generate to support cities. Even though the service will be every two hours at the 14 stops instead of every hour, it still is an important factor for maintaining a tax base and the public services that they fund. Seth Yatovitz High Street Palo Alto
Buried numbers

Editor,

Regrettably, many of the media pundits are echoing the crude propaganda Bush Administration in presenting a false impression that coalition forces are in control and that the resistance is confined to a few misguided fanatics.

The loss of human life is staggering. In addition to mounting fatalities -- both U.S. and Iraqi, more than 10,000 American soldiers have been injured. A number of U.S. soldiers home on leave have gone AWOL and others have committed suicide. More than 50,000 Iraqi civilians have died.

We are now using the Israeli model of terror tactics unleashed on the Palestinians by dropping 2,000 bombs, sending lethal clouds of depleted uranium adversely affecting the health of Iraqis and our sons and daughters, destroying homes, killing more innocent Iraqis to "send a strong message" than we mean business!

This is reminiscent of the crude propaganda our misguided military commanders used in Vietnam -- "we have to destroy the village to save it!"

Bush's "civilized" world will not be intimidated. In Bushspeak, civilized means the forcible occupation of a country against the will of its people and stealing its wealth.

Tragically, we do not even honor our own dead soldiers. Their caskets are hidden from public view, to minimize the collateral damage to this administration's policies -- in sharp contrast to fallen Italian soldiers who were honored with a state funeral.

President Bush and his junior partner, British Prime Minister Blair, are guilty of ... by far the most egregious foreign policy failure in U.S. history. Jagjit Singh Louisa Court Palo Alto
Gift of clean air

Editor,

When you smell that wonderful smell of wood smoke in the air you know that it is the holidays -- and you know that you are inhaling some of the most dangerous pollutants around.

When you are outside your house and the smell of wood smoke makes you think of happy families gathered around the fire, think too about particulate matter that travels deep into the lungs and stays there forever, and contributes to lung disease including lung cancer (number one cancer in terms of fatalities for both men and women in the United States) and asthma (pandemic in recent decades).

Will Taylor of the Bay Area Air Quality Management District says that "conventional masonry and open wood fires are the greatest enemy in the air pollution field today."

The pollution from fireplaces is worst closest to the source, including inside houses. People inside or near houses with burning fires are most at risk. This of course includes babies and children who are even more susceptible to lung problems than adults are.

Do your own research. It would be nice if burning wood was OK, but it isn't. Give your children and neighbors the gift of clean air this year. Maria Kleczewska Marmona Drive Menlo Park

E-mail a friend a link to this story.