March 17, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Letters

Editor,

This letter is to compliment the Palo Alto Weekly and particularly Robyn Israel for her fine efforts as the Arts and Entertainment editor.

The "Worth A Look" section is an invaluable guide for readers and Israel provides a great service in selecting the most promising upcoming events each week -- not an easy task in Palo Alto.

As president of the Palo Alto Philharmonic I have found her coverage not only excellent from a reportorial viewpoint, but also her pieces are well-written and researched. She always goes the proverbial extra mile in assuring accuracy and fairness.

When the Palo Alto Weekly features one group in the arts community, it encourages awareness of all of the arts. I would like to thank the Weekly for its coverage. Maxine Goodman President, Palo Alto Philharmonic E. Bayshore Road Palo Alto
Raise cigarette tax

Editor,

I bought my first pack of cigarettes at age 7. If I had known that in the early years of a child's development the lungs are most susceptible to permanent destruction from cigarette smoking, I would never have taken that first puff.

There is also a 33 percent chance that the government will pay higher health-care costs as a child becomes an adult and possibly develops smoking-related illnesses.

The addictive effects of cigarette smoking also make it hard to quit. It is possible for some people to quit on their own by taking Wellbutrin. It worked for me. However, some people may require counseling and hospitalization in addition to Wellbutrin, as the psychological and physical side effects of taking this drug may complicate the process of recovery.

I want to strongly urge our local, state and federal officials to support the Harkin-Feinstein Amendment for a $1 increase in the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes, and dedicating a portion of the revenue to cancer prevention through entities such as the National Institutes of Health and the Center for Disease Control.

If the tax is raised it will generate approximately $20.4 billion in new revenue each year, while simultaneously helping to prevent America's kids from smoking. Raising the price of cigarettes has proven to be an effective way to reduce smoking in Canada and other nations, especially among kids.

A $1-per-pack increase is expected to reduce the number of kids who start smoking by 18 percent. Alex Kanellakos Allen Court Palo Alto
Outstanding teachers

Editor,

Let's see if I have this right. Because of a $4.2 million budget cut, the Palo Alto Unified School District will have to eliminate programs and personnel. Employees, both certificated and classified, have been asked to take furlough days to save money.

And yet, a couple of superintendents are hired at very good salaries to perform certain jobs. If they do what they were hired to do, they will receive a bonus depending on their performance ratings. An "unsatisfactory" evaluation means no bonus, but still a job.

Where is the bonus for the "outstanding" performance of the first-grade teacher at Addison, the English teacher at JLS and the math teacher at Gunn? Al Bernal N. California Avenue Palo Alto
Unified leadership

Editor,

As a former teacher, a parent and a product of the Palo Alto Unified School District -- Cubberley class of '77 -- I am deeply concerned about the lack of leadership in the district.

Recent actions do harm to the meaning of the word "Unified" in the title of our institution. With the budget crisis at hand, the leadership has turned to cuts in valuable programs and staffing, both of which pose detrimental effects to our students' education.

Teachers are, once again, being pressured to accept furloughs. Layoffs and loss of benefits are right around the corner. In San Francisco, Mayor Gavin Newsom initiated a partial solution to that city's budget crisis by reducing his salary by 15 percent.

Many members of the mayor's office followed his example saving San Francisco more than $1 million. Wouldn't it be great if our leaders actually took the lead and reduced their own inflated salaries?

If Superintendent Mary Frances Callan would set an example and take a 10 percent reduction in her $220,000+ paycheck, she could single-handedly save a job. If every administrator in the district took a 10 percent pay cut, our "dire" situation would improve considerably.

I suggest 10 percent because that is the approximate loss to employees who must endure a pay freeze and lose ground on health-care coverage. If administrative cuts were enacted, teachers and classified staff would feel much better about the coming cutbacks.

Who knows, we might be able to weather the budget storm and come out of it with a renewed trust and respect among all parties and perhaps experience a deeper meaning of what it is to be unified.

Just imagine.... Kelly Kobza Ross Road Palo Alto
Return to status quo?

Editor,

The Comprehensive Plan calls for preserving existing housing. However, there are no incentives in R-1 zoning to encourage remodeling rather than demolition.

The proposed exemptions from FAR (floor-area ratio) favor recently popular styles and encourage demolition of older styles: ranch houses, Cape Cod, Regency, etc. The rate of near or total tear-down has been one every four days.

A bias toward razing existing homes, combined with developers who openly treat the neighbors' property as if it, too, is only fit for razing, has been responsible for every appeal I have watched.

I think most of us do not look at our homes with the cold eye of the builder or developer's architect. We expect, perhaps wrongly, that we have been building into our homes values and improvements that could be reused and updated -- not carted off to the dump.

The record shows that the City Council instituted the single-family review (SFR) process in response to residents' pressure to control the mass and size of these houses. So, SFR did not create delays or conflict where none existed. It was supposed to solve these problems.

Without benefit of an SFR, Holly Rubinstein and Annette Ashton became legendary for the length and intensity of their battles against their next-door neighbors' decisions to build poorly sited, over-large homes.

No application under the SFR has taken so much time as either of these. Are you sure that we want to return to status quo ante bellum? Carol Mullen Tennyson Avenue Palo Alto
Broken promises

Editor,

I am outraged that the White House junta has launched its Bush "re-election" campaign with a media blitz depicting the raw imagery of Ground Zero.

This is blatant exploitation of our national tragedy to advance his political agenda -- another example of a broken promise he made to the American people on Jan. 23, 2003, that, "I will not use the tragedy of 9/11 as a political issue."

Family members of the victims of 9/11 are especially upset because of Bush's refusal to testify before the 9/11 commission. The is the beginning of a campaign to perpetuate the myth of a "popular war-time president," who has fortified the resolve of our enemies by his preemptive war on Iraq based on mythical weapons of mass destruction and 9/11 al Queda connections.

Sadly, Bush has declared war on vanishing middle-class families, the environment, our civil liberties and even on our children by under funding the "no child left behind" by $200 million. Jagjit Singh Louisa Court Palo Alto
'Three strikes' strikes out

Editor,

Last weekend marked the 10th anniversary of California's "three-strikes-and-you're-out" law. It is little surprise that this law is steeped in controversy a decade later. A Justice Policy Institute study found that 65 percent of those imprisoned during the decade were sentenced for nonviolent offenses.

The cost to taxpayers has been huge.

While we invest in prisons, we are ignoring the prevention initiatives that can stop violent crimes. For instance, studies show that home visitation can reduce serious child abuse, a leading risk factor for violence later in life. Yet we are not funding the home visitation that this state needs.

As a result, petty criminals spend their lives in prison, while children who grow up in violent homes go without counseling or aid. Drug abusers get 10-year sentences while young parents at risk for abuse get no help or support.

This approach is shortsighted and harmful. It may even perpetuate the kind of violence that many hoped "three strikes" would stop.

We won't stop the violence that threatens us all until we invest in prevention and early intervention. The money now funding our prisons could be much better spent. Esta Soler President, Family Violence Prevention Fund Rhode Island Street San Francisco

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