ReaderWire ReaderWire (November 12, 2004)

Know your vote

On Monday night (Nov. 8), the City Council unanimously voted to ask property owners in Palo Alto for a $10-per-month storm-drain fee. Also, council can authorize an annual cost-of-living increase every year for 12 years.

The cost-of-living increase may go up to six percent annually. This means that over the 12-year life of the storm-drain fee it could increase to $19 per month, depending upon the rate of inflation.

Property owners in Palo Alto should know what they're voting for next year.
Jean Wilcox
Sutherland Drive, Palo Alto

Liberal Achilles heel

The Achilles heel in Ms Smith's seemingly reasoned proposal for liberals (Spectrum, Nov. 10) is the innocent-sounding assertion that, "when people start to die from the flu because the Bush administration...." This reveals a built-in bias.

Unless we liberals get our facts straight, we won't get to first base with those we hope to meet halfway. All of the long-established traditional vaccine manufacturers (there were several) exited the business long before George W. Bush took office. Many did so during the Clinton administration.

Chiron in Emeryville, whose British-manufactured vaccine failed us, was a fairly recent entrant into the business.
Daniel Lazare
Barbara Drive, Palo Alto

Energetic effort

Regarding Bill D'Agostino's article, "Library director favors one big library, closing branches" (Weekly, Nov. 3):

Congratulations to Library Director Paula Simpson who is making an energetic, conscientious and professional effort to improve Palo Alto's mediocre libraries.

Before rushing to judgment on her thoughtful proposals, let's be open-minded and future-minded and seize this opportunity to create the first-class library system Palo Alto deserves.
Chris Kenrick
Tennyson Avenue, Palo Alto

Pushing for Dean '08

Twice in a row now, the Democratic Party has moved to the right of its platform when it has put forth its presidential nominees.

We had the chance to nominate Governor Howard Dean, M.D., who has consistently stood up for environmental protection, a sane foreign policy (i.e. he opposed the attack on Iraq), health care for all, quality public education, a balanced budget and so much more.

However, many in the media told us that Dean wasn't "electable" over and over again, and soon Kerry became the nominee.

Dean gave us a silly "scream" at a pep rally for his volunteers, but Kerry voted for the war, he voted to confirm Antonin Scalia to the Supreme Court and many other pieces of the Bush agenda.

The Republicans push their agenda and we need a Democratic nominee who will push ours.

Democrats -- please nominate Dean in 2008, so that we can win. One goofy scream does not a loser make.
Jennifer Couperus
Hawthorne Avenue, Palo Alto

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