Letters Letters (December 01, 2004)

Community helps healing

Editor,

I want to thank our community for the incredible support that it has given to my children and me following the assault in my home. Every day since then I have received many expressions of caring and kindness that are helping me in this difficult time.

I am so grateful for everyone's help, from the Jordan and Duveneck PTAs, to dear friends, neighbors and even strangers. The emotional support has meant so much to me.

I also thank the Palo Alto police. I have felt their utmost concern, compassion and sensitivity. Their excellent work leading to a quick arrest has helped ease my mind.
Name withheld
All aboard Sunday

Editor,

Palo Alto's California Avenue business district cordially invites all Palo Alto residents to come to the 4th annual Caltrain Holiday "Santa Train" at our train depot, shortly after 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 5.

For a half hour before the train's arrival, Palo Alto High School's Madrigal Singers will perform in our depot. Riding on a super-sized toy train decorated with 40,000 lights and holiday decorations, Santa and his elves will come calling. Santa, Mrs. Claus, Frosty and the whole gang will get off the train to greet kids and pose for pictures.

Continuing a tradition begun in 2001, Caltrain and the Golden Gate Railroad Museum are joining with other partners to sponsor this special train to help generate toy donations for the Salvation Army and the United States Marine Corp Reserves' "Toys for Tots" program. People are encouraged to drop new, unwrapped toys in the barrels when the train comes, for the benefit of needy Bay Area children.

At the 20-minute stop, everyone can share in a holiday sing-along, led by a Salvation Army Brass Band and on-board carolers. Pulled by a Caltrain locomotive, the holiday train will include two old-fashioned passenger cars, a baggage car and a caboose.

Volunteers put in hours attaching teddy bears, twinkling stars, animated drummers and snowmen to the train, and creating a stage for the entertainers. Please save the date, Sunday, Dec. 5. The train is expected to arrive between 7:06 and 7:11 p.m. Departure is at 7:31 p.m. For further information, call (650) 688-6295.
Ronna Devincenzi
CAADA Board President
California Avenue
Palo Alto

'Yellow Vanning' benefits

Editor,

An experience on the morning of Nov. 23 changed my mood from grumpy to sunny.

While driving to work, I was trying to turn left onto a very busy street. A continual flow of cars hurried past me in both directions. After waiting for a few frustrating minutes, a bright yellow van pulled up and stopped, allowing me to turn onto the busy street.

I waved a "thank you" to the driver, but wish I could have done more. One thoughtful person simply looking around and being aware of a fellow human being in a slightly sticky situation had the courtesy to take a few seconds to help.

I may never know who the "Yellow Van Driver" is, but will remember the kindness shown to me. It lifted my spirits and made my day. From now on I will coin the phrase "Yellow Vanning" whenever someone stops, kindly allowing a car into the busy flow of traffic.

Just think how much our world would benefit from a little more "Yellow Vanning."
Patricia Bourgeois
Irven Court
Palo Alto

Signal language

Editor,

The Weekly's Nov. 24 editorial on the new Homer Avenue bicycle/pedestrian undercrossing contained a serious factual inaccuracy. Plans for traffic signal changes on Homer and Alma Street to ensure bicycle and pedestrian safety are unaffected by the "sunset" at the end of the year of a provision in California law that allows installation of bicycle signal "heads."

The Transportation Division has planned all along to create a new "all walk" (and "all bike") phase at Homer and Alma, similar to the "all walk/bike" phase now in operation in three other locations in Palo Alto, including at the new Terman Middle School on Arastradero Road. This will be the case whether or not bicycle signal heads legislation is renewed or a "contra-flow" lane is installed on Homer between Alma and High Street.

The Homer/Alma signal will operate in three phases once the Homer undercrossing opens. The first phase will be 20 seconds of "all red" during which motor vehicles on both Homer and Alma are stopped and bicycles and pedestrians may go. The second phase will allow Homer traffic to turn south (left) or north (right) onto Alma. The third phase will allow north and southbound Alma traffic to go.

Thus, only in the third phase will northbound Alma vehicles enter the block between Homer and Forest Avenue onto which westbound cyclists will have gone in the first signal phase to turn right on Forest for trips downtown and within the South of Forest Area neighborhood.

Homer Avenue vehicles (a minority of Homer Avenue vehicles approaching Alma) will tend to take the inside lane, leaving the outside lane for late arriving cyclists who by then will be nearing or will have already gone into the red curb area of the parking lane on the southeast corner of the Forest/Alma intersection preparing to turn onto Forest.

The planned traffic signal changes at Homer and Alma will create the time and vehicle-free space on northbound Alma to ensure a safe cycling environment, regardless of whether bicycle signal heads or a contra-flow bicycle lane are installed.
Joseph Kott
Chief Transportation Official, City of Palo Alto
Hamilton Avenue
Palo Alto

Homer's odyssey

Editor,

The Palo Alto Weekly's cover story on the Homer bike tunnel (Nov. 24) reads like a Byzantine drama. The cast:

1) City Council members who voted for the tunnel over the years. Why did they keep it going after numerous problems were foreseen -- and predictably materialized?

2) Councilwoman Dena Mossar, whose husband is chair of the Palo Alto Bicycle Advisory Commission. Should Mossar have recused herself from voting on the tunnel?

3) City staffers who "pat themselves on the back" because construction was almost entirely funded by state, regional and federal grants. Do they realize those funds also come from our tax dollars?

4) Chief Transportation Official Joe Kott, who says that, given the challenges, "you quickly move from an optimistic planning level to a real 'Palo Alto estimate' to actually build the thing." Shouldn't all projects have a real estimate rather than an optimistic plan?

5) Senior Engineer Elizabeth Ames, who calls the project a "total success." Isn't engineering success determined by a safe and workable completion, on time and in budget?

As this saga hopefully nears its end, only one question remains: Who's going to be held accountable?
Pat Marriott
Dennis Drive
Palo Alto

Praise for progress

Editor,

Contrary to the opinions of the Palo Alto Weekly and former mayor Gary Fazzino, I would give high marks to Palo Alto staff and council members Jack Morton, Dena Mossar and Yoriko Kishimoto for their steadfast support of the Homer bicycle/pedestrian underpass.

The City of Palo Alto should be commended for investing in this progressive and visionary urban-planning concept, one that is seriously lacking in some neighboring communities.

Legitimate details and problems remain to be worked out. Get rid of the one-way configurations of both Homer and Channing avenues, a concept which is a hangover from the car-crazy 1970s.

Whole Foods Market has an alley access for deliveries. Once the essentially operational issues are resolved and the undercrossing is opened for use, I'm certain that its success will exceed expectations for safety and convenience.

The more we walk and bicycle, the more civilized our communities become.
Steve Schmidt
Central Avenue
Menlo Park

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