Publication Date: Friday, July 01, 2005
ReaderWire
ReaderWire
(July 01, 2005)
A healthy decision
For 25 years I have lived in Palo Alto, hoping always that somehow leaf blowers would disappear. I cheer the City Council's recent decision.
Other letters mock this action as a trivial pursuit, but that's untrue. The sound of leaf blowers dominates almost all other sounds and can last for an hour as crews blow every horizontal surface within sight -- including the spaces under shrubbery, which would be healthier if the leaves were allowed to sit under the shrubs like they have done for millions of years.
In a town peppered with gas leaf blower-equipped crews, I cannot take a walk and talk quietly with my wife. Nor can I just listen to the wind or other natural sounds.
This ban is not a trivial pursuit. Gasoline leaf blowers do not have the efficiency of automobile engines so these small machines emit larger amounts of toxic substances than an automobile. We were breathing the invisible carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons.
Now we're not.
Glenn Rennels, M.D.
Harriet Street, Palo Alto
Anarchist hypocrisy
In his "Demonstration insight" letter (Weekly, June 29), Mike Albin writes of the Anarchists' march to the Stanford Shopping Center: "One young marcher remarked at the irony because she was planning to come back the next day to do some shopping."
I hope Mike offered some insight to that marcher. That was hypocrisy, not irony.
Steve Frake
Derwent Valley Court, Lorton, Virginia
DNA an amazing tool
On the eve of my daughter graduating from college with a pre-law degree, I am teary-eyed after reading that after so many years DNA has technically captured the "potential killer" of the late attorney Gretchen Burford.
I had read about the case when it happened years ago and it sent chills and a fear through my body, thinking that it could have even happen to myself. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time, being stalked by a crazy desperado. I'm so sorry for her family.
Our family has also endured a similar fate -- my children's father was stabbed and died in San Francisco in 1972 when my children were only 6 and 8 years old. We have lived with only his memory and the heartbreak that this has caused our family for more than 30 years.
Many thanks to all the tireless people who have worked on Gretchen's case to help potentially solve it. DNA is an amazing tool.
Geraldine Kinyon
Terman Drive, Palo Alto
Police overkill
Against the advice of our police chief (Weekly, June 24), I walked downtown the night of June 25 to get a bite and check out what all the fuss was about.
When I got up the nerve to thread my way through the barricades and get to ground zero in the middle of University Avenue outside Pizza My Heart, I saw a few scared-looking kids holding signs, backed by a few dozen people milling around (looking more like bystanders than protesters), backed by a menacing phalanx of police officers with batons and riot helmets, themselves backed by a row of police on horseback.
Why was there a need to pull hundreds of police from other important jobs? I gather that Chief Lynne Johnson was concerned organizers of the march did not condemn the destruction of property strongly enough and perhaps stronger leadership on the part of the demonstrators could have helped.
But people who exercise the supreme power of governmental authority must be held to a higher standard of leadership. It is necessary to take precautions, but it is their duty to exercise restraint to avoid escalating the situation unreasonably.
The effect of such a display is powerfully intimidating to those who would exercise their rights of peaceful assembly and freedom of speech. In the future I would hope that Chief Johnson would defend the civil rights of ordinary citizens at least as enthusiastically as she defends police officers that have been accused of violating the civil rights of citizens.
Chester Wood
High Street, Palo Alto
'Whacking' woes
I have some concerns regarding the story "Whacking Weeds" in the June 17 Palo Alto Weekly.
Number one: "Round-up" is not the chemical of choice when trying to control Bermuda grass.
Number two: I have some real concerns about the flippancy regarding the use of chemicals. To say that "Round-up" is less toxic than ingredients in household detergent presents a false sense of safety and security to the general public about the use of chemicals.
The reality is that while the main toxicant in "Round-up" is relatively safe, the inert ingredients contain a carcinogen. I would hope that in the future when the Weekly publishes experts' comments that someone visit the EPA site and review the risks that suggestions present to the general public.
Frank Niccoli
Old County Road, San Carlos
E-mail a friend a link to this story. | 
