Publication Date: Wednesday, September 07, 2005
Letters
Letters
(September 07, 2005)
No survival guarantee
Editor,
Palo Alto is a unique city and our character comes from not only our neighborhoods but from many of our special local businesses.
Yet while we battle to preserve our neighborhoods, I think most Palo Altans still like to believe that certain businesses in our city are such institutions that they will survive without any extra effort.
If we needed any evidence to the contrary, Kepler's just provided it.
Janice Hough
Bryant Street
Palo Alto
Shock and sadness
Editor,
My wife and I were deeply saddened and shocked to hear that Kepler's Bookstore has gone out of business. We were frequent customers of Kepler's and more than just a place to buy books, it was a warm-hearted place to spend time browsing and made us feel more at home in Menlo Park as our community.
We will also miss the top-class book-reading events that attracted the best and most interesting writers of the day. Kepler's has been more than "just a store" -- it has served as a member of the community and friend to all its patrons and will be sorely missed.
We sympathize with Mr. Kepler and, like many, wish we could have known of his challenges and done something more to help. It is also a shame that, according to reports, it appears Kepler's was burdened with an inflexible leasing situation that was not in line with the times.
It seems that we are all poorer for Kepler's departure -- as individuals, as business partners and as a city.
Menlo Park is a cozy place to live, with a real main street and great locally owned shops that we feel good about giving our business. We hope that Kepler's closure turns out to be an anomaly and not the beginning of a trend. Indeed we hope that this is only a temporary hiatus that will see Kepler's return in the future.
Adam Hawley & Suzan Szollar
Elm Street
Menlo Park
Preserving Kepler's spirit
Editor,
The closing of Kepler's Bookstore is a massive loss for people on the Midpeninsula. Kepler's was not just any small business; it was a bookstore, a meeting place, a lecture hall, a place to share information and ideas -- a full-fledged community center.
My guess is that there are many people like me who are not only devastated by the news of Kepler's demise but also interested in figuring out a way to sustain an independently owned (non-chain) bookstore in this area. It may or may not be Kepler's. But the continued well-being and vitality of our larger community requires a place like Kepler's.
If you are interested in joining with me and others to keep the spirit of Kepler's alive, please contact me at micloss@earthlink.net. We need to start planning for the future.
Michael Closson
Poe Street
Palo Alto
Hurricane and education
Editor,
Sometimes when you see destruction and despair on television, it is difficult to relate. Such may be the case with Hurricane Katrina; the aftermath of which is ripping three states apart.
After reading this, no one can say they don't know someone affected by this hurricane. My sister Marcie, a Gunn graduate and rising senior at Tulane University, arrived back home in Palo Alto last Wednesday with all of her belongings in a carry-on bag. It is impossible to know the status of her apartment -- her possessions and school could be severely damaged and/or looted.
And she was one of the luckiest ones.
I assumed that each and every person in this country would be willing to do what it takes to help Southerners at their time of need. Upon her arrival in Palo Alto, my sister began calling area colleges, trying to find a place to take classes this semester.
I was appalled by the number of schools who were unwilling to take her in.
Letting her and her fellow Tulane students continue their education is the very least that can be done. Hopefully each and every one of us can give what we can to the relief effort. Obviously the Red Cross (www.redcross.org) would be one place to contribute, but there are many others helping to provide basic needs to homeless hurricane refugees.
Give what you can. You now know someone who was directly affected by this storm. Let's see how much we can help.
Laura Lessard
Cowper Street
Palo Alto
Is Bush donating?
Editor,
The American people are donating (as usual) to help those in need from the Hurricane Katrina disaster. But I would like to know how much our "concerned" Bush Administration is donating?
How much is Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the rest of this powerhouse going to donate? Or is it all talk. It's time for Congress and the Senate to start dolling out some cash -- aren't we all in this "together" or is it just the good-hearted, generous American workers that make the sacrifices (and pay all the taxes)?
And what about the oil corporation CEOs who are making great stock gains? What are they donating?
Makes me wonder who the "we" is that Bush is talking about -- a selected group (of working class) or all of us (including the wealthiest 1 percent)?
Donnasue Jacobi
Haight Street
Menlo Park
Tax money needed here
Editor,
I'm sitting at my desk, looking at my paycheck and trying to decide how much of it I can send to the Red Cross for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Then I notice that $399 dollars have been taken out for Federal taxes and I wonder: How much of that is going to Iraq?
Why do the people of Louisiana have to depend on charity? Hasn't our country paid for helicopters, transport vehicles and National Guard troops? Why are these resources in Iraq?
I have no problem with paying taxes that support the common good, but I object that my money is going to destroy someone else's country. Let's put our money and personnel to work where they belong: here at home in the United States.
Debbie Mytels
Louis Road
Palo Alto
Guard too far away
Editor,
Where is the Louisiana National Guard, now that it is needed at home? It is in Iraq, along with the National Guards from other states. The money being poured into Iraq would be very welcome right now for emergencies like Hurricane Katrina.
The residents of our Gulf states will need all the help they can get. It's a good thing they still have the Red Cross.
And when our guard members return home, with their wounds and broken lives, they will not have health insurance and likely won't have jobs either. They will need the Red Cross, too.
Elizabeth Lasensky
Fremont Street
Menlo Park
Interesting 'Hangar' column
Editor,
The interesting column recently in the Palo Alto Weekly on the future of Hangar One at Moffett Field (Aug. 24) mentioned some flight-testing inside the hangar. I was assigned as part of one of these programs in the 1950s with a group from Convair, General Dynamics in San Diego.
The Navy had a vertical-takeoff plane nicknamed the "Pogo Stick," which was a plane with a large single turboprop that was thought to be a potential convoy escort fighter. A place was sought to flight-test the plane the first time with the ability to take off vertically but be tethered in case of malfunction. The Navy's Hangar One was the place.
Tethers had to be placed on the nose, free of the large propeller and one on each of the four plane's stanchions on the ground. There was plenty of noise inside the hangar when the engine was fired up, and also plenty of ambulances and fire engines present for each test.
One day, after several earlier slight liftoffs, the pilot got more ambitious and gained more altitude. However, he thought he was losing power and gunned the engine. He almost went through the roof missing it by just a few feet. But the tether held. He then cut the power and the plane bounced around inside the hangar like a pinball machine or "pogo stick."
Needless to say, after that scary scene, the bar at the Officers Club filled up very quickly. The plane did have a successful final open-field takeoff before the Moffett program ended, but I do not believe that project went much further. However, this was the pioneer program of an airplane taking off and landing vertically.
Ray Stewart
Bryant Street
Palo Alto
Zion Church history
Editor,
I wish to bring to your attention the serious blow that will be dealt to the historic resources of Palo Alto if the AME Zion Church at 819 Ramona Street is renovated as currently proposed. Turning the church into private office space will bar regular public access to the interior of the church -- and it is what went on inside the church that creates its historic merit.
AME Zion is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places not because of the building but because of what the church represents. It was the first African-American church on the Peninsula and for many years was the center of cultural life of the African-American community in Palo Alto.
However, the church was also at the center of one of the most unfortunate periods of Palo Alto history: When the African-American and Japanese-American residents were expelled from downtown Palo Alto.
As a result of internment during World War II, many Japanese Americans living on Ramona Street lost their homes. Then in the 1950s, the African-American community in Palo Alto was victimized by "red-lining." African-American families were expected to live in East Palo Alto, not in Palo Alto.
These parts of Palo Alto's history are inextricably linked to the AME Zion Church. It is this history -- not simply the building -- that creates this crucially important historic resource.
In order to preserve this resource I believe the interior of AME Zion must also be restored as a space open to the public, and that a core part of that space must be a commemoration -- words and pictures of the history of the African-American and Japanese-American communities in Palo Alto.
Donald Barr
Ramona Street
Palo Alto
A much-needed Measure
Editor,
Although Measure A (the parcel tax for Palo Alto's schools) passed, the opposition to it continues to complain. Since the Measure-A election, opposition members have sent in letters to the editors of local publications, letters in which these people opposed the tax, yet still demanded that Palo Alto's public schools continue to provide high-quality education.
These people need to understand that it costs quite a lot of money for most any school to provide high-quality education.
Consider private schools, which some opposition members praise for providing high-quality education, and there are many such schools that do just that. But even private schools must charge a lot of money for their services.
St. Francis High School, for example, charges an annual tuition per student of $9,840, while the tuition at Sacred Heart Prep High School is $24,060. Such private-school tuitions would be considerably higher were it not for the financial generosity of these schools' donors.
Sometimes, these schools must raise their tuitions in order to pay for rising operating costs.
These kinds of things are no different for public schools. If they are to provide high-quality education then they must also be adequately funded. Palo Alto's school district faces rising costs, so it must reach out to the community for more money in order to pay for such costs.
Also, Palo Alto's student population keeps growing, and the district must get more money so that it can meet the educational needs of these additional students. That's why we need Measure A.
Dan Starrett
San Antonio Road
Palo Alto
Portable proposition
Editor,
As supportive as we are of libraries, why do we agonize so over library planning?
Friends of the Library has offered the city $100,000 to rent (or buy) a portable to ease the space-pinch while reconstructing Children's Library. Moving the children's collection to a portable near Main Library would allow children's services to continue much as they are today.
It would be least disruptive and since much of the money donated to improve Children's came from families with children, this seems only fair. Alternatively, the portable could be used to house technical staff.
Instead, the city proposes moving technical staff from Main Library into the Downtown Library to make space for children at Main. This would reduce potential public space at Downtown by about 30 percent just as neighborhood population is dramatically increasing. Plans also call for putting into storage half to two thirds of the children's book collection during reconstruction.
Then later, city plans call for moving technical staff from Downtown back into a "permanent portable" at Main. Why? We're told the portable cannot be approved and installed by mid-November, the target date for closing Children's Library.
It's like tearing up city streets right after they've been newly paved.
This is unnecessarily expensive and disruptive. The entire approval process could be telescoped just as it was several years ago when an accelerated review process to expand Children's Library required only weeks.
The solution? Install a portable adjacent to Main now where youngsters can have nearly as much space as they have at Children's Library or move in technical services. Disruption would be minimized, money would be saved because staff would not be moved and then moved again and Downtown Library patrons would not lose space.
Dealing with this problem quickly is imperative.
Ellen Wyman
Washington Avenue
Palo Alto
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