Letters Letters (September 21, 2005)

Cardinal disgrace

Editor,

Stanford football suffered far more than a defeat Sept. 17. It suffered the worst show of poor sportsmanship I've seen in PAC 10 sports since I can remember.

Win or lose, Stanford has a moral responsibility to educate its athletes in the common courtesies of our society. To lose a game does not entitle one to limp off the field back to the dressing room without congratulating the winning team at midfield. All but a small handful of Stanford players turned their backs on the U.C. Davis players who were waiting for them at midfield and moped their way out of the stadium.

What a sad picture of a great university. The coaching staff had 15-20 minutes to make it right by mandating the entire team back to midfield where Davis players stayed, and they didn't do it -- an incredible lack of respect and common courtesy.

Stanford should put the entire team on two buses and make arrangements immediately for the squad to travel to Davis and make amends. Stanford can afford it and must make the entire team and coaching staff responsible for their immature and disrespectful display.

Be sure this is being discussed in many venues today and Stanford has seen one of its worst displays of sportsmanship ever. What a disgrace.

If Stanford ignores this incident, it will demonstrate to the PAC 10 that Stanford considers itself above and beyond being human, respectful of their fellow humans.
Wes Morrill
Casiano Drive
Salinas

Message from Sanford

Editor,

I wish to take this opportunity to thank the many individuals who supported my candidacy for City Council. Unavoidable, unexpected developments in one of my businesses required significant new commitments, severely limiting the personal time necessary to adequately run a competent campaign.

After deliberation with family, friends and trusted associates it seemed that the sensible thing to do was withdraw from the race immediately.

My decision to leave the campaign was agonizing, as I was (and still am) passionate about bringing to the coming campaign debates what I learned and synthesized from conversations with almost 1,200 Palo Altans -- spoken to during the last 11 months as I took a daily one-hour constitutional through almost every neighborhood in Palo Alto.

Roughly 80 percent of those I spoke with resonated with my ideas and plans for helping Palo Alto adjust to constrained times. In fact, much of my campaign inspiration was channeled from the many good citizens in Palo Alto who took time to discuss their concerns about their city.

I'm deeply indebted to them and will continue to do what I can to bring their dreams for a better Palo Alto alive in our community. Thus, I will remain active in city affairs, continuing to serve on the Library Advisory Commission, the California Avenue Area Development Association (CAADA) and other venues as personal time permits.

Finally, please get out and vote this November; it's a special right and responsibility.
Sanford Forte
College Avenue
Palo Alto

Run-in reminder

Editor,

Bill D'Agostino's report ("Cyclist may file complaint," Sept. 14) reminded me of my run-in with Palo Alto Police Department a few months ago.

I was riding back to work on Alma Street after a lunch meeting. Just as I was going over the overpass at Oregon Expressway, as I was trying to watch for the traffic and trying to merge onto Alma from Oregon, I heard a voice over a megaphone instructing me to move over to the sidewalk.

Since it was the police I moved over after finding a break in the traffic. Someone responded to my e-mail to the police department clarifying it is legal to ride on Alma and that the officer was just concerned about my safety.

If he was concerned, he really picked the wrong spot to save me, as I was trying pay attention to the merging traffic.

I was hoping my e-mail to the police would discourage officers from harassing cyclists at the wrong time. But I suppose I am too optimistic. I would think the logical thing for the police to do if they are concerned about cyclists' safety would be to monitor the automobile traffic that may be endangering the cyclists.

But then, I suppose we are not addressing rational behavior here.
Rao Loka
Metro Circle
Palo Alto

Alma bad for bikes

Editor,

We send our kudos to Palo Alto Police Officer John Alaniz for his efforts to persuade bicylists to avoid the narrow outside lane on southbound Alma Street in Palo Alto.

Several years ago heading south on Alma in the outside lane we came up to two lady cyclists in the lane. I slowed way down and started to maneuver into the inside lane to pass the cyclists.

Just then one of the ladies fell off her bicycle right into the middle of the outside lane.

We stopped to make sure she was all right and were very thankful we weren't driving right behind her. Southbound Alma is no place for a bicycle.
Don and Dee Price
Addison Avenue
Palo Alto

Bicyclist dead right

Editor,

In the story entitled "Cyclist may file complaint" (Weekly, Sept. 14), I think Margaret Okuzumi is dead right -- she is right and she also has a good chance of getting hit and being dead.

She can go ahead and ride on Alma Street, but it is very unsafe. And she knows it. And Ellen Fletcher knows it, especially after all the incredible work Ellen and others did to create both the Bryant Street and Park Avenue north/south bike corridors, both of which lead safely to Mountain View via the underpass east of Alma at San Antonio Road and the pedestrian/bike bridge at Wilkie Way.

When given a chance for publicity, that is what they should talk up. The police officer's advice should also have been that. As for a bike lane on San Antonio, that also would be nice and they should put all their political muscle into getting it carved out of the Caltrain right-of-way or move five lanes of Alma over five feet to the east, taking away that useless section between sidewalk and street.

But, it won't be cheap. Until then, through-bikers should use Park and Bryant.
David Moss
Ferne Avenue
Palo Alto

Retail Palo Alto

Editor,

What a shame it seems to me that when the city's retail economy is distressed, all our City Council can think to do is levy another tax. What a shame it seems to me that without even considering that answers may be right under their noses, all our council can think to do is hire a crew of bureaucratic flunkies, unfamiliar with the turf, who are not about to ask the truly embarrassing questions, even if they could figure out what they were.

Were I in the council's shoes I would first solicit essays of 500 words or more from our residents and retailers outlining what the writers felt our problems were and how they might best be dealt with.

Then, having read the submissions carefully and having paid out all $500 as a prize for the winning work, if they still felt the need the council could turn to a consulting body for review of all observations and suggestions they found valid.

Or possibly all they would need to do is arrange some trials on the ground to learn what worked.

Chasing will-o-the-wisp of auto dealerships or tarting up downtown will have absolutely no effect until we understand what type of retail trade will prosper in Palo Alto and what it will take to make it thrive.
Michael Goldeen
Tasso Street
Palo Alto

Equal-rights awareness

Editor,

I am a gay Californian. My same-sex partner and I are proud parents to six kids. My spouse, Eddie Reynolds, and I were married in a religious ceremony on June 19, 2005, in Los Altos Hills.

Our wedding was performed by the head rabbi in our synagogue. It was a celebration of family and faith. The wedding affirmed the groundbreaking stand Reform Judaism has taken that same-sex unions are holy and valid.

Although we consider ourselves spiritually married, we lack the legal rights and privileges given to opposite-sex, married couples with children. We are second-class citizens in the state.

Early this month, the California Legislature passed a historic marriage-equality bill. The courage and integrity that our representatives have shown is especially moving.

There is real harm in denying same-sex couples the right to marry. For the sake of all Californians, our governor must stand on the right side of history by signing this bill.
Edwin Jones
Everett Court
Palo Alto

Spectacle speech

Editor,

President Bush's speech to the nation last Thursday (Sept. 8) was a disappointing spectacle to save his beleaguered presidency and buttress his declining approval ratings. The speed and efficiency of the "makeover image team" that offered the president a backdrop for his speech was a sharp contrast to the glacial speed of the FEMA bureaucrats responsible for the Katrina relief efforts.

Bush's tardy and disorganized performance on Katrina was eerily similar to his Sept. 11 response exposing his complete lack of leadership qualities. There is little doubt that no-bid contracts will be offered to the well-connected Republican corporate benefactors who will no doubt open up their purse strings at election time to ensure that the process of mutual enrichment continues.

Billions of dollars will be squandered, with little oversight. And when the dust settles the poor and impoverished will be forgotten and invisible, the corporate robber barons will become richer and an enormous debt will be bequeathed to our children and the unborn.
Jagjit Singh
Louisa Court
Palo Alto

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