THANK YOU
PAUL
Remove yellow lights
Running red and yellow lights seems to have become a major topic of the hour. I have been observing traffic for the last month and my observation leads me to believe there is a real problem and it will get worse. I offer a solution. My observation along El Camino is that drivers slow down for the intersections by taking their foot off the gas. If the light flashes green, they floorboard the accelerator and blast through the intersection. A following car with do the same thing. The chance of a collision increases immeasurably with the skill or lack thereof of the driver. As long as the yellow light is there, it presents a challenge to the driver to prove his skill. As I see it, there is only one solution. Remove the yellow lights.
The temptation is built into the traffic system. This idea could be tried out on certain "bad" intersections. If it cuts out this intersection carnage. Fine. Nothing lost. Len Coplestone Channing Avenue, Palo Alto
Fazzino showed leadership
Gary Fazzino is to be commended for leading the push for two lanes, not four, on the Sand Hill Road project. This move avoids the disaster of dumping four lanes of traffic onto the already overcongested streets of Palo Alto. It takes true leadership to stand above the crowd and to fight for the protection of our community over the pressure from Stanford.
It is unfortunate the council did not follow Gary's attempt to protect Ohlone Field. Instead the majority of council members voted for overbuilding and the loss of open space. Gary Fazzino continues to represent the needs and desires of the majority of our city's population. Thank you, Gary. We need to remember the names of council members who bow to Stanford's every wish on election days in the future. Jill Maleson Kipling Street, Palo Alto jill@shv.com
Population increase ahead
Santa Clara County's growth during the period 1990 to 1996 was 6.8 percent. The Palo Alto City Council is about to approve the massive Sand Hill corridor project that will, in one vote, increase the population in Palo Alto by 5 percent. It will be interesting to see if the residents of Palo Alto will want this rate of growth when they vote for or against the projects and for or against the reelection of some of their council candidates in November. They may be asking themselves "is their quality of life in Palo Alto better or worse now than it was in 1990?" Robert Ekedahl Bay Laurel Drive, Menlo Park mrroberts@compuserve.com
A modest proposal
As a former resident of Palo Alto (who left, among other reasons, because housing was insanely expensive), I'd like to put forth the following modest proposal: Why don't residents opposed to the sit-lie ordinance simply buy a truckload of milk crates (they're cheap, especially in quantity) and distribute them to the homeless? Problem solved--whether or not the City Council chooses to repeal the ordinance. Palo Alto still needs to work on the growing problems of urban blight, aggressive panhandling and ridiculous rents, but such an ordinance is no way to do it. Best to neutralize the ordinance in a sensible way and begin to address the real underlying problems that face the community. Brett Glass Laramie, Wyo. brett@lariat.org
Don't move statue
I don't believe moving foreign friends to Juana Briones Park will help the situation. It's still accessible to vandals, and I think a better place is in a protected area at the Children's Library or in the inner court at the Main Library on Newell Road. Let the kids climb on it, play on it, they have such a delightful sense of curiosity and wonder anyway. The city could also let people dress the sculpture to have pictures taken for fun and pay a fee of $5 or $10. Those proceeds could then go into the library fund for new books or into some other acquisition fund. If that doesn't work and nobody else wants it, park it way out in the baylands for birds to roost on and let it die a natural and normal death. Faye Baxter Northampton Drive, Palo Alto
Preserve Foothills Park
If David Boyce (Spectrum, April 16) wants to give a child a view of Hale-Bopp through good equipment, he need only come to the Foothill College Observatory on any clear Friday night while the comet is still visible bringing $2 in quarters to cover parking. Contrary to Boyce's belief, Foothills Park is not unique in it's access restrictions. Furthermore, in addition to being a park dedicated for the use, benefit and enjoyment of Palo Alto's residents who underwrote a huge bond issue to pay for it's acquisition, Foothills Park is dedicated as a nature preserve and strategies like restricting access and not installing swings and play structures for children helped maintain it's delicate, ecological balance. Foothills Park is an unspoiled oasis of semi-wilderness tranquility that should not be disrupted simply to gratify neighbors who resent being denied entry to it. The "ugliest word in . . . English" isn't "exclusive" but "slum," which is what Woodside's lovely and once peaceful Huddart Park has become. Ellen Clements Starr King Circle, Palo Alto
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