Reader Wire Reader Wire (October 18, 2002)

Sandbag Measure D

Homeowners, taxpayers, voters, save your consulting fees. Here's an idea I'm giving out for free.

Build the $49.1 million libraries, teen center and Arts Center out of sandbags. By choosing this initiative and not putting your hard-earned dollars into needed storm-drain repairs and upgrades, you'll be ready for the next flooding, which is inevitable.

Think about it Palo Alto! Build them out of conventional building materials; don't upgrade the storm drains.

What can you expect?

Wear your waders to the grand openings. Bob Lynar Greer Road, Palo Alto
Hoping for D defeat

The Palo Alto Committee Against Measure D was formed in order to provide Palo Altans information about the Palo Alto libraries which has not been made available during the events leading up to the City Council's placing the $49.1 million bond issue on the ballot.

The people pushing Measure D have hired San Francisco political consultants Terris and Barnes, who boast an enviable record of winning elections for the people who hire them. The Palo Alto Committee Against Measure D is made up of retirees, homeowners and ordinary working people of all means who believe that this large, expensive building project is simply not right for south Palo Alto.

The Palo Alto Committee Against Measure D is looking for help in distributing flyers in the neighborhoods around Palo Alto and at selected locations around town. We are seeking help from folks like ourselves -- residents of all ages, readers, walkers, thinkers, lovers of culture and libraries and, of course, tennis players.

We are seeking folks who love libraries, but feel that the buildings proposed for Mitchell Park are just too big, too grandiose, too expensive and just not in character with our surrounding Eichler neighborhoods -- folks who want to help defeat Measure D!

If you are one of "us," and are wondering whom to contact to offer your help, or perhaps contribute a few dollars to help fight the well-oiled Measure D "machine," please contact Wayne Martin at: wmartin45@hotmail.com.

Please help us help you defeat Measure D! Wayne Martin Shelby Lane, Los Altos
Grade separation needed

Last week's death of a young life in Palo Alto once again points out the need for grade separations and protective fencing of the railroad tracks going through our community.

While funding is available through Measure A and while other communities like San Carlos have seized the opportunity to make their cities safer, our City Council in Menlo Park is more wrapped up trying to slow traffic and create dangerous bike lanes on Santa Cruz Avenue.

Caltrans will be electrified some time in the future, bringing us high-speed trains, reducing our commute time, reducing noise and reducing pollution by eliminating diesel locomotives. High-speed trains will require the grades to be separated.

But we should not wait -- lives are at stake. Stephen W. Fields Hermosa Way, Menlo Park
A 'toxic' lawsuit

On Oct. 21, the Palo Alto City Council will vote on whether to support a lawsuit favoring continued diversion of Trinity River water. This water provides some cheap electricity for the city, but at high cost to the environment.

The damage to fish from diversion of water for agricultural irrigation has received recent media attention, but the additional toxic consequences of what happens after the water is used to produce power has gone largely unnoticed.

In the case of Trinity, much of the diverted water goes to the Westlands Water District of California's Central Valley. Westlands initiated the diversion lawsuit so that their agribusinesses would continue to receive cheap, heavily subsidized water.

In Westlands the water is used to irrigate desert land that naturally contains selenium and other toxins, which are leached into the runoff. This Westlands drainage was a major cause of the Kesterson ecological disaster a few years ago. Because of the intrinsic properties of much Westland soil, toxic runoff can't be avoided if irrigation continues.

At present, this toxic drainage does not flow into Kesterson, but instead into private ponds or is allowed to percolate into aquifers. Thus, with ongoing irrigation there is the inevitable increased accumulation of toxins.

The City of Palo Alto should not support a Westlands lawsuit that permits the continued diversion of Trinity water, the continued irrigation of unsuitable land and the continued accumulation of toxins. Jared Tinklenberg Greer Road, Palo Alto