Publication Date: Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Letters
Letters
(March 30, 2005)
Ready for razing?
Editor,
In regard to the article about "Vanishing Palo Alto" (Weekly, March 23) and in particular the cover photo of Combes Auto Repair:
It hasn't been abandoned for 30 years -- but it's been awhile. I moved into a rental on Olive Avenue a few blocks north (behind Fry's) in 1992, and there was still traffic at Combes then, although it might not have been a going business. There was certainly an ever-changing set of cars parked in the lot and the roll-up doors would be open from time to time.
The place shut down and the lot emptied a few years later, maybe 1995. Since I have a bad case of British Car Disease, I often thought of trying to rent the place as a private shop, but never really got behind the idea -- no "for rent" sign was in evidence and I figured that the rent on an El Camino storefront was going to be much more than I could afford.
Every time I drive by (not as often now, since I've moved a bit farther north and don't wander that neighborhood as much), I expect to see it razed and some three-ring-binder operation in its place.
Chris Kantarjiev
Portola Avenue
Palo Alto
Saturday reading
Editor,
The downtown library has been a rich resource for myself and my family since we moved to downtown Palo Alto in 1978. I am able to frequently include using the library when I am in the area to do errands or just taking a walk.
The Saturday hours are very important for people who work. The new proposal to take a large part of the building for office space is a misuse of public resource space and should not be implemented.
Katherine Abu-Romia
Hawthorne Avenue
Palo Alto
Starving branch libraries
Editor,
The "library-space shuffle" has nothing to do with improving library service. Of course, it's necessary to "shuffle" things around during reconstruction of Children's Library, but the announced plan is more about the library director's apparent determination to close branch libraries and get her dream state-of-the-art central library than it is about improving library services.
Library administration tried to close Downtown, but the council said "no." Then they closed Downtown on Saturday, but council authorized funds to keep it open. Now a take-over of almost half of the public space is proposed at Downtown to accommodate technical services (cataloguers, etc.) now at Main.
Other signs that staff is working purposefully to kill off Downtown include the removal of large-print books, even though this library serves the greatest concentration of seniors in town. The DVD selection is very poor. More than one third of the shelves previously jammed with books are now empty. A librarian friend (not employed by Palo Alto) assures me that the remaining books are "one step away from the dumpster." The collection's limited appeal effectively cuts circulation.
What we need is some goodwill and creative thinking. Why not install temporary units at Main to house technical services or serve youngsters while Children's Library is reconstructed, thereby preserving public space at Downtown?
No, this "shuffle" is much more about a calculated plan to starve branch libraries than it is about improving library services.
Ellen Wyman
Washington Avenue
Palo Alto
Republican power play?
Editor,
Once again the Republicans are capitalizing on the raw human emotions surrounding the tragedy of Terri Schiavo's comatose state to advance their political agenda and pander to the religious right. This is reminiscent of the exploitation of the human tragedy of 9/11 to justify the disastrous, unlawful attack on Iraq.
These intrusions in the private life of Terri Schiavo are driven by ideological dogma and not humanitarian concerns. These same lawmakers did not hesitate to send 1,500-plus U.S. soldiers to their graves and condemn thousands more to a life of pain from physical and psychological war injuries. More than 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilian victims have perished and many more continue to languish in prisons or have been brutally treated or killed by sadistic prison guards.
It is cruelly ironic that the bio-ethics committee that made the decision to withdraw Terri's feeding tube was following the "right-to-die" law Bush signed as Texas governor. President Bush has now reversed his earlier position to demonstrate his "reverence to the preservation of life," once again placing political expediency over principle, the hallmark of this administration. Forgotten also are the 152 inmates who were executed during Bush's tenure as governor of Texas.
The following memo uncovered by ABC sent to Republican Senators -- "The pro-life base will be excited ... this is a great political issue ... this is a tough issue for Democrats" -- should dispel any lingering doubts of the real agenda of Bush, DeLay, Frisk and others.
Jagjit Singh
Louisa Court
Palo Alto
Beefing down
Editor,
Last week's Congressional hearing on the use of steroids in major league baseball called public attention to an epidemic of substance abuse by more than 500,000 young American athletes.
Anabolic steroids, such as testosterone, progesterone, estradiol, zeranol and other growth hormones, promote muscle growth and strength. However, prolonged use has been implicated in breast, prostate and testicular cancer, in heart disease, sexual and reproductive disorders, immunodeficiencies and liver damage, as well as in abnormal growth and premature sexual development in young girls.
Tragically, all American consumers of beef and most milk drinkers are exposed to these hazards. Growth hormones are administered to 90 percent of U.S. and Canadian beef cattle and 25 percent of dairy cows to promote weight gain and milk production. Consequently, the European Union has banned imports of U.S. and Canadian beef since 1989, sparking a nasty trade war.
American consumers who are not into anabolic steroids will be well advised to stay away from beef and dairy products.
Andrew Kagan
San Antonio Road
Palo Alto
Judicial danger
Editor,
As U.S. citizens we have a responsibility to ensure that our democracy continues. There is a push right now to change the Supreme Court justices' appointment process. If this is passed, the balance of power between Congress, the president and the courts will be compromised.
Supreme Court justices are appointed for life. It is important that checks are in place to assure appointment of only those judges with integrity to the U.S. Constitution and the people.
It is the filibuster rule that stops the appointment of questionable nominations. Speak out against a ruling that could impact our government.
Mary Washburn
Forest Avenue
Palo Alto
No speed for fiber
Editor,
I am disappointed that there has been such a delay in providing fiber Internet access by the Palo Alto Utility Department to residents like myself who need this kind of service. Our city has spent a considerable amount of money on staff time and consultants and we, as residents, have nothing to show for this effort.
Other communities in California -- Truckee-Donner, Loma Linda, Fontana and Lompoc -- are going ahead with high-speed Internet access for their residents. And there is a $90-million trial involving 14 cities in Utah that has been funded.
Many of us find that Internet access is a necessary element in today's world. Why can't we have this in Palo Alto?
It has been almost a year since the effort by the utilities department was "put on hold." When will our City Council show some leadership and initiative and do what is necessary to bring this kind of service to our community?
Stanley R. Smith
Wildwood Lane
Palo Alto
Tunnel catastrophe
Editor,
I wish to call urgent attention to the dangerous pedestrian-bike traffic-flow patterns that exist in the newly opened Homer Avenue tunnel. There is a continuing hazard of collisions between pedestrians emerging from the tunnel on their designated walkways and bicycles approaching the facility along the designated bike routes.
The tracks of approaching bicycles cross the paths of emerging pedestrians. However, the tunnel walls screen oncoming bikes from pedestrians' view. Likewise, emerging pedestrians are invisible to approaching bicyclists -- until they encounter one another suddenly in very close proximity.
The steep downhill bike approaches on the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) side amplify the hazard. Collisions, perhaps with serious injury, are inevitable if these perilous conditions are not mitigated immediately.
I discovered this situation a few days ago when, emerging on foot from the north edge of the tunnel at its PAMF end, I was nearly run down by a bicycle coming down the bike ramp from the north as it crossed my path on its way to the central bike lane. The biker was as surprised as I was.
Had I emerged an instant later I would almost certainly have been creamed. Someone else's timing may not be so lucky.
The immediate remedy is to configure the bike approaches so that bikers must dismount and walk as they approach the tunnel, similarly to the arrangement at the California Avenue tunnel.
David Bubenik
Homer Avenue
Palo Alto
Payback time
Editor,
Perhaps Palo Alto wouldn't be facing a budget deficit if it got some of us back the money Enron overcharged us so we could go spend some of it locally.
I recall my 2001 utilities bills were $8,500 more than usual and I'd dearly love to see some of it in my pocket rather than Enron's and its traders who so gleefully ripped us off while Silicon Valley lost 20 percent of its jobs.
Perhaps Palo Alto negotiators could take the lead in getting us back some of the money Enron stole while the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and our governor do nothing to help us.
And on the general subject of deficits, perhaps if the city wasted less money on its ridiculous and expensive traffic studies, resulting in $80,000 traffic-calming flowerpots and $260,000 studies of 24-hour bicycle safety lanes, it wouldn't be in the hole.
"Grandma Millie" Jo Ann Mandinach
Middlefield Road
Palo Alto
Filibuster fiasco
Editor,
For 200 years the filibuster has been used as a last-ditch technique to make sure that minority views have been given a fair hearing in the Congress of the United States and not simply silenced by a powerful majority.
Sometimes filibusters have been used for good and sometimes for ill, and it is undoubtedly the case that people of goodwill have disagreed at the time -- and perhaps even decades later -- whether a particular application was in a good cause or not.
Now we are facing a chilling possibility. Vice President Cheney, in his role as president of the Senate, is proposing what he has called the "nuclear option," doing away with the 200-year-old right to filibuster judicial nominees.
It would then be possible for a simple majority of members of the Senate to approve the president's nomination for a federal judgeship, a lifetime appointment, entirely without debate.
I frankly don't care what party it might be; it frightens me to think of the Senate approving without debate four lifetime nominees to the Supreme Court sent to it by a president of the same party, and this could easily happen between now and Jan. 20, 2009.
This political "nuclear option" is indeed as chilling as the "nuclear option" in military warfare. The fallout will be just as devastating.
Spread the word to your friends in state to contact Senators Feinstein and Boxer and to your friends out of state to contact their senators as well.
This "nuclear" madness must be stopped. Please join the New York Times Editorial Board in opposing Vice President Cheney's threatened move.
Eric Stietzel
Whitclem Court
Palo Alto
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