The Cupertino CourierLettersBack to the cesspool I can't imagine what cesspool you dredged DeCinzo out of, but it's about time you put on your hip boots and dragged him back where he belongs.
R.A. Blais Bookstore kept patrons coming back to center I was one of the shocked and dismayed recipients of the letter announcing the closing of our A Clean Well Lighted Place for Books. As a consequence, I have had multiple conversations with people of a variety of ages, interests and backgrounds who are equally concerned. I am aware again how important gathering places are for a community: libraries, senior centers and good bookstores. The Oaks has some good stores, but often it is the bookstore with its long hours and friendly atmosphere and chance for buying gifts, browsing and learning that initially draws us to The Oaks--and draws us back again and again. Is there anything we can do?
Diane Snow What will candidates do to stop the growth? This letter is in response to your request for questions directed to the candidates running for Cupertino City Council seats. I would like to ask all of the candidates the following question: In the last three elections, the candidates ran on the premise of slowing growth in Cupertino. I'm sure each successive council can blame the previous council for whatever growth has taken place, but the fact remains that growth has continued at an alarming rate that has affected our quality of life in Cupertino. The schools in my neighborhood are overcrowded, the traffic is horrible in the area of Bubb Road and McClellan before and after school, more and more homes continue being crowded in on small lots, and we have a horrible graffiti problem. In my 10 years living in the Bubb Road area of Cupertino I have seen the quality of life go down. The reasons I chose this area no longer exist, including a small-community atmosphere with a rural feel, a lot of open space, great schools that were not overcrowded, and a city relatively free of graffiti. So my question to the candidates is, what will they do differently so that people who feel the same as I do will want to remain in Cupertino (and I assure you that many people feel the same as I do), slow growth and deal with the traffic, graffiti and overcrowding in our schools?
Lynne Tsobanakis Honest--this guy's not related to the editor Profuse thanks to The Cupertino Courier for being such an excellent local newspaper. Your excellence was brought home to me recently, as I realized how much I used information in your paper just in the month of August. I wish more of the other residents of Cupertino could see that, instead of taking a quick glance at The Courier and then dumping it in the recycling bin. For example: If it weren't for The Courier, I would never have found out about the local high school students who did their own production of Macbeth without a teacher adviser. I was at one of their performances at Homestead High School and was stunned at how good it was. Philip Knight masterfully portrayed a tortured, ambitious Macbeth, while Brett Kociol was quite captivating as Banquo, especially Banquo's ghost. I was also particularly impressed with Eric Waters as Ross and Trish McCrumb as Lady Macduff (even though she didn't have much of a part), but the entire cast was great. I already knew some of the excellent cast members from Monta Vista (Melissa Tom, David Sanchez, Ben McMillan, Lauren Browne and Wendy Browne), but I was only exposed to the others because of The Courier. In fact, I think the production was better than even the profesional production of Much Ado About Nothing at the free Shakespeare festival in Memorial Park in almost every category. That is not to say the Much Ado wasn't entertaining--it was. I found out about that, too, from The Courier. It's a pity that all the people who watched Much Ado didn't heed The Courier's advice and see the high-schoolers in action as well, though. I also found out from your paper that I am not the only one who thinks that completely unsupervised access by minors to the World Wide Web at the library is not a good idea. Although The Courier article that described the protesters at the library seemed to be somewhat biased against them, I only found out about them because of The Courier. This may be one of the few times I ever agree with frequent letter-writer R. Bowlby, but the group's request that there should at least be parental permission before kids can access the Web at the library does not seem like censorship to me. Keep up the good work.
Jim Chihan Fung Post ofÞce addresses community concerns Over the past nine months we have noticed a marked improvement in the quality of our local postal deliveries, and we want to convey a message of job well done. In December of last year, severe problems were surfacing in our local delivery service levels. Late mail, long lines and missed deliveries were three of the most common complaints that residents and businesses were making. Thanks to a lot of local pressure, letters to the editor and behind-the-scenes meetings, we got a new postmaster and things began to improve. The post office is not infallible, and we would be the first to urge looking for additional ways to increase service, but there has been a major improvement. We want to give credit to the local post office staff for their hard work in addressing our community's concerns. Keep up the good work. Our city appreciates the changes for the better.
Rich Abdalah
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This article appeared in the Cupertino Courier, September 10, 1997. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||