The Cupertino Courier

Letters

Elect Sandra James to Cupertino City Council

I'd like to urge residents to vote for Sandy James on Election Day. She has been a leader in the Cupertino Union School District--one of the largest employers in town--for eight years.

Cupertino's schools are known throughout the country, even the world, for their excellence. Sandy can bring that same excellence to our city if we elect her to the council.

Sandy is a person of integrity, compassion and competence who will work for the good of the whole community. She has brought her energy and enthusiasm to dozens of local organizations, commissions, service clubs and other groups and is an excellent facilitator for bringing people together.

Now she is offering her skills to the city at large, and I can think of no one better to recommend for City Council. Cupertino can't let this opportunity to elect Sandra James go by. Get out and vote for Sandra James Nov. 4.

Mary Ellen Chell
Cupertino

Why would they vote for even more housing?

Why do some Cupertino City Council candidates say they are concerned about overcrowding in Cupertino, yet they vote for every dense housing project that is placed before them? Are they puppets answering to developers and politicians in higher places or what? Now, even the Monta Vista High School students are writing editorials on how their school is bursting at the seams. In September, parents picking up students at Monta Vista High were ticketed by officers in the bus circle (it was too crowded and therefore a safety hazard).

So this is the thanks parents get for being there and caring for their children? A ticket?

If the school districts want less crowding in the bus circles, they should spend the parents' taxes on transportation and restore the school bus system. If they want less crowding in school parking lots, at the rate things are going, they will have to erect parking garages similar to the one at De Anza College. Of course, districts can purchase portable after portable to provide needed classrooms, but that still won't solve Monta Vista High's overpopulation problem. And councilmembers who keep voting for housing project after housing project will only be contributing to Cupertino's overcrowding.

Karen DeLange
Cupertino

Affordable housing: You just can't get there from here

Concerning Mr. Wickwire's letter urging more low-income housing. I have to say that I greatly admire Mr. Wickwire's humanitarian impulses and concern for his fellow man. That said, I consider the following to be self-evident.

There is not, nor will there be, any such thing as low-income housing in Cupertino, unless you destroy the ambiance that brought many of us here. Low-income housing, in Cupertino, is an oxymoron.

I do not choose to live in Daly City, or on 19th Ave. in San Francisco. I would have preferred to continue to look out at the prune orchard across the street or smell the blossoms as I drove to work, but that will never be again. Instead, we have tracts of "low-income housing," built in and around Cupertino.

We allow grocery stores to close so they can build "superstores" far enough away you have to drive to them.

Unless a miracle happens, so called "mass transit" will continue to be an expensive disaster. Try getting to work, or anywhere, unless you have unlimited time and someone to drive you to and from the nearest route. I claim the tinted windows are so you can't see most buses are almost empty.

Yet we wish to cram more people, in less space, generating more cars on increasingly crowded streets and highways.

Right now, our city fathers are trying very hard to keep our one big shopping center from having a "discount" store. Where are the "low-income" people going to shop?

Jump in the car and head out of town, is where.

To close, concern for our fellow man is commendable, but should extend to the neighbors whose life investment could very well be their home. They don't want high-density or multistory or mixed-use zoning and the like jammed down their throats. Pipe dreams of utopia are just that, pipe dreams. Or, as the man said, "You can't get there from here."

Dean Sayre
Cupertino

United Way supports community services

Cupertino Community Services has long enjoyed the support and confidence of United Way of Santa Clara County. Thanks to United Way, a safety net of over one hundred well-monitored agencies provides critically needed health and human services throughout our valley.

Until now, United Way policies prohibited member agencies from soliciting donors to designate United Way pledges for their own agencies. However, we also believe that we would not be fulfilling our responsibility to raise funds for emergency assistance unless we asked our community to consider designating their United Way pledges for Cupertino Community Services.

United Way gives you choices. You can donate either to the Community Care Fund or to a targeted need area. Such donations are each allocated to all member agencies. Or you can designate Cupertino Community Services and know that 100 percent of your donation will help prevent homelessness and hunger in low-income families right here in Cupertino.

If you would like more information about the programs of Cupertino Community Services, please call 255-8033. Thank you for your consideration.

Jane Asher
President, Board of Directors
Cupertino Community Services

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