On July 15 my son, Wesley Marks, died very suddenly and unexpectedly, and all of his family and friends are still stunned and saddened. On July 19 we had a party in his honor at Bruschettas, the restaurant on Foothill Boulevard in Cupertino that he owned and ran for a little more than five years.

I want to express my deep gratitude to everyone who came to honor his memory, to those who brought food and to the awesome crew who set up before and cleaned up after.

I would also like to let people know that if they left anything at Bruschettas (serving dishes, clothing, sunglasses, bicycle helmet, etc.), they should contact me to retrieve them.

Susan Palm

408.309.5108 or
hiskid8@hotmail.com

Intiatives push backbone of city out of housing

In response to all the debate over the proposed Cupertino initiatives, I question the continued claim by the Concerned Citizens of Cupertino that they speak for the majority of Cupertino residents. As a Cupertino resident, I have a different view of housing that I'd like to share.

On paper, the initiatives seem harmless, and even I might be tempted to sign them. But in reality, what does it mean to restrict density to 15 homes to the acre? Well, it would effectively stop all apartments, townhouses and condominiums from being built in Cupertino, including the affordable-housing development by Cupertino Community Services (which was supported by virtually everyone) located behind the fire station on Stevens Creek Boulevard.

The CCC will tell you that's OK because their initiatives would permit developments outside the allowable limits to go to a vote of the people. However, it is unrealistic to expect that a nonprofit organization would be able to fund a campaign to get voter approval.

Why should we care if no apartments, townhouses or condos are ever built again in Cupertino? This is where the backbone of our community can afford to live—teachers, librarians, the folks who serve our Jamba Juice and Hobee's coffeecake. This is the type of "low-maintenance" housing our seniors look for when they want to scale down from the single-family home. And this is the type of home that our own kids start out in.

Between 1989 and 1998, it was projected that Cupertino would need to build 1600 homes for people in the "affordable" income levels of low, very low and moderate. About 155 of those needed homes were built. At the same time, Cupertino exceeded its projected need for above-moderate-income homes by 500. The biggest shocker, however, is that Cupertino's goal for moderate-income homes was 635. Of those, four were built.

A healthy community is one that welcomes people from all walks of life. The CCC initiatives would effectively lock the city's General Plan to discriminate against the same families that teach our children, repair our cars, manage our health clubs and take out our trash. I don't believe the citizens of Cupertino will support these initiatives once they understand their real implications.

Paul Fong

Cupertino

Sculpture and name Cali
Mill are good for plaza

I am a Cupertino resident since 1963. I have seen many changes in this city.

Although I do not like the high rises and density near Cali Mill Plaza, I do like the sculpture and am very pleased with the name of the plaza.

I drove by it at night last week, and it was beautiful all lit up. I am also very happy to hear the morion statue will be put up again.

Lori Christofferson

Cupertino

Kris Wang abusing her power as councilwoman

In recent weeks the paper's been flooded with information regarding this Moon Festival controversy. For the longest time I tried to stay out of the fray and away from this political mess in hopes that it would go away, but recently it became clear that apathy in this situation is not acceptable.

I've heard various members of our community say that this situation has become a battle between two sides of our Chinese community.

I completely disagree.

Up to this point Lucia Wu and the Moon Festival have been bullied by Kris Wang and her accusations. Kris has been attacking them left and right, and at this point I don't think Lucia or the Moon Festival can step back. If someone's throwing a punch at you, you can't just stand there. You must defend yourself.

I've heard people say that the damage has been done, and at this point we must do some damage control. I agree, we do need to do damage control. However, we must look at what has been damaged.

If you're looking at this merely as Chinese people fighting each other, we must step back, get some perspective and move on. But from what I can see, the damage done has not merely been to the reputation of Chinese people but to the very fabric that our country is based.

How can we let a politician abuse her powers and get away with it? Our country was created to prevent such tyrants. My family emigrated from China to avoid this kind of political abuse and for the right to fight for our own rights. To stand by and allow Kris Wang to continue her term would have nullified everything that we have sacrificed to be in this country.

For those people out there who are apathetic, especially the Chinese immigrants that naively helped Kris Wang win her office, you must ask yourself why you came to this country. You didn't come here to have someone trample on your rights; you could've stayed in China for that.

It's our duty as American citizens to uphold thetradition of democracy. We can't let Kris get away with her abuse of power, because if we do we will have failed our forefathers and our children.

Patrice Chu

Cupertino

Campaign headquarters
for Wang in Cupertino

Regarding the July 29 Courier article "Wu confronts Wang over the Moon Festival" and the statement "Wang did not attend the meeting, which was ironically held at her old campaign headquarters in Saratoga": I don't know if she attended the meeting, but I do know that her campaign headquarters was not in Saratoga. It was in Cupertino, at her home. I ran the campaign last year.

Cary Chien

Cupertino