 |
|
|
|
|
Letters
DeCinzo misses the point--again
Yet again, DeCinzo misses the point as well as slanders kids by calling them "lousy." Skateboarders are not hoodlums or out to destroy property. Give them a place to skate, and they will go. I will gladly put my support (cash and time) behind getting a skateboard park built in town.
What is the town of Los Gatos or that "lousy" cartoonist willing to do?
Bruce Frager
Los Gatos
Calvary's Club Edge is perfect option for skateboarders
Within your three full-page discussion in the Jan. 26 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, there was only a minor mention of the skateboarding facility Los Gatos already has. For less than the cost of a latte per day, your middle schooler can have a supervised place to skateboard and get his or her homework done before dinnertime.
Did you know that this place is only two blocks from Fisher School? Club Edge at Calvary Church is great! It deserves our support and encouragement. The Campbell park has 20 or 30 users a day, but you mention that Club Edge averages 40 a day using no tax dollars and all with volunteers and donations.
From what I've seen and heard, most kids don't want a park. They want the variety of obstacles and excitement all that Los Gatos private property has to offer. A skateboard park at Vasona or elsewhere is out of downtown, malls and the local action. I doubt that a park could ever be built at any cost, with enough excitement, variety and convenience that it would lure all the kids off the streets.
Club Edge is a perfect location with great equipment. Why is it not used by more skateboarders?
Your article did not show the kind of real damage that these skateboarders cause to concrete steps, outdoor lighting, handrailings, landscaping and even broken windows. It did not mention the kind of verbal abuse that is dispensed by kids that are gently requested to move on.
More than once, I've offered to pay the cost to get these kids into Club Edge, and not one of them has taken me up on the offer. The offer still stands. Call me.
Paul Izor
Los Gatos
It's a small problem, but an aggravating one
The grocery store where I shop in Los Gatos now charges a deposit on gallon jugs of water. We use at least six gallons of distilled drinking water each week. When the manager was asked whether the store will return the deposit when the jugs are returned, the answer was "No, you must return jugs to a recycling center somewhere on Union Street."
One would have to use our high-priced gasoline to seek this center. What does the store do with my deposit? Aren't we paying for recycling done by Green Valley? Does the town need to establish a closer "recycling center" for plastic jugs? Cans are going to need a deposit also.
This is all small potatoes in the big picture of life, but it is aggravating!
Doris A. Traber
Los Gatos
Los Gatans showed much compassion
I would like to say thank you to a great many unknown people of your town who stopped and offered help when my wife fell and broke both wrists.
I have no way but an open letter to thank these people and feel great about your town.
Thank you, the people of Los Gatos, for having a caring town.
Alfred R. Beaulieu
Gaylord, Mich.
Thanks for being a caring person
This message is in response to the letter in the Feb. 2 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times from V.R. Jennings about the dog who had been the victim of a hit-and-run driver. I would like to say that we need more people like you in our world. Also, did the dog make it???
Thank you.
Sarah Schwartz
Los Gatos
The quail were there first
On Feb. 9. the Los Gatos Planning Commission will be deciding on the fate a small parcel of property on Union Ave. where a developer wishes to build six houses. Personally we would prefer a small native park for this side of Los Gatos.
The street access planed for this development will destroy the trees and shrubs that are the habitat for a covey of threatened California quail. These quail have live and nested in these trees and shrubs for years. We have heard developers state that developments enhance an area.
We do not believe driving these quail from their habitat will enhance our area. For another thing the traffic on Union Avenue, which is a parking lot at peak traffic times, will also not be enhanced.
In our opinion the only enhancement will be money for the developer and the town. We truly believe the side of the property where the quail live should be left intact and natural.
Some people may not care any more about development, but we care! What can be done to save a piece of nature for our peace of living?
Pat and Gary Murray
Los Gatos
Affordable housing needed to preserve our community
I read with interest several letters of support for a new children's hospital proposed for the North Forty area of Los Gatos. Although this idea has value, for our community, there may be a greater need in Los Gatos, that relates to Silicon Valley's lack of affordable housing.
Housing construction across the Bay Area is not keeping pace with job growth. Predictions are that by 2020 their will be two jobs for every one house. This translates into continually rising housing costs.
The result is that our children, when they grow into adulthood and join the labor force, cannot afford to live and raise their families in their hometown. We are losing our teachers, artists, builders and craftsmen, health care professionals, shopkeepers, college professors, architects, service contractors, journalists and so many middle-income members of our community because they can't afford to live here.
What makes a community endure? What is the glue that holds it together? I am very concerned about the distortion that exceedingly high real estate values is having on the healthy future of our community.
Other cities are working to create affordable housing. In the next 10 years, San Jose will create $1 billion in affordable housing, leveraging funds from public and private sources, creating partnerships with for-profit and nonprofit housing development corporations.
Los Gatos should find land for affordable housing and build homes for our middle-income working families.
The North Forty area provides such opportunity for affordable housing development. It's near the Vasona Light-Rail Corridor and close to the intersection of two major freeways.
The natural river habitat of Los Gatos Creek and the oak woodland and meadows that once thrived here could be reintroduced and provide a park-like setting that would result in long-term maintenance savings, with reductions in water use and near elimination of pesticides. Some of the elements of co-housing design could be introduced so that community facilities are shared and not duplicated.
Pedestrian activities could be emphasized with mixed retail and services nearby.
Los Gatos could create this kind of model for future development in California. We have the resources to do this. A few caring people who realize how great the need is right in our own backyard could make this happen.
Let's begin an honest discussion. Find out how other cities are leveraging public and private funds to keep their talented and hardworking young families in their hometown communities.
Alrie Middlebrook
Los Gatos
It's time to build a new town library
Both Nathan Huff's article in the Feb. 2 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, "Library encourages town to end non-resident fees," and the editorial outlining the library's need of expansion and upgrading, noting that it is eligible for Redevelopment money were great.
Focus on building a new library that reflects this area's literacy and culture makes this an exciting time for library lovers.
On Feb. 7, the Town Council was scheduled to vote on whether or not the lion's share of the redevelopment fund will go to parking, or to some other deserving cause such as a new library worthy of our community.
I have lived in Los Gatos for more than 25 years. Parking has only rarely been a problem. A more frequent concern has been the lack of adequate research books in our library and work space in the reference section downstairs.
My experience with the library staff has been excellent, but there is only so much weeding out of the old collection that can be done until there is a larger facility to house newer resources. It is time to address the critical issue of the lack of space in our current library.
All of us who read books and care about the public institutions which provide books and information deserve a new library. A "no" vote from council members on the second parking structure will be a start. A "yes" vote from the general population in the upcoming primary election on Proposition 14, calling for a statewide bond for literacy and libraries, will be another positive step forward.
Martha Alderson
Los Gatos
|
|
|
|
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
