Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

New center offers lesson in anatomy

We have read most of the comments on the Byer Center, the shopping center under construction at Blossom Hill Road and Los Gatos Boulevard.

Our thoughts:

We cannot believe that a building could follow the contour of the hills and hide them so effectively. Was that the plan?

We see the dome as a big phallic symbol and think of how the town cared! In addition, we think a better name is the Condom Center to hide the symbol above!

Is this the new standard for corner shopping centers? The Cilker family has a large area out in front of Wellspring. Will they be allowed to build a phallus? This new standard should go well in the whole town!

Question: Who got paid off to allow that type of plan and facade?

We have decided not to ever shop in that center as any support we give only says we approve that type of plan and facade.

Harry and June Fromm

Los Gatos

Town has image as easy target for car burglary

On May 1, I was running a couple errands and parked at the main downtown parking lot behind Village Lane. I returned to my car to find the passenger window smashed and my car stereo ripped from the dashboard. I had been gone about 10 minutes that afternoon.

As I waited the 30 minutes it took the police to arrive, I searched for witnesses in the local salons and restaurants that were in plain view of my car. There were none, but what surprised me more was that some people said the same type of crime had been committed earlier the same day in the same lot. I now notice piles of gem-shaped glass in that lot on a regular basis.

I am wondering two things:

First, why aren't the auto burglary police reports being mentioned in your paper? Granted the "vicious animal" and "suspicious plants" reports are more eye-catching, but perhaps people have a need to know about serious problems that affect all who visit the town.

And finally, what is the Police Department doing to curb this epidemic? Visitors to downtown should be warned to keep all valuables out of sight or in the trunk. We should keep an eye out for suspicious loitering and report it. We need to reclaim Los Gatos from its easy-target image.

Roxanne Walker

Los Gatos

Grand jury story was too kind

I read with fascination your feature article on the Santa Clara County grand jury. It was too kind. What a pack of fools, and, as you correctly state, a pack of old white male fools. A fit adjunct to our funky, self-serving court system.

My "attitude" comes from personal experience. I was president of the County Board of Education when the so-called "grand" jury came by for a visit a couple of years or so ago. We attracted their attention because one member of the board had complained that the board majority wouldn't buy a building, discovered by chance by a friend in commercial real estate, for a new central office, a $15 million dollar "trophy" building being sold for $2 million at auction on the courthouse steps in five days.

No matter that the building was inadequate in numerous ways or that five days did not allow for the "due diligence" inspection required of any responsible buyer. It was criminal that it wasn't--and the grand jury agreed.

They sat in our meetings for months, smirking and looking superior.

I was finally summoned to testify before this group of numbskulls. They, of course, knew nothing about this "good deal" building and had no interest in being confused by the facts. They should have been asking about the instructional programs at the county Office of Education and why they were not, and are still not, being evaluated for effectiveness--that cost taxpayers far more than a one-time $2 million dollar expenditure--even if it were wise rather than stupid.

Your writer's mention of "big changes" in the county Office of Education as a result of this vague "investigation" by the "grand" jury is amusing. I defy her to name one.

There are more school districts within the grand jury's purview than any other kind of political jurisdiction, and, as we all know, public education is in enormous trouble. Yet the grand jury is uninterested in getting at the heart of the trouble: teachers' unions electing teachers to school boards to protect and advance teachers' salaries and benefits and to protect them from meaningful evaluation--or any evaluation at all; school boards abandoning their responsibility to oversee multimillion-dollar budgets to a passel of incompetent educational bureaucrats whose solution to every problem is "more money."

Grand juries, at least in Santa Clara County, are really just a means to allow once-powerful old white men, and a few token women and minorities, to begin or continue the delusion that they are important. They certainly do not serve the public good--or any rational purpose.

George Green

Los Gatos

Los Gatos Police Dept. succeeds with proactive police work

The recent article on the Los Gatos Police Department, and the accompanying editorial in
the May 22 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, advocate directions contrary to the national trend. All over the country, communities are crying for more police on the streets, in response to which the Clinton administration established a highly publicized program to add 100,000 officers. Yet you call for cutting, or even eliminating, the LGPD.

Similarly, the mood in the country calls for a tougher stand on crime and those who commit crime. Your editorial, however, criticizes our police department for its vigilance on drug dealing in and around the high school.

We have a professional and well-managed police department which is responsive to the needs of the community and is accountable to the Town Council. This accountability and close community relationship results in proactive patrol plans and preserves the qualities we want in Los Gatos.

The Sheriff's Department policy is essentially reactive--they would respond, for example, once undesirable elements take over the downtown, rather than prevent the situation in the first place.

I think the vast majority of Los Gatans find your position unacceptable.

Patrick Shannon

Los Gatos

Safe neighborhoods depend on drivers observing rules

I am writing because I am scared of what might happen some day. I live on Loma Alta Avenue. It is a very busy street on any given day. The time of day does not seem to affect the flow of traffic. As a mother of two children, I am very concerned not so much about the amount of traffic, but the lack of drivers caring about such simple things as driving the speed limit and stopping at stop signs.

I could be a rich person if I had a dollar for every person I see drive through the stop sign. At night I can hear cars speeding up and down the street, and there is no way they could stop for a child or a pet.

Our family moved to Los Gatos because we wanted the kind of atmosphere that comes from living
in a small, tight-knit community. What I didn't bargain for was not being able to let my children ever cross the street on their own just because some people can't follow a few basic traffic laws. What bothers me so much about what I see is that it is the people who drive this street every day that make the most violations. I could name license plates or list the types of cars I see, but if you stop and think about it, I think you will know who you are.

Parents of teen drivers, please mention to your children that they need to be extra careful. Most fatal accidents happen just five miles from home.

I know this is a busy time for all people and getting where you are going a minute or two faster may make or break your day, but consider your life after you have run down an innocent child. Would getting where you are going really matter after that?

Please take the time to drive a little slower and come to a full stop at both stop signs.

Shelley Seders

Los Gatos