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Letters
Annexation will give residents better service
I am an appointed representative for the Englewood Neighborhood Action Group. While processing a petition for traffic-calming measures, our group has arranged meetings with members of four county departments--Planning, Roads and Airports, Building and the office of our district supervisor, Don Gage.
Our contacts with the town of Los Gatos include members of the Town Council, Planning Commission and General Plan Task Force, and the planning director and town manager.
These traffic-calming measures have been stalled due to the lack of response from Supervisor Gage. On May 18, we met with him in his office. He insisted on primarily discussing the upcoming annexation process and telling us why the county would like to be free from servicing these isolated pockets.
Due to this situation, he stated, he is not interested in spending any resources in these pockets in the future. He did offer to expedite answers to several questions concerning a traffic study done by the county and to clarify the sections of roadway which the county still controls.
Also, we briefly discussed a building code violation in the neighborhood which was reported last September and is not being pursued further by county inspectors. He offered no further assistance.
As instructed by Supervisor Gage, we sent a letter with our questions on May 21. To date, we have received no response. The Town Council is unable to proceed without clarification to jurisdiction. The Town Council and manager, as well as the Planning Department, have shown a sincere interest in our traffic problem and are prompt in responding to our inquiries.
Conversely, county staff and Gage have been difficult to reach and unreliable in responding to letters and voicemail. Gage has said the county is concerned with larger problems and is not willing to deal with neighborhood issues such as growth, traffic and safety.
According to the town manager, the town receives 9 percent of a property bill from town residents. The town in turn provides public hearings concerning neighborhood issues and a better per-capita ratio of services such as traffic and code enforcement.
If you would like the county to receive this 9 percent and provide minimal services to your neighborhood in return, then vote no for annexation. However, if you would like the opportunity to participate in quality-of-life issues impacting your household, vote to join the town.
Gregg Moss
Los Gatos
A better route for town trucks?
When we first read about the housing project at 330 University, we were very intrigued about the possibility of living there! The beautiful and plentiful trees make it seem very pleasant.
In discussions and concerns about the traffic, I had a question and possible solution. At the lower end of the property, wouldn't it connect to the corporation yard and couldn't traffic exit like the corporation trucks do; namely up Miles Street, use University from there, or cross University to N. Santa Cruz? It seemed like a viable alternative to just the exit onto University.
Harry and June Fromm
Los Gatos
Trash compactors for beautification
As the Old Town development comes to completion, an opportunity to clean up the appearance of parking lot No. 6 has presented itself. Lot No. 6 is located between the new Old Town development and stores such as The Porch and Bunches on N. Santa Cruz Avenue.
Currently there are several garbage bins scattered throughout the lot for use by the stores on Santa Cruz Avenue.
The Old Town development is installing a new trash compactor and recycling area that will be within an enclosure and for use by all the stores in the immediate area.
This new garbage area will be an inconvenience for many of the businesses in that they will have to carry their trash to the enclosure rather than dumping it into a trash bin at the back door, but I believe that this minor inconvenience will add greatly to the quality of life for residents and visitors to the town.
The first impression people have of the town is as they step out of their cars in the parking lot, and an opportunity to improve this impression should be taken. The Town of Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee would like to applaud the businesses that are removing their trash bins to use this new compactor, and ask that all area businesses do the same.
Greg Stowers, AIA
Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Committee
Asking questions brought disturbing answers from kids
At about 6:30 p.m., on July 27, my son's bike was stolen from the bike rack in front of Hollywood Video on busy Los Gatos Boulevard. He contacted me on the walkie talkie I had given him and I came down while he filed a police report. As I parked my car I noticed gang graffiti on the video rental return box.
The manager at Hollywood Video brought us in to view the video tape record of the front of the store at the time the bike was stolen. Then we decided to drive around our "little town" and see "what's up."
We spoke to three different groups of middle-school boys on their bikes and received the names of two kids (one going to ninth grade and one to seventh) that are known to have stolen bikes this summer and bragged about it. One of these boys took another's skateboard, and they all know who it belongs to, but no one has done anything about getting it back because they are afraid of what the "bully" might do.
I care more about these youngsters' stealing than I do about the bike. In one hour of talking with young people around town, I have the names of two adolescents in big trouble and will pass the information on to the appropriate people.
Parents, have you asked your kids enough questions and talked to them about the "what's up stuff"? Have you really probed into what they are doing and who they are hanging with?
After 16 years of youth work, nine of which have been in Los Gatos, I can tell you there is more gang graffiti in this town this year than I have ever seen before, and we have a wonderful volunteer task force that removes it ASAP!
There are younger drinkers and smokers, more theft, bullying and disrespect in this peer group as time goes on. There is a permissiveness in our culture, tolerated by parents, that has youth in the death spiral, with the school shootings around the country as the crash sites.
Los Gatos is blessed with many programs for youth that try to make up for the lack of parenting, and we still need more. But the buck stops with Mom and/or Dad. Who's raising the kids?
The community forums on teen violence, held last spring and well covered by the Weekly-Times, brought to light the urgent need of middle and high school students to have their parents and teachers available to them for conversation and support. Many feel their parents are workaholics and they [themselves] are turning into "little workaholics."
Please look in your yard to see if a three-year-old chrome Mongoose bike with red lettering and pegs has shown up lately, and report to LGPD case No. 99-2474. But more importantly, check up on your kids. I love kids. They need to be raised by us, not "society."
Kathy Winkelman
Los Gatos
Cartoon was an accurate reflection
In response to the De Cinzo cartoon in the Aug. 11 Los Gatos Weekly-Times--the one which depicted Town Hall's insatiable appetite for development--hooray! This cartoon is worth more than a thousand words, and undoubtedly speaks for more than a thousand residents. Having attended several of the Town Council meetings, it's clear that the Los Gatos resident has a very small voice in the Town Council's plans for development. The council seems to listen blithely with scarcely concealed impatience, boredom, and disdain, as resident after resident speaks up to protest "the malling of Los Gatos."
The Town Council's lust for greater profits, and evident desire to compete with Valley Fair and town strips, negatively impacts me and my family every day. Los Gatos has become the Los Angeles I moved away from.
As De Cinzo graphically shows in his cartoon, the small voice of the Los Gatos resident is left little room to make a difference. I am outraged as the town I once loved becomes the town I look forward to moving away from.
David Schutz
Los Gatos Resident for 18 Years
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
