Letters

Some must think University is the local autobahn

What with the current parking crisis, concerns regarding air pollution and lovely weather, I find myself, more often than not, taking a stroll downtown as opposed to driving.

Tonight, while crossing Highway 9 at University Avenue, I was once again unnerved by the fact that the crosswalk light that alerts one it is to safe to cross stays lit for what seemed like a nanosecond, though probably more like 20 seconds, before changing back to red.

I am a capable young athletic person who needs at least twice the allotted time to make it safely across. What of the elderly, handicapped and generally less able? What of the mother crossing with her two children?

Though the question is one of nerves, not safety, it would be nice if the town would synch up the time to something a bit more appropriate.

Another thing I have noticed is that while using the crosswalks, where no light or stop signs are indicated, cars would just as soon run you over as stop. Are we not all aware of the fact that the pedestrian does, in fact, have the right of way?

Finally, cars zip down downtown's University Avenue as if it were the autobahn. It is not. The speed limit is 25 miles an hour. Let's all try to be a bit more conscientious of pedestrian safety and slow down a bit.

Deborah Tham
Los Gatos

A Place for Teens deserves support of the community

Last week, my husband, a friend, her little boy and I joined a large group of people to enjoy the Food Fest in front of the post office.

Teens sponsor this fundraiser for their local center, the OutHouse. The red and white booths looked festive. Seventeen restaurants contributed their tasty goods to the event.

Music played and rocked from several band groups who donated their time. Adults and little children decked the park lawns enjoying the good food and music. It was a wonderful relaxed late summer event.

While there were numerous volunteers who made this event possible, I would like to give special thanks to Lee Fagot. Lee has been president of the OutHouse board, a board composed of teens and adults, for three years. Lee has volunteered countless hours of his time to keep the teen center going financially and to develop programming.

The teen center is a nonprofit group initiated and developed by community volunteers. It offers a supervised place without charge for teens to go after school and to attend organized events.

Without people like Lee Fagot, the many teens who work to support their own center and the many fine community volunteers of Sunday's outstanding Food Fest, we would not continue to have a teen center. The teen center is an important element among many which makes this a good community to live in. If you have not contributed to this great resource, please do so now by contacting the center at: A Place for Teens, P.O. Box 1476, Los Gatos, CA 95031 or call 408.395.5553.

Susan H. Anawalt
Monte Sereno

Fiesta was great, thanks to the local community

The public and the volunteers of Los Gatos gathered at the Los Gatos civic center to make the Fiesta de Artes 2000 the best ever. Despite the competition from the Jazz Festival in San Jose and other activities the same weekend, our Los Gatos festival attracted a big enough crowd to make this fundraiser a huge success.

All of the Kiwanis profits from the Fiesta de Artes go into the charity fund of the Kiwanis Club of Los Gatos. From this fund dozens of great causes are supported, including scholarships at Los Gatos and Saratoga High schools.

The Kiwanis Club of Los Gatos hereby sends a warm thank you to our neighbors who came and savored the arts, crafts, wines, beers and music during the two days of the festival. The members of Kiwanis enjoyed the opportunity to serve our community by putting on the best and only arts and crafts festival in Los Gatos.

Rich Lang and Mary Tomasi Dubois, Kiwanians and co-chairpersons of the festival led the hundreds of volunteers in putting in hundreds of hours to make the festival a success. Terry Martin, president of the Kiwanis Club of Los Gatos, capped his career as president with pulling off the best ever fundraiser of our club.

I want to thank the whole community for the great support!

Don Wolf
Los Gatos

Solutions exist for parking in downtown

Oh, woe! Too many cars; not enough space--in the lots or on the roads. Is it possible to oversucceed? It wasn't too many years ago that we were lamenting the opposite problem. Ample parking and empty stores. Today, downtown Los Gatos is a popular place.

Still, this is a better problem to have. Especially so since there are solutions out there that are quick, doable and relatively inexpensive.

On July 17, the public and the town council proclaimed a resounding "no" to pay parking downtown. This solution was just too expensive, too complicated and too disruptive of our town traditions. But the basic parking problem was not resolved. After the vote, the council decided to hold a subsequent study session to figure out what to do. If pay parking was out, what was to be in?

That study session was scheduled for Aug. 28, and there has been much activity in the interim to prepare for it. Dave Flick and Sandy Decker presented their plan, which they had introduced at the July 17 hearing, to town staff and the parking commission.

The parking commission met and came up with its own set of recommendations. Town staff is preparing a course of action for the council to consider. And there is certainly more that other groups are doing.

Finally, of course, there are many worthy elements of the downtown task force's Parking Management Plan presented on July 17, that can carry over into a workable solution--remember, it was only the pay parking part of that plan that was shot down.

There is ample material from all these efforts for the council to make a final decision on a parking solution at its Sept. 5 meeting (the first one after the study session). There have been enough studies. It is time to act. And act the council must if there is to be a program in place in time for the coming holiday season.

The parking commission recommends implementation by Oct. 15. In my view, that solution should include:

* Remote parking at Miles Avenue, the park-and-ride lot behind Walgreen's, and anywhere else we can find adequately lighted and in operation by Oct. 15;

* Additional spaces wrung out (per the Flick/Decker plan) of the existing streets and lots, including, as much as practicable, one-way streets, reduced red zones and conversion of the old Greyhound bus station to parking;

* A shuttle system to service the remote and bus station lots. For a shuttle system to work in time for the holiday season it must be reliable, frequent, fun, well-promoted with lead time and in operation by Oct. 15. People need time to get used to it and gain confidence in its reliability;

* Permit parking in downtown residential areas at night, with two-hour time limits during the daytime business hours. Residents with permits would not be subject to the two-hour limit in those areas;

* Stepped up enforcement in all lots and on residential and commercial streets. Strong enforcement will provide the incentive for employees and others to use the remote lots and shuttle;

* Those are immediate steps. For the longer run, the town should begin the process of acquiring the Dittos Lane parcel and other parcels (per the Flick/Decker plan) for conversion to surface parking; A package such as this can work. Much of it is easily and quickly doable and relatively inexpensive. Let's give it a try!

Mike Abkin
Los Gatos

Here's a cause to get behind!

Do you regard your telephone as a luxury and, therefore, should be taxed as one? I certainly don't. Yet all of us are paying such a tax that was levied on telephones 102 years ago, before any but 103-year-olds were born!

Hello?

That's right. Such a tax was passed by Congress in 1898 to support the Spanish-American War. And this tax has never been repealed.

There is just a chance that it could be, if enough of us put the pressure on our senators to see that H. R. 3916, "The Telephone Excise Tax Repeal," is passed by the Senate. It has already been passed by the House.

Vern Hansen
Los Gatos

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