I have been a law-abiding citizen of the town of Los Gatos for the past 30 years. I have never even committed a single act of civil disobedience. I don't let a weed grow in my yard without pulling it, and my landscape is generally immaculate.

So why have the Los Gatos police come to my house twice in the past week (once at 9:15 p.m.)? Apparently, my family and I are in blatant violation of Code 1968, Ordinance Section 15.40.075 and subject to a $35 fine.

Plainly stated, we have placed a "For Sale" sign on a vehicle that we park in front of our house. Formally quoted, "No person shall park a vehicle upon any roadway for the princi of: (1) displaying such vehicle for sale."

I happen to live on a fairly busy street in Los Gatos. I also happen to have a vehicle that is for sale. Additionally, I have a garage that does not currently fit my vehicle, and a narrow driveway that requires tandem parking. My "principal" reason for parking on the street is that I need a place to park my vehicle.

Two Los Gatos patrol officers and two office personnel, including Carol Musser, head of the department's Citations Program, have told me that I am, in fact, in violation of this town ordinance and could be subject to a citation if I do not move my vehicle into the driveway or remove the "For Sale" sign. They have further stated that any person coming into Los Gatos that parks a car with a "For Sale" sign on it is subject to this same penalty.

Ordinance 15.40.075 was clearly intended to prevent people from coming to Los Gatos, parking their vehicles on a busy street, and abandoning them there until sold. Why can Realtors place 4-by-3-foot‚ signs in front of my house every weekend advertising an open house‚ if I can't even park a vehicle in front of my house with an 8-by-11-inch sign in the window? Let me guess—one provides tax revenues, the other does not.

Let me further extrapolate a guess as to the original origin of this ordinance—the highest tax revenue business in the town are the automobile dealerships, and they don't want us selling cars without them.

My 6-year-old son keeps asking me why I continue to park my vehicle on the street if I know the police may give me a ticket. I tell him it's complicated‚ but sometimes you have to fight for freedoms in order to keep them. What a better time to teach him this lesson as we celebrate July 4th in the town that I love.

Bob Kulick

Los Gatos

More than trucks
enter gates of
La Rinconada

We would like to respond to the comments made by Chris Delaossa and Mark Medalie (letters, June 30) regarding the delivery entrance for the La Rinconada Country Club.

They claim that the current protocol for deliveries is unfair, and that the "neighborhood above us can share some of the traffic." Mr. Medalie suggested that he and his neighbors are the only residents who have to endure the traffic caused by the daily operations of the country club.

While we are certain that the 10 to 15 delivery trucks per week can be a nuisance, Mr. Delaossa and Mr. Medalie are overlooking the fact that the La Rinconada/Clearview neighborhood is most certainly affected by the daily operations of the country club. We must endure the daily flow of country club members (there are 400 of them), many of whom travel at high speeds down a section of La Rinconada that has more than 30 children living on it.

The traffic is heaviest on weekends when our children are more likely to be playing and riding bicycles. Easter Sunday our street was like a parade route as members sped along on their way to brunch.

We already share the burden of the country club's business. We are aware that the truck traffic will temporarily increase during construction, but so will the member traffic once the country club follows through with its plan to increase membership (and this will not be temporary).

As frustrating as the traffic issues are, we all bought our homes near a golf course. It is unrealistic to expect that our day to day lives will not be impacted in some way by the proximity of the golf course to our homes. Rather than creating a divisive situation, pitting one neighborhood against another, we should all band together to ensure that the country club and the town work together with the surrounding residents to address everyone's concerns in a fair and balanced way.

For example, we all share the concern about slowing down traffic (whether it is trucks or cars) to protect our children. We will be more effective working together on these issues rather than claiming that one set of children is more deserving of safety measures than another.

On a final note, the fact that some of the homes on La Rinconada near the golf course entrance are technically in unincorporated Los Gatos does not change the fact that we still have a Los Gatos address, and it does not minimize the importance of our concerns in these discussions.

Julie Collier and Michael Kolber

Los Gatos

Wooden Horse
the best toy
store around

[The Wooden Horse] is the best toy store I have ever been in (Los Gatos Weekly-Times, July 7). Accordingly, I have always referred to Karen Scarvie's marvelous store as "Grandparents' First-Aid."

Alan Caras

Los Gatos

Disappointment
at the July 4th
celebration

For almost a year, a small group of war veterans and local citizens, most of them members of the Los Gatos Rotary Club, have been actively raising funds and collecting small personal items to be sent to the Los Gatos military personnel.

Under the chairmanship of Michael Frangadakis, the family members of the Los Gatos troopers has been contacted. Many "care" packages have been shipped to the Los Gatos troopers in Iraq, Spain and Afghanistan, with the code name "Operation Yellow Ribbon."

Recently, the committee has arranged to ship packages through the Santa Clara Red Cross, which is organized to send letters to the troopers and encourage troopers to write back. The Red Cross group ships 500 pounds of gift packs every month.

For the Los Gatos Fourth of July concert in the park, the committee planned to invite the parents of the Los Gatos troopers, present them to the assembled crowd of the Los Gatos citizens and award them with specially created medals, read off the names of the Los Gatos troopers and thank the troopers and families for their efforts for this community and for our nation.

When the ceremony was discussed with the managers of the celebration, the plan was vetoed. They claimed that the tribute to the military troops "was too political." When the veterans explained that there is nothing political about honoring the United States military troops, especially troops from Los Gatos, the managing people refused to change their stand. As a result, a committee held a short ceremony at the Los Gatos Rotary booth, where Mayor Steve Glickman and Vice Mayor Curtis Wright of Monte Sereno, awarded the medals to the relatives and to one visiting Coast Guard trooper.

The delegation thanked each and every one for their service. This was done, unbeknownst to the patriotic multitude gathered on the Los Gatos High School lawn, listening to the stirring military marches. They were unaware that Mayor Glickman refused to have the ceremony at the podium of the town of Los Gatos.

Our committee feels that the troopers' families and we were denied the opportunity to express a non-partisan "thank you" to a very deserving group of Los Gatans. There was not a breath of politics in the entire endeavor. We believe that the Los Gatos Town Council should be made aware of what happened, and that this be corrected in planning for the next Fourth of July. The Los Gatos families of the troopers are owed an apology from the town council.

John Dooley, M.D.

Los Gatos