Rose Garden Resident

Letters & Opinions

Speak Out

Dog walkers should
respect private lawns

I live in the Rose Garden neighborhood, and I happen to have a corner home with a beautiful new lawn and am planning on adding more foliage to make my home appealing. Here is my problem:

Residents and visitors to our neighborhood that exercise, walk their children, walk their dogs, etc., show no respect for private property. People walk their animals on my lawn. They let them pee, poop, etc.

All of my lawn is private property; it is not public property or a park. The park happens to be just one block away, where the animals are free to do as they please in their designated areas. When I walk my pet, my dog is restricted to the sidewalk until I get him to the park. I do not allow my dog to wander into my neighbors' property. Why? Because I respect the fact that everybody here spends plenty of money on their homes and lawns. Then there are those residents that walk with their kids, some of whom happen to be riding their bikes, scooters and skateboards. They allow their kids to roam all over my lawn. Again, it is private property. Then there are those residents or visitors that just walk onto my property and pick the citrus from my trees, not to mention cut my cactus leaves and the cactus fruit, sometimes right in front of me without even asking permission. I call that stealing. They even have the nerve to act mad when I kindly ask them to please not do that. Since when is it acceptable to just walk onto someone's property without the owner's permission and do this. Why not just ring the doorbell and ask? I will even help pick the fruit if they first ask permission.

I not only see it happening on my property but others as well.

I just moved here from the Washington, D.C. Metro area, and I never encountered these problems there. Whenever anyone wanted a rosebud for a sweetheart, they knocked on my door and asked. People walked their animals on a leash and on the sidewalk. They picked up after their animals, and they never let their kids wander onto anyone's yard. It is something called respect for other people's property and their neighbors. I can't believe that the West Coast is any different.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Walk your animals on the sidewalk only. Wait until you get to the park, then they can do their business when they get there and you can pick up after them.

2. Do not walk onto your neighbor's property without permission and pick their fruit, cactus, flowers, etc.

3. Teach your children to respect your neighbor's property.

4. Don't throw your trash onto other people's lawn just because you are tired of carrying it. Throw it in the public trash cans at the park.

I don't know what else to do on top of my constantly coming out of my home and venting at people for their transgressions. It is not very neighborly, and I hate having to do it.

Norma Garza

Rose Garden

Steve Tedesco has the
necessary experience

I would like to respond to the coverage of the Jan. 29 meeting of the District 6 runoff candidates ("District 6 race for councilman takes a turn and goes from friendly to testy").

Steve Tedesco's calling Pierluigi Oliverio a "slightly misleading candidate" was putting it very gently and certainly not being negative, as it is true. Oliverio has been deceptive, i.e., his mailing featuring him with what I certainly took to be his "family," which was most certainly intended no matter how he explains it away.

His list of experience and accomplishments shows only that he is a good and charismatic salesman, nothing more.

Now he is trying to woo the seniors in District 6 with his mailing about how well he takes care of his parents, which he states shows his commitment to seniors and their issues. How naive does he think the constituents of District 6 are?

We need a person with experience, accountability, honesty and integrity to fill this seat, and I can assure you that Steve Tedesco more than fills the bill.

Ruth Wiens

San Jose

Forum article was
biased, negative

Please allow me to correct your biased and inaccurate article "District 6 Council Candidate Tedesco Corrects His Opponent's Résumé." The only thing I see negative about this meeting was your negative reporting.

You stated that the candidates agreed on almost everything but failed to note that Tedesco's answers come from a depth of experience that Oliverio does not have.

Tedesco's answers were full of hopeful creative problem-solving solutions as compared to Oliverio's more simplistic answers.

Although you say both agree on keeping BAREC as open space, you failed to mention that the process and final result would be very different with each of them. Tedesco has experience with trading public land, understands the law that will save BAREC, and has deep roots in our valley's agricultural history. Oliverio has no experience with open space, land use or saving our history, and therefore, his answers were shallow. Save BAREC has been waiting for five years to find a true independent elected official to champion the challenging negotiations that must take place with the fifth largest government in the world, the state of California. As is indicated by his answers, Tedesco is that person. For this reason Save BAREC is supporting its first candidate, Steve Tedesco.

Kathryn Mathewson

Rose Garden

Correction

A photo caption in the Feb. 8 issue of the Rose Garden Resident had the incorrect depth of a natural gas line that was accidentally pierced on Feb. 4, leading to a fire. The homeowner on Walnut Grove was digging 18 inches while reinforcing his fence.