LETTERS LETTERS (April 28, 2004)

Committee was formed to support Duboc, Winkler

Editor:

Menlo Park Mayor Lee Duboc claims that she is not aware of any way in which Menlo Park Matters, a political action committee, has supported her (Almanac editorial, April 21). Perhaps the strain of holding political office has affected her memory.

I recall crashing an invitation-only meeting at the Stanford Park Hotel in late January 2003 organized by Ms. Duboc and Ms. Winkler. The invitation I did not receive asked the invited to help these new council members because the two believed a recall movement had been organized against them.

The room held many staunch supporters of the newly elected, a cast that has dutifully supported Mickie Winkler, Mayor Duboc and Nicholas Jellins in a stream of letters to the Almanac. It was at this meeting that Ms. Winkler announced the formation of a new organization to replace the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association. The president, treasurer and vice president of this group were appointed that night: John Conway, Michael Meyers, and Reg Rice. This was the birth of Menlo Park Matters.

One of the purposes of the new organization stated that night was to be an at-the-ready cheering squad for the policies of Mayor Duboc and Ms. Winkler, and by association, Mr. Jellins. Menlo Park Matters is a political action committee that was formed to support Mayor Duboc and council member Winkler.

Steve Schmidt
Central Avenue, Menlo Park

Editor's Note: Mr. Schmidt is a former Menlo Park mayor and council member and supported the opponents of Ms. Duboc and Ms. Winkler in the last City Council election.

'Conflicts' are everywhere, if you look hard enough

Editor:

If we look hard enough, we could find "conflict of interest" a lot of places, but if Chevron station owner John Conway will get "special treatment" by being allowed to pay money to a city fund that he would have spent on the mural on his new building, he didn't get a very good return on his efforts.

Let's get off this witch-hunt. I know my fine arts degree would be better served by a willing client than as part of public extortion of a good member of our community. Mr. Conway didn't want this law thrust in his face, and he has been more than open in his understandable objections.

I look forward to seeing art in Menlo Park for art's sake, not committee politics.

Henry Riggs
Callie Lane, Menlo Park

Murder story rated better play than Page 25

Editor:

As the first murder in Menlo Park in five years, and a big story on television news, one would think the local paper would consider the Gonzalez murder (Menlo man shot, killed by robbers; April 21, 2004) newsworthy as well.

Instead, the story was tucked away on Page 25, and the first content page of the paper was lavished on a building controversy in Woodside and a dispute about a mural. I wonder if a story about murder in Menlo Park would have made it onto Page 3 if the victim had lived in Sharon Heights, and not Belle Haven.

Brian Schar
Laurel Avenue, Menlo Park

Find other sources when reporting on Caltrain

Editor:

In your articles about Caltrain, one must doubt that you use any source other than Caltrain management.

With specific reference to your article of April 14, the cause of the ridership decline is not simply the economy. A more important factor is the significant deterioration in Caltrain's service over the past four years.

My regular train from Menlo Park never arrives in San Francisco on time. Indeed, it is a good morning when it is "only" 10 minutes late.

While Caltrain seeks to focus attention on the "Baby Bullets," the reality is that its new schedule actually results in slower trains for most passengers. Very few people ride all the way from San Jose to San Francisco, but for some reason, Caltrain hypes the time of that trip rather than that of the average rider. The real Caltrain story is slower trains.

The alleged low ridership at Atherton is a direct function of the fact that only "milk runs" are available there. It is unknown what ridership would be if real service were provided.

In any event, it would be useful if the Almanac would do more than merely run pieces by Arthur L. Lloyd and read Caltrain press releases.

Robert G. O'Donnell
Linda Vista Avenue, Atherton

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