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Publication Date: Wednesday, April 27, 2005 LETTERS
LETTERS
(April 27, 2005)
La Hacienda robberies must stop
Editor:
The La Hacienda Market in the Willows neighborhood of Menlo Park was robbed again, this time on Saturday morning, April 16, by four armed men who fled into the neighborhood at large. The weapons of choice were automatic handguns and a sawed-off shotgun. This is the fifth robbery at this location in the last 21 months, and the third in seven months.
The proximate cause of these incidents is surely the presence of the large amounts of cash required to subsidize La Hacienda's check-cashing operations. I think it also is fair to say, however, that an added incentive to crime in the Willows is the presence in the neighborhood of large amounts of cut-through traffic that brings into our streets individuals having no vested interest in neighborhood quality of life and safety.
I ask two questions of the City Council:
** What due diligence was performed before granting the business license to La Hacienda? Did La Hacienda disclose plans for on-site check-cashing? At least one industry expert has stated that check-cashing businesses are prone to holdups.
** Why has the council majority steadfastly refused to address neighborhood quality-of-life issues and preferred an "anything goes" philosophy?
I hope the council will act decisively before a resident or child is killed or seriously maimed in the course of a robbery or getaway chase, or in other crimes that are preventable by proper council attention to our neighborhoods.
Potential steps include taking immediate legal action to ban check-cashing and money-order services in stores located near residential neighborhoods, and implementing measures to substantially reduce the cut-through traffic in the Willows. It would be a travesty for the council majority to excuse inaction on the traffic issue by citing the Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan protocol, since the plan is the handiwork of surrogates appointed by that majority to enforce open streets, to the detriment of our community.
Ross Wilson, Woodland Avenue, Menlo Park
Urgent plea for help on Valley library
Editor:
The Portola Valley Library will close June 1. As Friends of the Library of Portola Valley, we fully appreciate the role our hometown library plays in our everyday life.
It is our community's study, living room, and commons. It is integral to our civic health and well-being. The very existence of a full-fledged library in a town of our size speaks volumes about our identity and values as a community. It was collaboration among the Friends, the Town Council and the community who made it happen almost four decades ago.
Now we need your help in determining which services are essential to be maintained until we have a new home. We need any leads, tips or offers on any in-town site(s) where the library can roost in the interim to deliver those services.
Please e-mail, telephone a voice message or fill out a form at the library as soon as possible before May 1 with your votes for the services you deem essential and any information/suggestions about an interim home. Please tell us if you're a would-be "fairy godparent" who could grace us with a temporary home or can offer some means toward that goal. If it can happen anywhere, it can happen in Portola Valley.
Lenora Ferro, Karen Fisher
Co-Presidents, Friends of the Library of Portola Valley
Belated thank-you for Alameda streetscape
Editor:
Nothing like spring's burst of green to remind one of a belated thank you.
For those who frequent the intersection at Avy Avenue and the Alameda de las Pulgas, or stroll or drive along Menlo Park's mile of El Camino Real, we are being treated to the beginnings of a legacy: trees, young sycamores, that will give beauty and a cooling canopy for our grandchildren and theirs.
A lot of people made it all happen. But as anyone who has given time and energy to a cause knows, it takes dedicated souls to stay with it from start to finish.
So, thanks to former councilman and mayor Chuck Kinney and architect Leslie Wambaugh, for that dedication and for championing a vision.
Dan Dippery, Santa Rita Avenue, Menlo Park
Excited about Town Center design
Editor:
It was a very exciting experience for me to be in attendance at the April 20 Portola Valley Town Council meeting when architect Larry Strain revealed the schematic design overview of our new Town Center.
Having been involved in the evolution of the Town Center from its early days, I am heartened to know that the needs of our residents have been carefully and lovingly considered and translated into a beautiful campus. I am aware that it has taken many years to track the desires and needs of our residents and that they are continually changing.
The key to designing our new center is in its flexibility. Thanks to all of us who have participated in this endeavor, I believe we are moving in the right direction. Old residents as well as new residents will be very proud of our new town center.
Sue Crane, Cordova Court, Portola Valley
Honor Earth Day: give up meat diet
Editor:
The 25th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22 should spur each of us to ensure that our irreplaceable natural environment will survive another 25 years. Indeed, it's the perfect day to cut the environmental impacts of our shopping, our driving, our diet.
Yes, our diet. Production of meat and other animal products dumps more pollution into our waterways than all other human activities combined. It's the animal manure and the runoff from animal feed crops, which carries soil particles, salts, pesticides, fertilizers, and organic matter.
Meat production has been degrading our forests to pastures, feed cropland, then arid wasteland. It is the greatest threat to wildlife habitats and preservation of endangered species. The grains and soybeans we feed to animals could sustain the 840 million starving people in the Third World.
We should celebrate Earth Day in the most fitting way -- by replacing meat and other animal products in our diet with a rich, tasty variety of vegetables, fresh fruits, and whole grains.
Malcolm Davidson, Encinal Avenue, Menlo Park
Measure W is a good deal for Atherton
Editor:
Measure W is a win for all of Atherton.
We are fortunate to live in secure, well-serviced and attractive surroundings. Atherton is kept that way by our stellar police force, our diligent town administration and our hard-working city council.
We owe them (and us) our support. It's little enough to ask. Please vote "YES" on Atherton's parcel tax measure.
Alicia and Jim Seebold, James Avenue, Atherton
Parents asked to reveal contributions
Editor:
As one who has filed many campaign contribution forms, I am aware of the $100 threshold for disclosing contributors. Measure V, the Redwood City school district parcel tax, proponents have done this.
However, a vehicle exists that can circumvent that filing requirement.
Parent groups in the district have increased their contributions to the "YES on V" campaign to $20,000. It is not unreasonable to expect that individual contributors to these parent groups have targeted more than $100 to the V campaign.
In a spirit of full disclosure essential to an informed electorate, I urge the parent groups at Northstar Academy, Clifford and Roy Cloud schools to disclose any individual contributors who exceed the $100 threshold in the above context.
Jack Hickey,
chair Libertarian Party of San Mateo County Emerald Hills, Redwood
City
Speeding is a problem in Valley, Woodside
Editor:
It is surprising to me that the Almanac reporter could find no one who would comment on the need for more patrol officers in Portola Valley and Woodside or to acknowledge that we have a speeding problem.
My observation is that more drivers speed here than obey the posted limits, especially during morning commute times. Some drivers have been so impatient that I've had them pass me over the double yellow lines into oncoming traffic and I've seen speeders swerve over the fog line when negotiating a curve.
With the prevalence of horses, bicyclists and runners using our roads, I'm surprised there are not more accidents. So, I welcome these new patrol officers and hope their presence will cause us all to slow down.
Margaret Eaton, Farm Road, Woodside
Majority tinkering with zoning again
Editor:
The Menlo Park City Council majority is up to its dirty tricks again, proposing sweeping changes to the zoning ordinance.
This is after the council majority unsuccessfully tried to eliminate neighbor notification and use permits on substandard lots, and allow a 19-foot-high wall (without roof-line) five feet from your neighbor, among other things.
In all of this, I ask myself why this is happening, especially since there is no public outcry for changes to be made. It makes me wonder who the majority are really serving. Is it the speculative developers who want to quickly flip a substandard lot with a single-story home by maxing out the size of the house, while eliminating anything that keeps them from doing just that?
I live on a "substandard" lot, surrounded by five substandard lots and I can tell you the impact of the proposed changes will adversely affect me and my neighbors. And, the only reason I know about the proposed changes is because I'm plugged into a watch group. I would venture to say most folks in Menlo Park have absolutely no idea this is going on.
Will the council majority force us into another (Zoning Ordinance) 926 debacle? Efforts would be better spent on a recall.
Elizabeth Houck, Menlo Park
Missing the rationale for sprinklers
Editor:
The critics who oppose residential fire sprinklers prove, by their own statements, how valid is the rationale behind requiring residential sprinklers.
They cite 292 deaths of children in bathtubs over a four-year period as being insufficient justification for the regulation of bathtubs. During the exact same period there were 13,640 deaths in residential fires.
They cite the cost per death averted by residential sprinklers as "hundreds of millions of dollars" when in fact every home in the entire Menlo Park fire district could be retrofitted (the most expensive alternative and one not even included in the ordinance recommended by the fire district) with fire sprinklers for far less than $200 million. Since we have already had more than 10 residential fire deaths in the last 10 years in the district, the worst-case cost would be a small fraction of the "hundreds of millions of dollars" per death averted claimed by the critics.
The critics argue that regulations that prevent avoidable deaths should be voluntary. Can you buy a car without airbags? No. Can you buy a car without seat belts? No. Can you drive a motorcycle without a helmet? No. Can you remodel a house without ensuring that the electrical wiring and plumbing is safe? No. Can you install a water heater without earthquake restraints? No. Can you fly in an airplane that has not been certificated by the FAA? No. We are all made safer by such life-saving regulations.
If you want the facts about sprinklers, rather than the fictions flaunted by the critics, look at the detailed information provided by the fire district on its web site (http://www.menlofire.org/FSprinklerProcess_BRD.htm).
I challenge the critics to post their "facts" on a public Web site.
Peter Carpenter
Larch Drive, Atherton
(The author is a board member of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District.)
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