LETTERS LETTERS (February 25, 2004)

Upset about exemptions claims on Valley parcel tax

Editor:

I was appalled to learn that 145 Portola Valley seniors are filing exemptions from the school parcel tax.

This is one-tenth of the households in Portola Valley. They should be ashamed of themselves. Seniors are already getting a huge property tax break because of Proposition 13, which has seriously cut funding to our schools for 25 years.

Moreover, it is likely that most of them put their children through our schools back when there was plenty of money without a parcel tax. So now they are taking a double tax break by filling an exemption, even though excellent schools will raise property values still more.

I have never met a senior in Portola Valley who could not easily afford to pay this tax. They should all pay it willingly, since the exemption was only allowed to insure that seniors would not defeat the measure at the polls.

Marion Furst
Cervantes Road, Portola Valley

Cheers for city's business strategy

Editor:

As a former retailer of major appliances on Santa Cruz Avenue for 30 years, I was delighted to read the business article "City looks to partner with local businesses" in the January 28 Almanac.

Making the Menlo Park City Council Chambers available for Kepler's when it has an outstanding author to present makes sense. I attended the humorist Dave Barry's presentation at Kepler's last year. I arrived 40 minutes early so I could get a good seat, but by then there was standing room only. If that event had been held at the council chambers there would have been four times the attendance. And a lot more tax dollars for the city. Yes, I bought his book.

Many Menlo Park and Atherton residents don't shop in Menlo Park because they think they can get everything at the Stanford Shopping Center. They are wrong. The shops in Menlo Park are specialty shops. The owners of these stores are much more knowledgeable about their products than most of the clerks at the shopping center. City residents should at least check them out.

Yes, some of the landlords charge too much rent. My partner and I own a small parcel on Santa Cruz Avenue that has never been vacant since 1978. We identify with the owners of small retail stores. Why should you work for the landlord? One year there was a severe recession and our tenant came to us and said she was losing money every month. We reduced the rent until the economic situation improved.

We all miss Menlo Park Hardware. It closed because the rent on the new lease was too high. Then that property sat vacant for months and months, with no rental income. Vacant stores on Santa Cruz Avenue affect the business of all the retailers.

We need more good retail stores in Menlo Park. Business offices don't bring in tax dollars for the city.

I applaud Dave Johnson's proposed program of the city partnering with the retail business community. I'm sure the citizens of Menlo Park will respond positively.

Lee Boucher
Portola Valley

Guide contains excellent information for consumers

Editor:

I really appreciate your February 4 article on health safety of fish and sustainable harvesting methods. The "West Coast Seafood Guide" by Seafood Watch contains excellent information for consumers to make educated choices.

The public needs to become much more aware of the critical environmental problems caused by over-fishing and various ecologically damaging fishing methods.

Thank you for your timely article.

Susan Stevick
Greenoaks Drive, Atherton

Hyatt on Sand Hill Road is a non-starter

Editor:

What's new about the Hyatt idea to create a big hotel on Sand Hill Road "if the Hyatt Rickeys project in Palo Alto fails" is that it's already out in the open, in the media.

A few years back, when Westin and Stanford had the same idea for the 21-acre Sand Hill site next to Interstate 280, it was hushed up for many months. When it finally broke in the local press as a virtual fait accompli, the opposition was vocal, and eventually organized.

The threat of paving over what was left of westerly Sand Hill Road for hundreds of new visitors, cars, buses, and service vehicles with convention-center-style highway accesses became a visible target. Trying to pacify the opposition, Westin promised to shrink their giant hotel to just "big," but ultimately gave it all up in the face of local outrage against more congestive commercialization of that sector.

Later came the controversy over widening eastern Sand Hill and creating the now-completed housing development near Stanford Shopping Center, which was then itself enlarged. Following the widening, extending and developing of eastern Sand Hill, the increased bottlenecks will soon be met with major new construction at Sand Hill's junction with Alameda de las Pulgas, Alpine Road and Junipero Serra.

Although needed, that'll be a mess for years. On top of all that, if Hyatt is serious about another plan to load up Sand Hill with the Big Hotel, (curious in light of the current 30 percent office vacancies in the region), they can expect the same "roadblocks" that caused Westin to call it quits. Only this time, weary of seemingly endless developmental construction along this aching artery, opposition forces will be ready. By now it should be evident that Sand Hill Road needs a little breather.

John Straubel
Sand Hill Circle, Menlo Park

Sequoia Hospital challenge should be turned back

Editor:

Your January 28 article, "Hostile Hospital Takeover," indeed captured Palo Alto Medical Foundation's recent activities to undermine Sequoia Hospital and its plans to rebuild.

What Palo Alto Medical Foundation has done to undermine Sequoia Hospital's future is reprehensible. By enticing Sequoia's cardiologists and cardiac surgeons with big promises, an attempt is being made to undercut Sequoia Hospital and to divide the south San Mateo County medical community.

Driven by ambition to own its own hospital, PAMF has paid no attention to the fact that the quality of care at Sequoia Hospital is rated among the highest in the country. It would seem that PAMF has not acted in the best interests of the community. Anxiety and uncertainty have been created in the community and among the hospital's employees and other physicians. It was an obvious and timely corporate move, aimed at pushing out its competitor.

The question we should ask ourselves is, whether an organization that conducts itself in this manner is the kind of organization we want to build and manage a hospital in our community? Will this organization care about its patients and make its decisions for the good of the community? Will it serve our community in the way that Sequoia Hospital has for the last 50 years? I fear not.

Sequoia Hospital has announced its decision to rebuild at its historic Redwood City location. That means our community can continue benefiting from the outstanding care that our community hospital has provided for the past five decades. I, for one, am thrilled by this news, and look forward to having Sequoia Hospital continue to provide outstanding healthcare services.

My family has availed itself for over 40 years of Sequoia's excellent service and we look forward to many more years of continued outstanding healthcare for our family and the community.

Marie Zahn
Glenwood Avenue, Atherton

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