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Published on 10/26/1998 All articles from this issue

Letters to the Editor

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Revealed at last: LAH a source of amusement

Dave Mackenzie's satiric new Los Altos Hills building code (Oct. 14 Town Crier) shows rare insight. But, I think he's hiding more than he reveals.

Soon after moving to the Hills from back East in the early '60s I became confused by my newly chosen community. A trip to the U.S. Geological Survey only added to my bewilderment. Obviously, the town boundaries had been drawn by a map maker with tremors, or one already held in thrall by ruthless, gerrymandering developers. City bred, I was delighted to see the distinctive outline of our very own house on a federal map, but why did the town of Los Altos Hills have virtually no businesses and many fewer residents than the "village" of Los Altos ?

We got to know people. Some, who weren't Hills folk, lived in the county just across the street; most were lost souls. The official town map showed that then new Foothill Junior College on El Monte was connected by a road to our street, Magdalena. Since Highway 280 didn't exist, this route appealed to many coming from the south or east. Unfortunately, the illustrated road didn't exist either. It was a trail for horses, creatures of such local stature that they demanded and received cartographic recognition (and later, redesign of the 280 underpass to better accommodate them). We spent hours redirecting lost Foothill bound students and tourists, many of whom had already made many frustrating Magdalena-Ravensbury loop tours, or gotten trapped at Loyola Corners.

Hills life was filled with such bemusement, all defying logical explanation. We tried rationalizing. "Somebody up the street had a shoot-out with the county sheriff last night," I was told one day. "Well, our realtor told us some crazies lived there, but at minimum, it's an acre away," was my rejoinder. Finally, a friendly neighbor saved us. Some Town Crier rapscallions had reported that because apricots were better suited than apples to the climate ideal for the origin of life, Los Altos Hills might be the Garden of Eden site. Our neighbor demanded proof. He also wanted to know how this was linked to the rumor that the messy olive trees on Los Altos streets had resulted from a Hills landscaping scandal.

After pledging our neighbor to secrecy (but he kept his fingers crossed behind his back) the journalists revealed all. Los Altos Hills had been created for just one reason: to provide a continuing source of amusement for flatland Los Altans.

That revelation is meaningful to this day. It explains, for example, why the town council follies is destined to run forever regardless of cast credentials, and why it makes sense to believe that rustic pathways, ill-defined on any map and black as pitch at night, will invite Hills burglaries, or to call the extended strip mall of MacMansions along 280 part of "a rural community."

Shame on you, Dave. Is it your Hills address that kept you from clearing this up long ago?

Mel LapidesLos Altos

Vote sex seekers out of office

All the clamor and rhetoric about President Clinton's private sex life leads me to question whether the quality or quantity of Clinton's sexual activities are better or worse than those of other well known presidents and government officials.

However, we will never know the answer to that, since never before has our government sunk so low as to put the full force of its investigative power to examine in detailed minutiae any other individual's sex life.

Hopefully, the majority of the public who wants this sordid mess ended will have ended it (yesterday) by voting in their Democratic candidates to the House and Senate. Those preferring a non-partisan way to end this expensive and time-consuming soap opera can sign a petition on the Internet at www.moveon.org and instruct Congress to censure the president and move on to solve the serious problems of the global economy, our social security, health care and education needs.

Malda KasleMenlo Park

Starr legitimizes new service

Kenneth Starr unwittingly and inadvertently, in his $40 million investigation of the president, publicizes and dignifies a new professional service. When Ms. Lewinsky goes to the White House to give the president a haircut, a manicure, a massage, etc., why should anyone be concerned? Any enterprising entrepreneur would be willing to give the president such a service. Starr has legitimized this new service. He did not humiliate the president. The public seems to understand. That is why the president's rating continues to be high and the public is fed up with all the nonsense impeachment talks.

Po YenLos Altos

Sex offenses not brought to his job

I'd like to respond to the story on Rich Vargas, former Egan boys' physical education coach. I graduated from Egan in 1993 when Vargas was still there. Reading what he has done still shocks me. Normally, I think of child sex offenders as "creepy dirty old men." But, from what I understood (obviously he wasn't my coach), his private habits were not apparent in his public teaching job, although I now realize that it is no coincidence that he decided to teach at a junior high school. When Vargas was first arrested, his story was a source of interest at Los Altos High School where I attended. I recall my male peers having reactions of surprise and of amusement but not of personal disgust. I think this is because they had never thought of themselves as victims of Vargas. It should, at least, be a reassuring to former Egan parents that there seems to be no evidence of him directly harming their children.

Candice Shih

Los Altos