Special to the Town Crier
Downtown Los Altos has too many burned out street lights, too much rubbish collecting behind commercial buildings and too few controls over traffic.
Merchants brought these concerns, and others, to the annual meeting between the Los Altos City Council and the Los Altos business community last Thursday in Hillview Center.
Presided over by Los Altos Mayor Lou Becker, the council met with members of the Chamber of Commerce, the Los Altos Village Association and interested retailers.
Louise Spangler, of the State Street knitting shop called Uncommon Threads, said the council is receptive to the business community. But she is bothered by the many street lights burned out in the downtown area. She said some of the lights have been out more than three years.
City Manager Phil Rose said the problem would be looked at immediately.
Regarding garbage, several merchants complained about trash being left outside of debris boxes. In the areas behind fast-food operations, a lot of rubbish and cardboard containers are collecting and it makes the town look like a trash area, merchants said.
Conrad Heintzelman, owner of Heintzelman's Book Store on State Street, said it wasn't fair to attack fast food places without representatives present to hear about the problem the city has.
"When you see a bunch of garbage in front of a Dumpster, that's an open invitation to dump more," Heintzelman said. "It's probably not the store's garbage because people bring garbage downtown to dispose, and it collects from a lot of different people."
Rose said the problem is how to keep people out of garbage bins that are not theirs.
Suggestions were made to put more garbage receptacles around fast food areas like Starbucks and Posh Bagel.
Rose said it's a problem during the week. On weekends the city takes care of the garbage collection.
In a discussion about parking, Dave Leary, of Papa Murphy's Pizza, suggested making Main Street one way and State Street one way.
"By using angle parking on State Street, you could double the parking spaces." The suggestion will be researched by the staff.
Heintzelman suggested the city crack down on the speed limit in the downtown area.
"I see cars speed on the streets, make U turns and cross lines to take a parking space on the other side of the street," Heintzelman said.
"We don't have the resources to enforce every law we have on the books," Rose said. "The
level of enforcement will have to come from the business community, and the issue is, what do you want us to do.
"If we start giving tickets downtown, shoppers complain they will never return to shop in Los Altos again and the business community will complain about their customers receiving tickets. The business community must tell us what level of enforcement you want us to use," Rose said. "You should see the letters we get from out-of-town residents who come here to shop and receive a ticket."