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Published on 03/31/1999 All articles from this issue

Letters to the Editor

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Traffic law enforcement none of their business

In the March 17 Town Crier, page 10 opens with the headline, "Los Altos council listens to merchant suggestions: Make downtown a brighter, cleaner, safer place."

Clyde Noel's article provides an account of the recent "annual meeting between the Los Altos City Council and the Los Altos business community."

Nothing in the article seems to deal with making downtown a safer place, rather a less safe place, perhaps. Noel quotes City Manager Phil Rose on the subject of selective enforcement of laws (traffic laws, presumably): "The level of enforcement will have to come from the business community. The business community must tell us what level of enforcement you want us to use."

If the business community is to determine which traffic laws should be enforced and which not enforced, I will feel a strong concern for the safety of all who venture downtown, be it by foot, stroller, bicycle, or car. Do we really want to delegate selective enforcement decisions to unofficial commercial entities?

Larry JohnsonLos Altos

LAH Council behvavior has divisive effect

It is unfortunate that Los Altos Hills neighbors were pitted against one another in the council's March 4 review of the Srinivasan project.

I sat through the March 4 council review. I heard a report that in the planning commission hearing several neighbors had expressed concern about the proposed 27-foot height of the Srinivasan's one-story house. However, in the course of discussions, a compromise was worked out under which the peak height would be reduced to 25 feet. A statement by the applicants at the end of the hearing indicated they were pleased with the outcome.

This outcome did not suit council member Toni Casey who, with Steve Finn, has publicly stated that they wish to bypass the commission and to establish the principle that whatever town regulations state as the extreme limits on construction dimensions should be available to all applicants. Casey contacted the applicants and appealed the commission's decision to bring it before the council.

In the council hearing, the neighbors restated their objections, but each time they made such a remark, they were verbally attacked by Casey, Finn or both.

At the end of the hearing, the conditions of the permit were essentially unchanged from what the planning commission had approved. The action by Casey and Finn had a divisive effect on the neighborhood and wasted more than three hours of the council's time.

Casey came to the floor at the next council meeting on March 18 and asked to be recognized as an "ordinary citizen." She then gave a prepared speech, in which she turned logic on its head by asserting that it was she who was the victim of personal attacks at the preceding meeting. She then returned to her seat on the council platform amid the applause of her supporters, who had been summoned to the meeting for that purpose.

Les EarnestLos Altos Hills

Bus Barn triumphs with Shakespeare

I have enjoyed many Shakespearean productions. Yet I doubt I will live long enough to see a finer production of "The Taming of the Shrew" than I previewed at our own Bus Barn Theater in Los Altos. For reservations, call 941-0551.

Dave MarinLos Altos

A mistaken notion of civility

At the Los Altos Hills City Council meeting of March 18, Councilwoman Toni Casey descended from the council platform to address the council and the audience as a citizen. In her speech, she decried lack of civility shown to her by certain members of the city council and members of the community.

She has a mistaken notion of civility, and has deemed that any remark critical of her actions, such as a reprimand, is uncivil. Her actions as a councilwoman and a founder and guiding light of the Los Altos Hills Civic Association have done little more than foment divisiveness in our community. Her apparent goal is to make the Civic Association the political power in Los Altos Hills.

Through the Civic Association and Casey, the planning commission has been demonized by their criticism of restrictions on maximum property development, which would diminish the aesthetic quality of development in Los Altos Hills. The true majority of Los Altos Hills values the development criteria that the planning commission adheres to.

William C. Downey

Los Altos Hills

Transfer tax? Sounds like a crime

Let me see if I have this right. City Councilman King Lear (Town Crier, March 17) is proposing a title transfer tax on anyone selling a home in Los Altos. He says the city needs the money because the state has taken about $1 million in tax money from our city and not returned it.

As far as I know, most people who sell a home in Los Altos do so because they are leaving Los Altos. So, Mr. Lear is, essentially, asking those who are leaving Los Altos to pay for the costs of running our city, a city in which the "leavers" will no longer be living.

Maybe I'm missing something. But this does not sound like a tax to me - it sounds more like a crime. Take a kidnapping scenario, for example. In a kidnapping, there might be a ransom note ordering "Pay up or else." In Mr. Lear's scenario, the demand or "ransom note" from the city of Los Altos would say "Pay up or you can't leave."

Mr. Lear seems confident that the voters of Los Altos can be persuaded to think as he does, that a title-transfer ransom is a good idea. You know what? As ludicrous as his idea seems to me, with the state of things as they are these days, I wouldn't be surprised if he succeeds in getting his eye-popping proposal passed. If, for instance, it is placed on the ballot in an off-election year, and if the people who have no current plans to sell can be "educated" to understand that they themselves won't have to pay the tax, I think he just might succeed. Go figure.

Bonnie Mills

Los Altos