I read your articles "Pyle says extra library art funds my be transferred for other uses" and "Branham librarian determined to bring love of books to techno-savvy students" (Feb. 10).

According to the first article, the San Jose City Council awarded $100,000 for the new Almaden Branch Library. Our former representative, Pat Dando, and Mr. Gary Dillon suggested $75,000 be put toward a new piece of art that would recognize Doris Dillon. Seventy-five thousand dollars? For art instead of a teacher's or librarian's salary, or new books or periodicals? I hope newly elected Nancy Pyle decides against artwork at this time because of our city's deficit.

I wonder how Ms. Barbara Henry feels about this. She is the sole full-time librarian who manages FIVE high school libraries in the Campbell Union High School District.

Is there enough money to furnish the new library and community center with furniture, books, multimedia materials, etc.? Or, will there be petitions in the future for various new taxes?

Kim Davis Brock

Washoe Drive

Traffic issues should
end talk of ballpark

In recent articles about a possible stadium in San Jose (or Santa Clara a while ago) for the Oakland A's, I have been amazed that no mention has been made of the possible impact on traffic in the whole South Bay. If the A's were to play in San Jose, tens of thousands of cars would converge here instead of Oakland, leaving day games in the early part of the afternoon rush hour or arriving early for evening games in the tail of the rush hour. Moreover, both the A's and Giants stadiums are close to convenient public transportation like BART stations or the San Francisco Caltrain station, while central San Jose has little.

Both common sense and past experience (have you ever been caught in the 880 traffic jam anywhere near Network Associates Stadium on a game day?) dictate that the impact on South Bay traffic should be a primary consideration in any discussion of a possible stadium here for the A's. Since Silicon Valley started to burst at the seams years ago, traffic has regularly been voted as a top problem, and I believe it's unconscionable for San Jose city council members or city officials, among others, not to address the issue.

Several years ago local newspapers did mention some preliminary studies suggesting little impact on traffic, and also noted that the Giants move to downtown San Francisco worked out OK. But moving a major professional team from one part of a city to another part is not relevant to moving a team from a small city to the center of a major city 45 miles away. Also, as a mathematician, I know some of the limitations of such studies, especially when future traffic demands here are so difficult to predict.

The bottom line: speaking as a county resident since 1982 and a San Jose home owner since 1988, I would not vote to invite the Oakland A's down here if they paid us, let alone us having to pay for them!

Peter Ross

S. Morrison Avenue

San Jose not fiscally
ready for ballpark

So Mayor Ron Gonzales used his bully pulpit of the State of the City event to call for a Major League Baseball team in San Jose ("Gonzales makes pitch for ballpark in address," Feb. 17). Despite San Jose's yearning desire (or is it an actual need?) for a professional baseball team to call our very own, this has the makings of another costly boondoggle.

Has anybody considered the city's track record with multi-million-dollar projects recently? San Jose's budget is millions of dollars in the red and the city hall fiasco get more and more unbelievable as information about the incompetent management and planning trickles out. How can the citizens of the city trust our politicians to pull off such a huge project? The city can't even handle "little" projects, as I read recently in the Almaden Resident that the Councilwoman Nancy Pyle is taking back money designated for art at the new Almaden Branch Library to use for furniture and other needs at the new Almaden Community Center that wasn't budgeted for. There's some great planning for you.

Yes, I would love to be able to take light rail to a San Jose ballpark to watch the A's play—it would definitely beat having to drive up to San Francisco or over to Oakland and deal with game-day traffic and parking—but seriously, can we really expect our current crop of elected leaders and city employees make this dream come true?

San Jose has some much bigger needs than having a baseball team to show off as some kind of validation for our status as the 11th-largest city in the country. We need more housing, we need more jobs (and no, a ballpark will not bring nearly as many jobs as promoters will promise), and we need to improve our schools so we're not losing students and closing down campuses each year.

Baseball would be great in San Jose, but we need to get our fiscal act together before we start spending on expensive elective projects.

Bennett Blakley

Queenswood Way

Rebuttal to rebuttal
about bicycle safety

I was looking forward to a thoughtful rebuttal to my letter weeks ago because I truly wanted to know why bikers exhibit the behavior I mentioned. I was disappointed, though, that Bill Beeman's rebuttal ("Letter-writer doesn't understand bicycling," Feb. 10) sounded as though he did not read my letter carefully, as none of the issues I mentioned were responded to in a meaningful way.

First of all, I mentioned that "My feeling is that if cyclists want to be treated the same way as cars, then they should obey the same rules." This was not even mentioned in the rebuttal.

I have paid extra close attention to cyclists over the last couple of weeks. Yesterday, in Los Gatos, I stopped at a four-way stop and as I started to go a cyclists came from my left without slowing down and went right in front of me with his hand up. If I weren't alert, I surely would have hit him. I'm sure he will be highly upset, though, the next time a car turns in front of him, or worse, runs a stop sign and cuts him off.

I also mentioned that when I see cyclists hugging the left line of a wide bike lane that I "usually" don't see any litter or sand in the lane. But Beeman mentioned the litter as a reason why bicyclists exhibit this behavior. I also specifically mentioned the wide bike lanes on Camden Avenue, but Bill talked about parked cars opening their doors into bikers. There are no parked cars along the areas of Camden that I am talking about. I know that parked cars can be very hazardous to cyclists and I would never wonder why a cyclists was staying away from them.

I also did not suggest that it was "wrong" for a bicyclist to ride on the narrow part of Blossom Hill, only that "I would never do it" for the simple reason that it is quite a dangerous stretch of road and I would avoid it if possible. (I don't think that cyclists who ride this section of the road are wrong, rather, there is a safer way to go that doesn't invite death!) My comment was that if it were me, I would go a few hundred yards down Union and cut in on Los Gatos-Almaden since it is much safer road. I think most drivers (at least me and others that I know) realize that cyclists are legitimate users of the road but they should also follow the same rules/laws (the California's Vehicle Code that Beeman mentioned) as cars. They should use common sense and be as safe and courteous as possible by using the wide bike lanes wisely and not crowd moving cars when it isn't necessary. Of course, drivers should also obey the law and safe and courteous and bikers and everybody else on the road.

Jay Fischer

Bose Lane

Students should put
'Life Skills' to work

I am a Randol Elementary School parent living in the Allen attendance area, and an Allen Elementary School PTA member.

The Randol school community needs to put into practice the one thing we constantly prided ourselves on, which is our belief in our "Life Skills" program. The coming together of the Allen and Randol communities will be a true test as to whether or not the Randol "Life Skills" program has been a success. It is not enough that we teach our children life skills; now more than ever, we as parents, teachers and administrators need to practice what we have been preaching.

I can only hope that when all is said and done that parents and staff realize that as mentors to our children, how we choose to react will affect how they choose to react. Everyone needs to keep vigilant in our thinking that what is best for our children's future is building a strong community, whether it be on Allen campus or Steinbeck Middle School campus.

My child will be in sixth grade next year, so I will not have the vested interest of having a student at the Allen/Randol school site. However, as a PTA member, I have a vested interest in the education of all children. I plan on continuing to help facilitate programs at the Allen/Randol school site.

It is going to be a challenging situation for everyone. For district officials, parents and staff, compromises will have to be made; for the students, it will be a chance to show how much they have learned about the meaning of "Life Skills" and how and when to apply them. The sooner we resolve conflicts the better.

Kathryn Longtin

Hedlund Court