Cupertino's city council is strongly considering lifting its current ban on temporary signs on public property for political, open house, garage sale, community and private events. These kinds of signs are and will continue to be permissible on private property, as they should be.

The council has been receiving pressure for over a year from the chamber of commerce, primarily the Silicon Valley Association of Realtors, to reverse the ban instituted in 1997 when many residents complained about the visual clutter, safety and liability issues, as well as the burden of enforcement placed on the city's code enforcement officers.

I believe that the council is being pressured to make a decision that will do a disservice to the aesthetics of our community and they need to know our thinking on this issue.

According to the Residential Sales Signs Matrix from the above mentioned association, off-site (read public) open house signs are also currently prohibited in Atherton, Menlo Park, Mt. View, Palo Alto, Portola Valley and Woodside.

I suggest that puts Cupertino's existing ordinance in pretty good company. An article in the San Jose Mercury News (10/21/03) indicated that house sales were hot enough to break a 15-year record. Guess the currently permissible private property signage must be quite effective to tally such results.

I hope the council thinks seriously before reversing this ban. The community is outraged at the destruction of beautiful trees at De Anza College. I doubt very much that they want to see neon colored signs grow in their place.

Those similarly concerned can attend the Nov. 17th meeting at 6:45 in council chambers to express their views. Our voices need to be heard.

—Lyn Faust, Cupertino


De Anza talk patronizing, implies neighbors dumb

I have been reading in the Courier about the implementation of Measure E at De Anza College. James Arnold was in a feature story in the Nov. 5 issue. He was very disappointed that what he voted for in Measure E was really not what the measure was all about.

He did not expect a large parking garage to be built across from his house or that 385 very large trees along Stelling Road were to be cut down.

What I found to be the most offensive comment from De Anza College came from Donna Jones-Dulin, director of college services at De Anza, who, in a very patronizing comment, said that letters had been sent to the neighbors in May of 2002 explaining exactly what was going to be done with Measure E and "Maybe they (the neighbors) didn't understand the letter."

Translation: the neighbors were too dumb to correctly understand the letter since they are not as smart as the De Anza College staff.

But all is not lost. Jones-Dulin said that 19-inch cypress trees will be planted where the 385 trees were cut down. In about 30 years they will be about the size of the ones that were cut down.

Statements like the one Jones-Dulin made do not go over well with the community.

—Jim Carlisle, Cupertino


Solution to drop bike hard-surfaced trail

Scenic Circle residents say they have been "betrayed and disenfranchised" and that there is a "hidden agenda" concerning the alignment of the linking trail along Stevens Creek. They think this because the Stevens Creek Trail Feasibility Study recommended an east side alignment for this trail. But this feasibility study was just the beginning of a long process that has continued for over a year and a half beyond this task force's conclusion.

The whole issue was thrown open for every consideration because of the unfeasibility of putting a trail through Blackberry Farm as it now operates. Now the planning process has reached the city council level and the dilemma of where to put this trail is still under discussion.

Even its decision is subject to the legally mandated environmental review process.

The trail alignment issue is still under debate because so long as a bike/skate trail is proposed, there is no acceptable place to put it. If it goes through or near a neighborhood, the residents protest. If it goes through McClellan Ranch Nature and Rural Preserve, many people who want to protect McClellan Ranch strongly object. If this trail were to be put through the Simms side of McClellan Ranch, which already has a driveway through half of it and a connection to Scenic Circle, the objections regarding allowing an inappropriate recreational activity in a nature preserve are lessened.

It would be acceptable for preserve protectionists, but not for the Scenic Circle residents.

There is only one solution to satisfy both of these objections, and that is to drop the wide, hard-surfaced trail and the fast-moving recreational activity allowed on it, and make this creek corridor trail a narrower footpath accessible to pedestrians, wheelchairs, and strollers. Then the trail could go directly from Blackberry Farm into McClellan Ranch and link to the existing foot trails in the nature preserve, as was envisioned in the 1993 McClellan Ranch Master Plan.

In addition, maybe the Scenic Circle folks wouldn't even mind a footpath from Blackberry Farm over to the north end of Simms to make a walking loop connecting the parklands.

Bicyclists have acceptable residential streets on both the east and west sides of the corridor to use from Stevens Creek Blvd. to McClellan Road. If a resident wants to enjoy the tranquil, rural and natural atmosphere of the creek corridor, they can do so on foot, or if unable, in a wheelchair or stroller.

This is the only solution that avoids both resident objections and all of the negative impacts and precedent setting violations of McClellan Ranch Nature Preserve. I hope the Scenic Circle neighbors will lend support for this footpath solution.

—Deborah Jamison, Cupertino

Mahesh Nihalani, who was quoted in the Courier's Nov. 5 "Cultures have different approach to customers," wants his quote clarified to say, "you feel more comfortable doing business with people that you come to know as your customers and speak to them in their own language, so if they are Americans, you speak to them in English. If they are Mexicans/Latinos, you speak to them in Spanish, etc."

He also explains that he doesn't own a jewelry store but does custom designing and making of jewelry.

Clarification

Barbara Kangas wants to make it clear that when she was quoted in the Courier's "Making the Grade" article, Oct. 29, that she was speaking only for herself and not for the Cupertino Coalition for Education.