I read Ron Moor's letter in the July 7 edition of the Cupertino Courier about the Blue Pheasant and how the city council summarily dismissed the transfer of the lease from the Rasmussens who have run the Blue Pheasant for 30 years to some young couple who wanted to operate the restaurant.

I totally agree with Ron's letter.

I have been a customer of the Blue Pheasant for 25 years and have been friends of Lisa and Peter Rasmussen for that time. I know that they tried to make sure they were transferring the operation of the Blue Pheasant to a responsible party before they retire and the council (who to my knowledge has no one who has any experience running a restaurant) in their normal regal style just rejected the application of the new operators. Not enough experience, they said.

Now the Rasmussens will have to continue to look for someone who is agreeable to the parks and recreation director (Therese Smith) before they can retire. What a shame.

Jim Carlisle

Cupertino

Initiatives will turn city
into ghetto for wealthy

Got sprawl? Yes. As DeCinzo's cartoon in the July 14 issue of the Courier makes painfully obvious, Cupertino's already got sprawl. In addition, ever increasing property values, a boon to those who already own homes, means we have very little housing affordable to middle income folks.

The antidote to sprawl and prohibitively expensive housing is pedestrian friendly denser mixed-use development along our arterials, especially Stevens Creek and De Anza boulevards. I'd prefer to see shops with residences above accessible directly from the sidewalk.

The alternative is strip malls and multi-family housing with parking lots awkwardly separating them from sidewalks. I do value views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, but not especially over seas of parked motor vehicles.

Cupertino's current General Plan encourages mixed-use development. The proposed growth initiatives would effectively preclude it, since developers would have to both pay for and win general elections to build anything either more than two stories (three stories near Vallco) or close to the sidewalk. The initiatives would enshrine sprawl, and help turn Cupertino into a ghetto for the wealthy.

Anne Ng

Cupertino

Cupertino is not an
island unto itself

Robert Garten's recent rebuttal to my letter discussing the need for more housing follows the philosophy that if the argument can't be refuted attack the author. Garten questioned my credibility because I currently earn my living in real estate.

My family has lived in Cupertino for 25 years. During most of those years, I volunteered my personal time to the community on school site councils, coaching youth sports, and on several city committees and commissions.

Cupertino is my home, and I care about the town as much as any other resident. Furthermore, my arguments are supported with facts and data. Garten's arguments appear to be based solely on personal opinion.

The high cost of housing has been identified as the single greatest impediment to the valley's competitiveness as a business center by many sources including consultants hired by San Jose and local business leaders. High housing costs are driven by a basic economic principle. When demand exceeds supply, prices rise until the two are in balance.

Two hours away in Sacramento County the median home price is less than half what it is in Santa Clara County because in Sacramento County new home construction kept up with demand.

Garten also suggested that Cupertino officials ignore the needs of the county when they conflict with the personal goals of some Cupertino residents. Is Cupertino an island? Doesn't what happens in the county affect Cupertino and vice versa?

Some problems are local and deserve local focus. The housing shortage is a regional problem. It needs a regional solution. The fact that local cities don't work together is part of the problem. Groups like CCC in city after city have raised barriers to new home construction. The term for this behavior is called NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). NIMBYs are a primary cause of our housing shortage and the increased traffic that results from employees having to commute from long distances away.

Finally, Mr. Garten commented that business is doing fine and doesn't need any help. However, if business is doing fine then new jobs are being created. And more homes will be needed for the new employees. But, the CCC initiatives are specifically designed to restrict further housing construction. The initiatives are bad for business. In fact the Chamber of Commerce, which represents the business community, opposes the initiatives.

Marty Miller

Cupertino

Sprint tower would be
ugly, dominate facility

The DeCinzo cartoon in the July 21st issue of the Courier certainly caught the feeling of the situation concerning the Sprint tower. The present cross tower is an open and airy structure, which matches the church buildings in scale and style. The proposed tower will not do either.

It will be large and ugly, and dominate the rest of the facility. It will also be highly visible from both Stelling Road and Jollyman Lane and will definitely not be something we'll enjoy seeing every time we come home.

The tower could definitely be a distraction to drivers on Stelling Road as they approach a crosswalk used by many children as they head for Jollyman Park. This is already a dangerous crossing because of the tendency of many drivers to not actually stop at the stop sign.

Let's hope the city council denies the permit and recommends placing the tower in a non-residential location.

John Love

Cupertino