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Letters
Two-story addition is unwelcome on Pennsylvania Ave.
Beauty born of the patina of time is impossible to create; and once destroyed is gone forever. The first block of Pennsylvania Avenue is a beautiful 100-year-old street that harkens back to a golden era of architecture and is reminiscent of a more peaceful and graceful way of life.
Five homes, all single story, ascend a gentle hill like notes of a musical masterpiece, harmonious and pleasing to the senses. Pennsylvania Ave. is one of the streets that gives Los Gatos the wonderful charm for which our community is known.
Now a developer proposes to break the melodic grace of this neighborhood by constructing a massive two-story mansion in the heart of this graceful neighborhood, effectively destroying the essence of the old-world charm and ambiance we all so cherish.
I ask you to join me in encouraging the Planning Commission and Town Council to deny this project. The Planning Commission is scheduled to hear the application to develop 8 Pennsylvania Ave. on Wednesday, March 24, at 7:30 p.m. I urge you to make your views known by contacting Town Planning Director, Lee Bowman, at 110 E. Main St., or better yet, by appearing in person to oppose this development.
David I. Lustig
Los Gatos
Speaking of numbers, enough already!
Can I please rant for a moment? I'm told every day that the Dow is close to 10,000 points; my speed must not exceed 65. The weatherperson lists the expected high temperatures for adjacent cities. Surprise! They don't vary by more than a degree or two and they turn out to be wrong by that amount or more anyway.
I'm writing this letter 289 days before the year 2000. There are numbers for cholesterol, weight . . . there's an allergy index listing pollen counts. They want us to get excited about some arbitrary number like 10,000, and they've turned a lot of subjective things--ski slope readiness, for example--into numbers.
I want them to stop.
This may be the digital age in more ways than one. As an information designer, I recognize that digital values are more easily manipulated and more precise (if not more accurate). But it's time that we learn to synthesize raw numbers into a meaningful summary, not just worship the number itself.
One national television show divides a map of the U.S. into "Hotter than Usual," "Normal" and "Cooler than Usual" zones. That's the idea. My bathroom scale doesn't tell me whether my clothes still fit.
The clock on the wall is approaching 8:24 (this powers-of-2 alignment has only happened 151 times this year), so I'll end this.
Here's news from the information industry: Apparently some software suffers from a D10K bug and won't be able to handle it if the Dow breaks 10,000. That rates an 8.5 on the laugh meter for me.
Alastair Dallas
Los Gatos
Let officials know of support for MROSD purchase
Recently there have been encouraging developments in the campaign to save the Bear Creek Redwoods area on the old Alma College property by Lexington Reservoir.
Now that the board of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has committed $10.5 million to obtain a lease and purchase option on the tract, success of the effort will hinge on further large-scale fundraising and approval of elements of the plan by Santa Clara County.
If the effort fails, there is the likely prospect of scattered homesite development off Bear Creek Road and logging in the last semi-wild area in the Lexington Basin. Creation of Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve would protect this uniquely beautiful area for the present and future generations of the public.
At this time it is important and urgent for residents of Los Gatos in particular and Santa Clara County citizens elsewhere to write, email or call their city and county government officials to express support for the plan.
Robert Moncrieff
Monte Sereno
TCI subscribers should fight for classical music
Classical music listeners in Los Gatos and Monte Sereno are being shortchanged when it comes to receiving the great wealth of classical music potentially available compared with what TCI's cable service actually offers.
At present, only one such channel out of the 10 musical channels offered qualifies, and this is "Lite Classical" (compared with three rock channels), and is available only if one subscribes to digital service.
Other communities served by TCI such as Santa Clara provide many more music channels. University radio stations often broadcast classical music predominantly. It would follow then that in our highly educated communities classical music is greatly appreciated and should be readily available.
Classical listeners have been jerked around by our cable server for years. When cable first became available here, the company included free FM music channels, as they had promised, but then discontinued them. Then an excellent DMX analog music service with two classical channels was available for a very modest fee. It could be played through high-fidelity systems, but it too was arbitrarily (I would say even brutally) discontinued just last year, probably to force people to sign up for the digital option.
Besides music only, there is potentially available to TCI an absolutely wonderful music-video channel: Classical Arts Showcase, which provides classical music along with beautiful video pictures of nature, travel, stage, performers, etc. This outstanding 24-hour-a-day commercial-free combination channel would cost TCI absolutely nothing as it is supported by a foundation. It is a wonderful channel for almost everyone, particularly for those who might be housebound or in convalescent hospitals, or for those who just want a relaxing experience without commercials.
It would seem there is no reason not to include it before the channels are all filled with less desirable channels including those that contain advertising only.
Cecilia Dodge, TCI's local customer service representative regarding programming has indicated that programming is influenced by "voting" or at least by input from subscribers. Please add your input by writing to Cecilia Dodge c/o TCI, 3450 Garrett Drive, Santa Clara, CA 95054.
The following should be requested--inclusion of Classic Arts Showcase as one of the analog channels, reinstitution of the DMX music channel options on the analog service and/or the addition of more classical channels on the digital service, reinstitution of the San Francisco KDFC FM signal (the only classical FM station in the Bay Area, but not well received in the Los Gatos and Monte Sereno area because of our mountain background.
It appears no changes in this direction will be made without substantial input from subscribers in this area. Additional volunteers in this "ground root" effort would be most welcome.
Don McCleve, M.D.
Monte Sereno
Casa Maria's closing affects the community
The closing of Casa Maria Montessori School greatly saddens and distresses me. Casa Maria is a wonderful preschool, serving many Los Gatos families and families from surrounding communities.
We, like many other families, were counting on Casa Maria being open next fall.
The timing of the closing is particularly hard to take. Most of the schools in the area, including some of the Los Gatos public schools are already full for fall of 1999. It is past the registration and testing times for most private schools.
The Los Gatos public schools will be impacted by the closure of Casa Maria. It is a very real community problem.
It is my hope for all the families unable to find room in a preschool or kindergarten that Casa Maria finds a new home within the area. It will not be easy to find a site that already has the appropriate permits in place.
Any help or support would be appreciated. I hope that the community of Los Gatos and neighbors of any potential sites will be open to the needs of these children and their families.
Leslie Morley
Los Gatos
Bruni chose to leave town
In regards to DeCinzo's cartoon about Bruni's departure from Los Gatos in the Feb. 24 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, Bruni was not evicted from Old Town. She chose to relocate to a different town, and now has a fantastic new home in Campbell.
Thanks for the attention, but your cartoonist should get his facts right.
Mark Gray
Director, The Jazz Masters Series by Bruni
Correction
In the cover story about the changing face of auto dealerships in the March 10 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, we erroneously reported that the Lucas Auto Dealers had sold franchises to Republic Industries. The story should have indicated that Lucas Dealers has sold six Saturn franchises back to the Saturn Corporation.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
