Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Letters

Park looks great, but what about tennis courts?

The Los Gatos tennis courts between Shannon Road and Blossom Hill are in a pretty sad state of upkeep. While the nets appear to be relatively new, the courts are in desperate need of attention.

Periodic--weekly--cleaning would help; the pavement is dirty, leaves are everywhere and trash is spoiling the beauty of the site. The court surface is a disgrace; it has not been painted or patched in years and is worn, cracked and split.

The nets that provided some reduction of visual distraction between courts have been removed, although they were pretty shabby, so maybe that was a good thing. The signup board is gone; I could go on.

It's a shame that the courts are in such condition, given the great shape the park is in, the beauty of the location, the status of the town and the use the courts get from all residents.

Some attention to these problems would bring a chorus of thanks from many tennis players.

Don Schmidek
Los Gatos

Only soccer can make a real world series

I found your recent cover story about soccer in the Aug. 26 issue of the Los Gatos Weekly-Times to be very timely. If you travel at all, realization soon comes that we in the U.S. are marginalized in terms of world sport.

Outside of these shores, nobody knows who Michael Jordan is. O.J. Simpson was simply a defendant in a murder trial. The only American sportsman known to Italians was Alexis Lelas. Kasey Keller alone represents American sport for the British. Our team sports do not travel well. The reason is the emphasis upon size, strength, weight and speed.

In soccer, Ruud Gullit is 6 feet, 3 inches tall; Diego Maradona, 5 feet, 6 inches. Both were players of genius.

Chelsea, recent winners of the Super Cup in Europe, fielded two forwards in the final. One, the Italian, Zola is 5 feet, 3 inches tall. His partner, Flo, from Norway, stands at 6 feet, 4 inches. Both are superb ball artists. Strength, pace and power are all assets, but skill and subtlety are paramount.

The U.S. women's soccer team is a gifted outfit. Praised outside of the United States, they are largely ignored by the American media.

I think it should be recognized that top-level team sport over here--baseball excepted-- is, unlike the rest of the world, very largely performed by athletes who, in terms of the general population, are physical freaks. It leaves us not only in sporting isolation but also means our major sports will never be played at any decent level by the average American.

I'm sure the next century will see soccer dominate our sporting scene. Then, at least, something called the "World Series" will actually mean what it says.

Malcolm Sheehan
Los Gatos

Residential care not appropriate for neighborhood

An article in the Sept. 2 Los Gatos Weekly-Times made reference to Willie and Helen Cadiente asking the town attorney if their home at 55 Hernandez Ave. could be used as a residential care facility.

I believe the attorney's response was that they would be able to have up to six persons without any special permission. Is this really possible in this town?

I am writing this letter after reading in the Sept. 9 edition of your paper a letter to the editor from Barbara Gallien regarding the same issue. I, too, am a resident in the Glenridge area. I did not move here to have businesses popping up in my neighborhood.

The care facility that the Cadientes own at 94 Hernandez already houses far too many persons. Most residents keep to themselves, but there have been some instances where this has not been the case.

One elderly gentleman who is a resident could be seen in the neighborhood every day. On two occasions, I observed him marking a cross with a green pen on trees, automobiles and a brass plaque. I reported it to the police and have not observed anything since.

One elderly woman will ask whoever she comes across if they have a cigarette until she finds one.

I realize that these two examples may seem trivial to some people, but this is a neighborhood with lots of children in it. Residential care facilities have a large turnover rate. Having complete strangers walking the streets of my neighborhood daily does not sit well with me.

We already have one facility in our neighborhood; we do not need two.

Patricia Horton
Los Gatos

Correction

Apparently a computer gremlin was at work when Rod Teague sent the Los Gatos Weekly-Times an updated version of the letter to the editor that ran in the Sept. 9 issue. His corrected statistics on overpopulation never made it to the newspaper. If they had, his letter would have stated that the Earth's population in the last century has quadrupled from 1.5 billion to 5.9 billion. Furthermore, we extract more than 9.7 million cubic meters of petroleum daily and develop 69,000 acres of wild lands daily.

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