Los Gatos Weekly-Times
Letters & Opinions
Speak Out
Community college should charge the same
The California community college system presently charges in-state tuition to many illegal immigrants. This is a financial subsidy it does not provide American citizens and legal immigrants of other states. If we are worried about growing our knowledge-based economy, let California charge in-state tuition rates to other states' talented citizens and legal immigrants. Until we do so, I think many voters will oppose Proposition 92 and other legislation like it.
Randy Ison
Los Gatos
There is a 'win-win compromise'
As a member of the Los Gatos Parks and Trails Commission, I participated in a difficult effort to select a site for a skateboard park. After several years a location was identified and approved. A skateboard park committee was formed and a design was completed. The town council provided initial funding, and the balance of the $1 million cost estimate was to be raised by the skateboard park committee through community donations. In the process, an alternative of using lower- cost prefab module ramps was rejected by the skateboarders. After several years the fundraising has been a huge failure and we find ourselves with Measure D for the Taj Mahal of skateboard parks.
I am aware of demand in the community for more soccer fields, more town-maintained trails, a community garden and a dog park. The Little League baseball and soccer organizations could use an extra $50,000 a year since the town currently provides no funding. If Measure D passes, there will certainly be more ballot measures that will handicap the ability of our elected town council members to do their job keeping Los Gatos as a fiscally responsible and vibrant community. As a resident of Los Gatos for 25 years, I think we have a great town and our elected officials have done an excellent job. Let's keep it that way.
The proponents of Measure D in their ballot arguments refer to our town council members as "politicians." I prefer to think of them as neighbors in our community who we have elected to govern and properly allocate resources. They give generously of their time to serve our best interests. Also in the ballot arguments, the proponents of Measure D state that it assures no new taxes and no impact to existing town services. With the current economic condition in California and the fragile nature of the town's revenue base, this statement is very naïve.
There is a win-win compromise for our skateboarders. Vote no on Measure D, and let's go back to the lower-cost method of using prefab modules. I would encourage the skateboard proponents to work with all members of the town council to quickly get our kids a place to skateboard.
Dick Konrad
Los Gatos
Skatepark would be good for town's children
As a psychoanalyst, psychologist, father and resident of Los Gatos, I strongly support Measure D, the skatepark initiative.
Skateboarding stands prominent as a sport that enhances the psychological development of a broad range of children. Mastering skills is a primary source for the development of a positive and secure self-image that will later carry a child through the inevitable ups and downs of life. Skateboarding occupies a unique niche that reaches out to children with different athletic abilities and competitive styles. A child can go at his or her own pace, and improve his/her skills in diverse maneuvers that she/he has chosen. Furthermore, the child gains the emotionally valuable realization that frustration can be tolerated and regulated.
If you go to a skateboard park you will see children of a wide range of ages (even 5-year-olds). You will also notice that there is considerable cooperation among these children, some of whom are friends and some of whom don't even know each other. By sharing the facilities in the park and supporting each other, the children develop social skills.
The more a community can engage its children in positive activities, such as skateboarding, the less chance children will become engaged in self-destructive and antisocial activities.
I have visited a number of skateboard parks in California and Colorado and been impressed with how safe they are for children. Go to a skateboard park such as the ones in Campbell or Santa Clara and you will witness what a plus the park is for a community. Aspen, Colo., where property values are very high, has featured its skateboard park on its website.
Few would argue that it is logical to say that benefiting children is unfair to a community. Yet, alarmist signs have been posted that the community will be victimized. By their reasoning, playgrounds and recreational programs for children would be unfair. I hope we as a community will not go along with such misleading fear tactics. A skatepark in Los Gatos would be something we could all be proud of.
Alan Kessler
Los Gatos
Chamber urges 'no' vote on Measure D
The Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce would like to encourage you to vote "no" on the upcoming skateboard park initiative--Measure D. The Chamber is not opposed to the idea of a skatepark in town, but as an organization whose mission is to help our local business community, we are opposing the location of the one proposed due to the impact it would have on downtown parking.
If we had to list the top issue that the Chamber of Commerce has continually heard about from merchants, residents and visitors over the years, it would be the need for more parking in our downtown. Los Gatos is blessed that all of our parking lots are free, but the majority of the parking lots downtown have time limits on them. These time limits allow for turnover of cars, critical for the health of the downtown shopping district. But the Miles Avenue parking lot, the proposed location for the new skatepark, is one of the few parking lots that is not controlled by a time limit. In other words, you can park there all day without the fear of getting a parking ticket.
For this reason, this is one of the main lots where the downtown business owners direct their employees to park. Employee parking is a challenge for our local businesses, and the Chamber encourages employers to persuade their employees to park in the outlying parking lots. Many downtown businesses have a standing policy for their employees to park in these no-time-limit spaces.
It will also impact the Los Gatos merchants by having to allow employees to run out of the shop every two to three hours to move their cars and avoid parking fines. Additionally, merchants have expressed concerns to the Chamber about any loss of public parking in the downtown as well as what the impact would be on the "perceived loss" of an off-street parking lot and the "hassle factor" with so many different parties utilizing the parking in the Miles Avenue area.
In summary, the Chamber believes that eliminating the Miles lot would have a ripple effect that would carry into the downtown, making parking even more difficult during high traffic times.
Greg Stowers
Los Gatos
Greg Stowers is the vice president of legislative affairs for the Los Gatos Chamber of Commerce.
Town needs more activities for local teens
I felt moved to write after reading the article in your paper today about teens not feeling welcomed by the community. When I moved to Los Gatos over seven years ago, I was amazed by the wonderful community-sponsored activities Los Gatos provided. There are numerous classes and programs offered through the library and the recreation center. There are wonderful annual activities held specifically for the children and families in the community: Easter Egg Hunt, Children's Holiday Parade, Vasona Park Light Display, Fourth of July festivities and the movies on the green just to name a few.
However, I have to agree that the support is harder to see once your children leave the elementary and middle schools. There really aren't any stores in the downtown that are geared toward teens, and the town council appears resistant to approve any such stores. Pizza places throughout town are disappearing: Mountain Mike's, Tomato Thyme and 29 East Main to name a few. Support for the skatepark seems to be waning. There really isn't much to keep our teens in our town!
I feel we, as a community, are making a big mistake by sending the wrong message to our youth. We should survey their ideas and see what is feasible. As a town, we need to support these members of our community at an age that they just may need the support the most! The teens of our community deserve our consideration and deserve to have places in our community they can call their own. We should welcome seeing them downtown with their friends. Families should feel comforted that their teens have places to go to socialize, eat and shop without having to leave their own community.
My own children have not reached this age yet, but I surely hope that by the time they do, things have changed here in the town we have come to love and call our home.
Karen Tamsen
Los Gatos
Skatepark issue handled poorly from beginning
Gov. Schwarzenegger today announced that the state of California is in a fiscal emergency. Once again, the state is running a deficit, and (as in times past) some of the needed state monies will most likely be taken from local government revenues. This, coupled with a potential downturn in property tax revenue as a result of foreclosures and the mortgage meltdown, with its effect on property values, could result in fiscal problems for our town. Fortunately, though, the town has reserves to help weather the ups and downs of the state's fiscal irresponsibility, potentially forestalling layoffs in the town's essential services departments.
The proponents of Measure D (the Skateboard Park Initiative) are telling us that the town can afford to spend $1 million (out of our reserves), plus $50,000 per year (for eternity) without impacting town services. Oh, by the way, this is after town taxpayers have coughed up a piece of property, itself valued at $1 million. This piece of property is probably the only location in town in which, demographically, there are fewer young people per square mile who skateboard than any other location.
This whole skateboard park issue has been badly mishandled since inception. Instead of asking the town to build a multimillion-dollar boondoggle, smaller skateboard sites could have been identified with joint public/private cooperative efforts that could have addressed the skateboarders' needs in multiple neighborhood locations, keeping the kids closer to home. If you watch them jump steps or "grind" a railing in a local shopping center, or on skateboarding television shows, it does not take $1 million to present them with a challenge, or a place to practice and compete with each other.
Los Gatos has many fine examples that can be used as models to accomplish the task. You need to only look at the work the New Millennium Foundation does in supporting the needs of the Los Gatos High School; or the Los Gatos Community Foundation's building of a bandstand and then donating it to the town; or the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad. How about the many youth sports leagues that raise funds to support and run activities for hundreds of Los Gatos youth?
This is a bad, fiscally irresponsible deal for Los Gatos taxpayers.
Paul Dubois
Los Gatos
Skatepark offers protected, dynamic place
Don't be "dupid." Measure D is fiscally responsible and communally conscionable. In fact, Measure D caps spending on the Los Gatos skatepark, while providing a service for a long time overlooked and valuable part of our community ... our kids. So how can you put a price tag on that?
This skatepark will afford a protected and dynamic place for our kids to engage in healthy recreation safely off the streets. It will also offer a delightful park setting for our residents and visitors to relax and enjoy watching the skaters in action.
Many other communities across our nation, far less fiscally affluent than Los Gatos, have provided skateboard parks for their kids without a vote. Consequently, I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that a "town" such as Los Gatos has allowed something as simple and rational as a park for our kids to get to this point! Many families move here because of our great schools, and rightly so. Yet the town of Los Gatos is now proving it is not kid-friendly by opposing this and other recreational opportunities currently before it! It is preposterous that the proponents of this skatepark have had to go to these lengths and countless years of hard work in an attempt to get this park built! This is just a park, not a nuclear power plant! So what is the big deal?
This issue should not be about the money; we are a town of abundant wealth. For goodness sakes, if you want to buy a decent house in Los Gatos you'll spend well over $1 million. So where should our tax dollars go if not, in part, toward parks and recreation?
Martha Hoffman
Los Gatos
Public funds need to be protected
On Feb. 5 I plan to vote no on Measure D. One of my many reservations has to do with the amount of money it will cost to build this skatepark, along with the annual cost to maintain it. How many skateboarders will enjoy the benefits of this grandiose scheme? The cost-to-value ratio on this deal is simply not adding up to a decision that makes sense for our community. I would much rather see the funds used for a soccer complex.
I agree with letter writer Karen Pulley, who asked the same question. We are talking big bucks for this project. We need to protect our community and public funds that are supposed to be used for the benefit of all residents. This is not responsible spending.
Kristin Dickens
Los Gatos
Keeping perspective on Measure D
Reading some letters, you'd think Los Gatos was contemplating bulldozing the entire downtown to make room for this park. And there's the troubling impression that a wave of crime and illiteracy will sweep the streets as our police and library are forced to shut down to fund a concrete half pipe.
Not to be alarmist, but I've even heard rumblings that the park's draw on the electric grid will mean that all downtown traffic lights must be retrofit to run on whale oil. Mail routes off Kennedy and Shannon roads will now be served only via weekly Pony Express. The fire department has already auctioned its hook-and-ladder and reinstated the bucket brigade. And--yes, in Los Gatos!--leeching has had to be brought back at our two hospitals. All to serve the five or 10 ungrateful skaters who live in town.
Truth is, we live in an extremely affluent society. Having just built two new schools, Los Gatos is building a new police station and a new library. Yet we're told a skatepark is just too expensive. Amortizing $1 million in construction over 20 years comes to $50,000 per year. Combining this, conservatively, with the town's maximum $50,000 upkeep budget, the cost is less than 0.2 percent of the town's $52 million budget. The idea that Gem City can't afford a skatepark is a red herring.
But skating is still dangerous, say those against the measure. True, skateboarders will sometimes get injured. Life has risks. I got 10 stitches falling off my bike on Limekiln trail last year. Does that mean I want the trail closed or off limits to kids? No. Helmet laws, speed limits and a healthy dose of caution are the right approach. For young skateboarders, skating unprotected in traffic or where they're otherwise unwanted raises the chance of serious injury. A well-designed park offers a safe, controlled alternative, free of cars and pedestrians--and where helmets and pads are mandatory.
The heart of the matter is whether the town should foot the bill. Our Little Leagues are praised for being self-funded. Yet the same could be done--once the park is built!--with an admission fee. However, making Little Leaguers pay for the privilege of using their own public fields isn't such a praiseworthy model. A better analogy to skateboarding (which isn't a team sport) is biking. We don't hold bike trail development hostage to grassroots fundraising. We simply enjoy the trails as citizens. Likewise, no one begrudges the town for having several public tennis courts, as well as many toddler-oriented parks.
Finally, it has been said that this vote is somehow "forcing" the town's hand. As if the very act of voting--directly voicing our preferences on the priorities of our shared resources--is some kind of dangerous hijacking of power. Nonsense. We all have a chance to vote on whether Los Gatos should invest in this park. I hope our collective will is to do so, but whichever way it goes, the majority of voters will have clearly spoken, which can't be a bad thing.
Eric Muller
Los Gatos
Irresponsible to spend funds on a skatepark
Having worked on hundreds of fundraisers to provide opportunities for teenagers, I am a strong supporter of positive activities for youth. To quote a friend of mine, however, "In life, timing is everything."
The timing for funding a Los Gatos Skatepark has passed. When the skatepark idea originated, the economy was good. No one was talking about recession, severe cuts in education, unemployment (yes, that can happen to Los Gatos residents!), the state's, San Jose's and San Francisco's huge budget deficits, or even the national debt or the sub-prime mess.
No one knows what the immediate and long-range fiscal future will be for the town or its citizens, but thoughtful people are not predicting excess monies. To commit any amount of tax dollars for what is, at this point in time, a "luxury item," is fiscally irresponsible and unfair to the majority of the citizens of our community. In the face of fiscal unknowns, responsible families act conservatively and responsibly. I'm hoping our extended "Los Gatos family" acts responsibly and votes no on Measure D.
Patti Hughes
Los Gatos
Town's money should not go to skatepark
Please vote no on Measure D. This is your, our, my money. It is not coming from some magical source. Los Gatos, unlike other municipalities, is solvent. Past town councils have worked diligently to see that we have a balanced budget and adequate reserves for emergency purposes. Have we forgotten the 1989 earthquake already?
Why write a blank check for a skateboard park with ongoing maintenance and supervision that will only be used by a small group, and quite probably will become a blight in a short period of time? Read the numbers regarding the fiscal impact in your sample ballot. Why use our general funds and redevelopment dollars for a small minority when we could the money to fix your sidewalks, resurface our streets, beautify your parks and trails or add additional financial support for our new library, which will serve all of Los Gatos?
MarLyn Rasmussen
Los Gatos
Skateboard group should lowers sights
Having lived in Los Gatos for 54 years, serving on the town council for eight years in the 1970s (two years as mayor) and raising a family of five children and now five grandchildren, I feel it important to speak up on Measure D. I am opposed to any action that imposes a mandatory, ongoing fiscal obligation on the residents as directed by this measure.
I recall when the skateboard issue arose approximately seven years ago and I strongly supported the concept at that time. Unfortunately, many parents of the skateboard community were determined to build a Taj Mahal and were not satisfied with a park similar to the one in Campbell. Fiberglass was not good enough, for a start. It had to be concrete. Consequently, Los Gatos youth have been denied a local skateboard park for all of these years.
As a longtime resident and a member of the business community, I have been involved in fundraisers too numerous to mention and they were all worthwhile. As a Lions Club member for 54 years, I have seen the support given the youth of this community in the form of baseball, soccer, tennis and other athletic facilities. If there has been a need, the people have stepped up and supported these needs with time, talent and treasure.
I urge the Skateboard Committee to step back and lower their sights and be happy to start a park with basics and build from there as the support in the community grows. Believe me, it can happen.
John B Lochner
Los Gatos
Loss of parking could create hazard for kids
"Little Leaguer hit by a car on the way to a ballgame."
Could this happen in Los Gatos? Yes, if we pass Measure D. Spearheaded by the local skatepark committee, Measure D requires the town of Los Gatos to close the Miles Avenue parking lot, a lot used by players and their parents when attending baseball games at Balzer Field.
The majority of the surrounding area and 95 percent of the street frontage along Miles Avenue is owned by the town. It has been developed into the town's recycling center, public works department and corporation yard, a PG&E substation and a 12-unit apartment complex. The town has transformed this area into an industrial park.
Should we pass Measure D, the town plans to use parallel parking spaces as replacement parking. Portions of the recently repaved Miles Avenue are only 33 feet wide. Subtract 14 feet for parallel parking spaces and you have only 19 feet for vehicular traffic. This footage is less than required by both the International Fire Code and the town's ordinances. In addition, the town owns the street frontage and is therefore responsible for all street improvements. They've made none. No curbs, no gutters, no sidewalks. Pedestrians must literally walk in the street to reach the field--a street used by large industrial equipment and trucks.
Let's never read a headline like the one above. Please vote for our children's safety.
Shannon Drotar
Los Gatos
'No on D' signs are targets of vandalism
We each have a right to express our opinion, but obviously not everyone agrees. What right do others have to steal signs and/or spray paint obscenities on private property because they disagree? I know of many people who have had their "No on Measure D" signs stolen or spray-painted. What are these vandals afraid of? These are cowardly acts by people lacking confidence. Are these the people you want to back?
I have six grandsons--all but one were skateboarders (but have outgrown it, which most do) but I am against Measure D. I have asked kids on skateboards if they would stop skateboarding in parking lots, down streets, etc., if there was a skateboard park and all have said no. Like riding bikes or roller blades, it's not something you do in a specific place like golf or tennis--it can be done almost anyplace.
Spending the amount needed to build it plus the $50,000 estimated for yearly upkeep for what we'd be getting and giving up is asking too much. I sincerely hope people will ask questions and look thoroughly into the pros and cons before casting their ballots, and don't fall for the "don't you care about our kids?" approach.
Valerie Hopkins
Los Gatos