Letters

Cartoonist was wrong to knock senior citizens

While I appreciate freedom of the press, I don't appreciate what appeared to be a slam at our communities' senior citizens. Per the article about the recent thefts of the Saratoga Senior Center, cartoonist Steven DeCinzo was apparently taking a "shot" at the Sheriff's Department. However, in his zeal, his labeling of some of the boxes the thieves were hauling off had items such as Depends, Geritol, Dent-u-cream and toupees, leading your readers, except those of us who know better, that our seniors are over-the-hill, incontinent, denture-slipping old goats.

As a healthcare provider for the past 30 years and an advocate of the work the senior center does, I strongly object to the picture painted here. The seniors involved with the Saratoga Senior Center along with Executive Director Mary Goulart do a fantastic service in supporting the city of Saratoga and the seniors who live in this community. Obviously, the respect they deserve was not taken into account by the Saratoga News.

Likewise, I have had some very positive dealings with the local substation of the Sheriff's Department and have found it to be very professional in dealing with the needs of this community, but then law enforcement and "old people" seem to be easy targets.

While I have enjoyed some of Steven DeCinzo's humor, this is not one of those times.

Gary Vernon
Executive Director Saratoga Retirement Community

Saratogans should stop being so against changes

Shame on West Valley College for creating a better bus terminal for college kids and the public to use. Shame on the college for cutting down diseased trees only to replace them. Shame on the college for wanting to create a nicer stadium so the spectators don't have to sit on a dirt hill.

If Saratoga is so worried about traffic congestion, then we should tear down Redwood Middle School. Talk about congestion in that area!

Think, people! Yes, there will be congestion before and after games at WVC, just as there is traffic congestion before and after the middle school gets out. I live right off Quito Road and there is congestion only at certain times of the day. It is just something you have to deal with.

Remember the city wanting to create a safe environment for kids to play baseball? What happened with that? Did these people who were so against it come up with a better idea for the kids?

I just don't understand why people are so against change. Gone are the days of country living, but it is to be expected. Change must happen and it will happen. We need to improve areas to fit the abundance of people moving in the area.

Kathy Smith
Paseo Flores

Recent report on local fire service got it all wrong

The Saratoga Public Safety Commission recently issued its long-awaited report on the adequacy of the Saratoga Fire District, concluding that Saratoga's hybrid fire service system is adequately meeting the needs of Saratoga. Despite months of interviews with both of Saratoga's fire departments, reviews of incident statistics and the DMG Maximus report and observations of training exercises, the public safety commission still got it wrong.

The Saratoga Fire District relies on a strategy called Mutual Aid, a contingency plan under which neighboring fire departments are called to help out whenever a fire gets out of hand. The simple fact is that Saratoga Fire makes such a call on EVERY structure fire. The reason for this is that the full complement of Saratoga Fire's two engine companies is insufficient to suppress a structure fire, and additional personnel and equipment from the Santa Clara County Fire Department are required. Our everyday, bread-and-butter plan is to immediately go to the backup plan. How adequate is that? How could the safety commission have so completely missed the point?

We Saratogans believe (rightly) that we live in the best of the best, but somehow we allow our fire protection to be subsidized by our good neighbors, who had the wisdom to provide genuinely adequate fire protection for themselves. We can join them for approximately the same cost we're paying now, and change our plan from ask for help to put out the fire.

Ed Farrell
Kittridge Road

A few think they can speak for everybody in the community

Having recently lived in Saratoga for 20 years and still having a stake in the community, I continue to be amazed and embarrassed by some of the community's few residents and politicians that resist development and use of the community's assets for the benefit of all people.

Again, the matter of West Valley College's desire for a more practical improvement and use of its stadium facility is being challenged. Again only a few, who it would seem have bylines in the local paper, think they speak for all of Saratoga.

The stadium is a fabulous asset with limited use in a city that bemoans its lack of playing fields and park lands. There is a sort of perception of some inalienable entitlement to the exclusion of others. It was bad enough that at one time there was an objection to lawn chair use in the stadium, among other petty complaints. Its the classic case of "not in my backyard," "I was here first," and "we bought here because of the small town atmosphere" weak reasoning.

Perhaps it is not necessary to establish or promote high density housing, adequate senior housing, commercial developments, recreational facilities, and freeways (oops, that somehow slipped in) when we can just take advantage of our neighbors in Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos and San Jose for our travel commutes and consumer, career and recreational needs, and then retreat back to our quiet, rural, country atmosphere (long past by the way).

Saratoga is a great place to live and its long overdue to share the benefits and responsibility of living in a dynamic and heavily populated valley. Improvements of the stadium would be beneficial for the entire community.

Mark Roberts
Cupertino

Perception of old age by the media should be more enlightened

Isn't it time the media changed it's perception of old age? What qualifies as "old" in the 21st century should not be reminiscent of the year 1900, when life expectancy was age 47. Many who work in the field of aging consider the print media the worst offenders when it comes to stereotyping older people.

Why is it so much easier for some journalists to picture an older person as a dribbling 85-year-old woman shuffling down the nursing home hall carrying a doll, than it is to picture someone like 93-year-old Julia Child sipping wine, while demonstrating the preparation of creme magnifique? Sean Connery has added quite a few years since being named the "sexiest man alive" at age 59 by People Magazine. Neither he nor former 70-something-year-old astronaut and Senator John Glenn, seem interested in wearing toupees. And I doubt that 89-year-old surfer Woody Brown, featured in the film Surfing for Life, shops for Depends or Geritol.

Rita Baum
Los Gatos

Correction

In the Seniors column in the Feb. 7 SARATOGA NEWS, Arlyene Conway's name was misspelled and it was incorrectly reported that she worked at the gift shop at the Campbell Museum. Conway's volunteer work includes serving as a greeter at the Historical Museum, docent at the Ainsley House, assisting at teas and serving as a wedding coordinator.

Pat Laufman, also in the photo, volunteers as a manager and buyer at the Campbell Museum gift shop.

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