Saratoga News

Letters

The time has come for a shorter name

There comes a time when some things need to be updated, and that time has arrived for Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road. The name is cumbersome to address, is easily confused with Saratoga Avenue and certainly does not describe a country road anymore.

The historical value of connecting Saratoga and Sunnyvale together has all but disappeared. As a matter of fact, Saratoga Avenue was once known as Saratoga-Santa Clara Road. Many out-of-town shippers, not knowing there is already a Saratoga Avenue, shorten Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road to just Saratoga Road, creating quite a conflict and delays in shipments.

At least once a month, we get a call from a delivery company saying that they cannot find our address on Saratoga Avenue. The recent UPS strike really highlighted the problem.

Adjoining jurisdictions of San Jose and Cupertino have already changed the name of their portions to De Anza Boulevard, and the freeway signs on Highway 85 and Highway 280 have been changed accordingly, just adding to the confusion.

The Saratoga-Sunnyvale Gateway Corridor Task Force was formed in 1996 and held public meetings to suggest improvements for the street and neighborhood. One of their recommendations was to "consider a new, shorter street name for Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road to avoid confusion with Saratoga Avenue."

The easy way, with the least amount of confusion, would be to adopt the De Anza name and have a uniform name the length of the street. Another choice would be a variation of the most common abbreviation "Sara-S'vale," or "Saravale" Avenue or Boulevard. Saravale would keep the historical ties, but would not help with freeway signing.

Carl Orr
Saratoga

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