The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Letters

Council should halt plans for downtown

In an effort to revitalize downtown Sunnyvale, the Sunnyvale City Council, with the exception of councilman Stan Kawczynski, has a plan to get fast-track approval for a high-rise, high-density project that will include a four-story hotel, and two five-story and one six-story office buildings for a total of 570,000 square feet.

At the council meeting of Aug. 18, they will determine whether to award a contract to the Mozart Development Group and go ahead with the project.

Much of the work leading up to the plan was discussed by the council at meetings that were closed to the public.

The first meeting to brief the public was on May 28, with emphasis on learning what the public wanted to see in the plaza and not the size of the buildings or the density of the project. At the meeting, the mayor stated that this was not a done deal. In response to a question from the public, he took a poll on what the public preference was on the height of the buildings. Two weeks later, on June 16, the council voted to have the city staff prepare a contract that would allow the Mozart Group to go ahead with the development despite negative inputs from the public by a 2-to-1 margin. What became apparent at the meetings of May 28 and June 16 is that there are few details available about the project, only a general outline that provides a gross description.

Thus, there are many unanswered questions, many of which I sent to the city staff on June 15. To date, no answers here have been received because the studies must still be done.

Some of the questions include:

What will be the effect on peak-hour traffic at Mathilda and Evelyn when the 1,400 employees from the office buildings go home?

How much additional air pollution will there be in the downtown area? Are there alternatives to the expensive ($8 million-plus) 320-car underground garage at Frances and Evelyn?

Are we better off with one large public plaza or three or four smaller plazas, such as those at the Stanford Shopping Center?

And finally, how can the city possibly sign a contract with so few details defined, especially in the controversial area of building height?

Why is council in such a big hurry to approve the project with so few details defined?

Once you start building high-rise buildings, other high-rise buildings will start popping up elsewhere. If this happens, Sunnyvale's suburban lifestyle will quickly become urbanized (just look at Palo Alto and Mountain View).

On Aug. 18, you the citizens of Sunnyvale will have an opportunity to tell the council how you would like your land developed. If you don't speak up, you will have a high-rise, high-density center in downtown Sunnyvale and all the problems that go with it, for the next 50 years.

Werner Gans
Sunnyvale

Future Good for City: Air Force, Bar & Grill

Downtown, they built a new city hall resembling a giant fruit tree which rises a quarter mile into the sky--a memorial to the vast forest of nourishment which once graced the environs.

Atop the tree perches a revolving restaurant, The City Council Bar and Grill. It's all lit up at night. Below-ground is a spacious garage which clears all cars from the surface of town, where gardens, fountains and plazas abound. The walls of the mall are happy to be covered entirely by flowering veins. A classic steam locomotive puffs at the railway station. The city-wrecked Murphy House reappears, gleaming mystically in its park. And the town skies are declared a "no-fly zone" forever, to be patrolled by the Sunnyvale Air Force in hangliders.

This was only a dream.

Robert Thoen
Sunnyvale

Too many people make for too much concrete

For all the people who, like me, have been watching in disgust as the serene open spaces in our cities have been turned into piles of concrete and cut wood of mass-produced houses, I have a solution. And it starts with educating your children.

The fact of the matter is that there are too many people. I believe that this is because couples keep pushing out too many children, not realizing the impact that it has on the world. If couples keep having three or more children, the whole world will end up a pile of concrete and cut wood. And what would be so precious about a life existing in the great fake outdoors?

I think that children need to be taught about the consequences and seriousness of the overpopulation of the human race, just as they are taught about drugs, alcohol and puberty. America has been brainwashing their children for decades; why not start brainwashing them in ways that will benefit our planet, not just our species?

Susan Holtslander
Los Gatos

Why won't Miller keep her campaign promises?

Candidate Julia Miller vs. Council Member Julia Miller

What's up with Julia Miller?

Candidate Miller: "I oppose high density housing in Sunnyvale."

Council Member Miller: Shortly after she and her boyfriend were wined and dined by the Olson family, she votes for yet another high density project on the Olson orchard.

Candidate Miller: "I support and will vote for binding arbitration."

Council Member Miller: Last Friday she votes against binding arbitration.

I would like to know how she can continue to break her promises to the citizens of Sunnyvale. Do we have to look forward to three more years of deceit or will she one day take a stand on her campaign promises? Or did she make these promises just to get elected with no intention of fulfilling them? Can she keep any of her campaign promises or is she just another slippery politician?

Michael Szymanski
San Jose

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