Many Canary Drive residents would like to defend the traffic-calming devices on our street.

We feel these devices are a good use of our tax dollars and encourage other neighborhoods to bring their traffic issues to the city because this will only make our whole community safer.

It's all about safety—especially for children.

It began with a group of neighbors who had the direction to organize themselves and address their concerns to the Sunnyvale City Council. We had the tenacity to stand united around this safety concern for four years.

In October of 1999 we wrote a letter to the mayor asking for a study of the traffic on Canary. The city's traffic engineers conducted multiple traffic studies based on a traffic-calming procedure adopted in 1997 by the city council.

The data showed that traffic on Canary exceeded the levels deemed acceptable by the city for both the volume of traffic and the speed traveled. This qualified Canary for traffic-calming methods.

The traffic-calming devices are akin to wearing a safety belt in a car or a helmet on your head when riding a bike.

The city council unanimously approved this project; many members applauded us for our tenacity in surviving the process, for finding compromise, and for our pioneering spirit.

If you're asking residents to "make sure your voice is heard as to how you'd like our city to spend our tax dollars," we'd like to endorse public safety as a top priority.

The city can't provide us with an officer to patrol the streets 24/7, but these devices are the next best thing.

—Mary Depew, Sunnyvale


Mayor jumped the gun announcing Hamilton

As a new Sunnyvale resident, I am deeply disappointed in the lack of professionalism displayed within the last few weeks by many sources I rely on for information and leadership.

Your publication's July 16 article "Councilmen call mayor's behavior at meeting rude" has forwarded a lie.

Mayor Julia Miller was quoted in the Sun article as saying: "I don't think my actions justify any of this. I told the vice mayor I am going to be supporting Melinda Hamilton. I think that is the reason for this attack on me." Well, I don't believe this is actually true, since Melinda Hamilton did not announce her intention to run until July 2 in an email issued to the Friends of Sunnyvale titled, "Court case & other news."

Unless Julia Miller was spreading the news before the actual candidate announced it to the group for which she serves as president—which wouldn't exactly enhance cooperation among fellow council members—I find it unlikely anyone on the city council was retaliating against her in regard to her endorsement preference. Maybe such behavior as "going after" people (just to quote Mayor Miller again), is what earned her a letter of reprimand in the first place.

—Jay Crabb, Sunnyvale