The liquidamber trees are starting to drop their seed pods, which are very hard, prickly balls that drop all over the sidewalks and streets.

If you are walking in the neighborhoods and miss seeing one, it's very easy to fall and sprain an ankle or break some bones.

I have fallen so many times that I just don't walk in our neighborhood any more.

This year seems to be an especially bountiful year for the prickly balls so one should expect to see them on our sidewalks through May or June. Please be careful.

Werner Gans

Sunnyvale

Ticketing car in driveway
not an isolated incident

This letter is in response to Henry Foronda's letter "Car ticketed while parked in the owner's driveway," published in The Sun on Jan. 26.

I also have had the misfortune of getting ticketed in my driveway at my Sunnyvale residence several years ago. I wouldn't have thought much of Henry's ticket, as I suppose the city writes these tickets with some regularity due to short driveways and cars blocking sidewalks.

However, I have noticed that another homeowner in the neighborhood routinely and blatantly parks on the sidewalk—and not even in the driveway—in front of the house.

Why is it OK for them and not for people like Henry and me?

Dave Signor

Sunnyvale

Once best in the nation,
now schools are worst

After reading your lead article "Budget cuts digging into the basic care of schools" in the March 2 issue of The Sun, I have to write my first letter to the editor.

All schools in California are pathetically underfunded. In 1976 California public schools were the best in the nation; now we are the worst. In 1976 Californians gave, through property taxes, $800 above the national average; today we give $800 below the national average. A swing of $1,600 on $6,000 per student per year funding from the state.

Comparing national test scores, we are third from the bottom. Funding for school libraries is even worse. The average state in the United States employs one fully qualified teaching librarian for every 700 students. The state next to the bottom has only one per 1,650 students. Where's California? The last in the nation by miles: one librarian per 4,363 students.

We in Sunnyvale hired our first teaching librarian last September, upgrading us to one in 6,000 students.

Most people in California do not care about our children's education. The majority think that schools have enough money and are mismanaging it. This is not true. As The Sun's article says, we are at bare bones support.

Today, some school districts—in mainly wealthier neighborhoods—have fully funded libraries, music and athletic programs. How do they get the money? From private donations.

All the state gives us is a classroom, a teacher and 30- plus students. If we want anything more we have to raise the money.

The goal of the Sunnyvale School District Education Foundation is to fund a teaching librarian for all 10 schools in the district by 2010. This will bring us up to the national average, not a stretch goal by Silicon Valley standards.

If you are reading this letter, run to your checkbook and write us a check for the schools. Show that you care and bring California off the bottom. Care for the kids.

Geoff Ainscow

President, SSDEF

Monitoring police will
protect our civil rights

This is a response to John Kacergis' Feb. 23 letter to The Sun and the many out there who don't have a clue or particularly care about what really goes on with our police. Neither you nor I factually know what goes on between suspect and officer when no one's looking.

I've had personal experiences and unsolicited testimony proffered me by friends, acquaintances and strangers, recounting their own horror stories. Most will not stand up and speak out lest they risk being ostracized and ridiculed.

Most fear getting involved or, worse, being branded a criminal.

Thank God. Thank God for people like me (who stand alone), who could care less about such self-conscious rubbish when I stand up for what I think is right and humane.

This is supposed to be our country's rich heritage.

Police in Sunnyvale, and across this nation, need to be technologically monitored, with no capacity on their part to turn off or manipulate such factual recordings. This is what will guarantee our civil and human rights in this city and beyond.

Richard Shapiro

Arrested last year in Sunnyvale

'The Sun's' got taste now

This is the first week of The Sun's new taste column by Judy Peterson.

Her column will be offering up stories twice a month about eateries from around Cupertino and Sunnyvale.

Peterson has been writing about Silicon Valley for 25 years, covering everything from politics to telecommunications and the high-tech world. She loves to cook but says, "Things always seem to taste better when someone else makes them." Plus, she says, "they get to clean up."

Peterson says she's looking forward to writing about the restaurant scene because "these are people who work really hard to make others happy."