Just wanted to comment on the new buildings going up on El Camino Real between Fair Oaks Avenue and Wolfe Road.

Just when I thought El Camino could not get any uglier, I was wrong. The Best Buy and PETsMART are monstrosities.

Do the Sunnyvale city council/planners not care what Sunnyvale looks like? Apparently not, what with all the orchards being destroyed and these huge box stores going up. It's not a pretty sight.

We moved here 25 years ago when Sunnyvale was a very pretty little town, and we loved it back then. It had a nice rural feel to it.

Surely the council and builders could have approved something more attractive for the main road through Sunnyvale.

Just wanted to express my opinion and disappointment in those deciding what Sunnyvale will look like in the future.

Carol Cook

San Jose

Sunnyvale deserves more than lesser of two evils

The race for city council's Seat 1 has turned into a campaign of why I shouldn't vote for these candidates, which disappoints me since I have little first-hand experience with either candidate.

My exposure to Tim Risch is limited to three events--receiving a request for campaign contributions from him almost a year ago; seeing him pander quite blatantly to the senior citizen community at the March 29 council meeting (so blatantly that Councilman Fred Fowler called him on it in front of the full council) and, of course, receiving his recent hit piece mailer, which disgusted me to no end.

I have no experience with Tony Spitaleri whatsoever. So, for me, Spitaleri is ahead on points. And I'm particularly pleased that he has avoided making an issue of Risch's own well-publicized difficulties, which led to his defeat in the last election. I admire the restraint and character that keeps Spitaleri from responding in kind.

I'm still waiting for one of these two candidates to step up and tell me why I should vote for him, rather than why I shouldn't vote for the other guy.

Sunnyvale deserves better than "the lesser evil." And until that happens, neither of them gets my vote.

Jim Griffith

Sunnyvale

Hazardous trees should
be replaced by the city

After reading the Aug. 24 article "City decides liquidambars pose problem," in The Sun, I'm glad to see something has started to correct the problems with trees in Sunnyvale

I love the look and shade of the trees of Sunnyvale. However, the poor choice of the many types of trees planted shows whoever chose them didn't know much about trees.

Not only do liquidambars drop spiked balls, many trees raise sidewalks to a condition both dangerous and expensive to repair or replace.

My wife sprained her ankle on a spiked ball from a liquidambar during an evening walk, and I've tripped on a sidewalk raised by tree roots.

The trees causing these problems should be replaced by deep-rooted trees that will not drop hazards. The city should pay for them, not the property owners.

William Andersen

Sunnyvale

Why plant liquidambars in new senior center?

I would appreciate an answer to a question, if there is a sensible one. Why were liquidambar trees planted at the new senior center?

We put up with them at the old school on McKinley. Those had been there for years, and we put ourselves and our limbs in jeopardy every time we went from room to room.

However, when we moved to the new center, we thought we left the liquidambars behind, but oh no, there they are again. This time on purpose.

Why?

Gwen Orgain

A senior in Sunnyvale

Way a candidate treats
his opponent tell a lot

It looks like Sunnyvale is in for a long, nasty city council election season. One candidate has already sent out a very negative letter, claiming to tell the "truth" about his opponent. The letter is a thinly veiled attempt at character assassination.

I'm sure we have worse to come, and not just from him.

I believe the voters of Sunnyvale should be very wary of people who use these tactics to try to get elected. City politics does not end on Election Day, and there will be plenty of issues afterwards where any of us may disagree with a council member.

Would you rather work through that disagreement with someone who will engage in an honest debate? Or would you feel comfortable working it out with someone who may well employ the tactics of misrepresentation, innuendo and even character assassination against his or her opponent?

In politics, people are often allies one day and opponents the next. The way a candidate treats an opponent may tell us quite a bit about how he or she may treat the public when in office.

All of us should keep that in mind.

Fred Fowler

Sunnyvale City Councilman

Why hasn't Sally Lieber
co-authored ATA 22?

I'm wondering why Sally Lieber is against protecting private property rights. I ask this because she has thus far failed to become a co-author of ATA 22, the bill to amend the state Constitution to provide property rights protection to all Californians.

Is it because she is afraid of losing campaign support from her special interest constituents? Please, Sally, say it isn't so by co-authoring ATA 22 immediately.

Ray Johnson

Sunnyvale

Correction

In the story Aug. 24 Sun "Council race for Seat 1 is already heating up," we erred when we referred to "... Otto Lee as the only elected official in Sunnyvale who is not supporting Spitaleri. We should have said Lee was the only council member who is not supporting Spitaleri. We received a call from a Sunnyvale resident who pointed out that there are other elected officials in the city, including school board members, and some don't support Spitaleri.