The Sunnyvale Sun
Letters & Opinions
Speak Out
Mary Ave. bridge must be built now
I am writing this letter in response to self-serving letters from Janette Boehm on July 25 and Geeta Patangay on Aug. 1. Both of these letters appear to claim to be on behalf of all the residents of Sunnyvale. I can assure you that they are not. In fact , their only representation is for Mary Avenue area residents, at the expense of other Sunnyvale residents and common sense. They smell of NIMBYism at best.
The development of Moffet Towers, with the anticipated increase in employment and resulting traffic flow, was approved because the plan for the bridge to N. Mary Avenue was in place. Providing additional access and egress capability for the anticipated increase in traffic flow is absolutely essential. Anyone who has ever tried to negotiate the Mathilda Avenue/Hwy101/Hwy237/N. Mathilda Avenue nightmare, will readily agree that additional traffic flow channels are necessary to ease congestion at this junction.
Mary Avenue is a four-lane road that has not been utilized as a northsouth connector road for well over 40 years. For some obscure reason the Sunnyvale planners have deemed it necessary to nullify this perfectly good road, south of Fremont Avenue, by marking a central lane that serves absolutely no purpose except to reduce the road to two traffic lanes.
Ms. Boehm seems to think that Hollenbeck is a commuter road. It is not. Hollenbeck is a two-lane residential street that connects at the southern end with Stelling Road, which is, unfortunately, a Cupertino through street.
Hollenbeck is a residential street that provides direct access to Serra Park, which is also a major venue for AYSO and Little League programs. Hollenbeck provides the only access to Resurrection School and a Challenger School. Nimitz School is also accessed from Cheyenne and Cascade feeding directly from Hollenbeck. Due to the current volume of traffic on Hollenbeck there is a potential disaster waiting to happen to the children attending these grade schools. Any increase in traffic would only exacerbate the problem.
Hollenbeck already carries more traffic per lane than almost any other street in Sunnyvale and can not be expected to carry Mary Avenue's share of additional traffic. It is about time that Mary Avenue carried its share of the load in the development of Sunnyvale's infrastructure.
The planned bridge at N. Mary must be completed...and sooner rather than later!
Bill Birnie
Hollenbeck Avenue
Petitioners fight Mary Ave. bridge
The proposed Mary Ave-nue/Almanor Bridge project will irreversibly alter the character of Sunnyvale, particularly the residential neighborhoods between Bernardo and Sunnyvale/Saratoga; and, Fremont and Maude avenues.
According to a previous letter to the Sunnyvale Sun (March 21, 2007), "A late 1990s traffic study indicated there would be 10,000 more daily car trips on Mary with the bridge. " It is clear to see that this estimate is 17 years old and is most certainly no longer accurate. With the influx of residents to Silicon Valley, and the intention to construct high-occupancy office buildings in the Moffett Park area, this number seems significantly low.
Traffic mitigation through our neighborhood is not the answer to our concerns. Keeping the traffic on the highways and filtering it directly into the business park and back onto the highways should be the solution the city is seeking.
The Sunnyvale West Association has been working to inform the residents who will be most affected by this bridge. It is interesting to note how many people have no knowledge of this project until they are approached by someone from our association. There are currently more than 1,000 signatures of Sunnyvale residents who are opposed to the construction of this bridge. It behooves our city council to make more than a token effort to resolve this issue.
Meetings of the Sunnyvale West Association are held on the third Monday of each month at the Washington Park Community Center at 7 p.m. We invite all Sunnyvale residents to join us.
S. Jones
Sunnyvale
Trimmers bark up the wrong trees
Sunnyvale's Department of Trees and Landscaping is doubtless in its efforts to keep our streets and communities well groomed and maintained. With new housing construction and commercial development at an all-time high, new tree placement must be strategically planned for the long term in regard to street maintenance and environmental issues, a challenging task for a well-educated arborist.
The issue to be addressed here is the maintenance and care of old and new street trees, in particular the city of Sunnyvale municipal code or policy on vista pruning and who makes those decisions.
On E. California Avenue in Victory Village the 40-foot-plus trees, which act as an acoustic barrier for the soundwall along Central Expressway, have been vista pruned so that the soundwall is now totally exposed, and in turn, the level of traffic noise has increased.
Thirteen years ago I argued with city officials about this obviously idiotic brain-dead decision. The vista pruning ceased and the tree limbs grew down, again concealing the soundwall. Traffic noise decreased.
But in June, once again I was awakened at 7 a.m. to the sounds of chainsaws. One again, the soundwall has been totally exposed and the noise level has increased. Once again, I complained to the city, and a supervisor appeared at my doorstep. We had a short discussion, of which the outcome was, "Sorry, I instructed the crew to prune shoulder-high.''
As a homeowner for 17 years in the historic Victory Village neighborhood, I would like to revise this policy or municipal code. It not only unbeautifies the streets and increases traffic noise but decreases home value.
D.C. Dubocq
E. California Avenue
