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Speak Out
Lincoln Avenue has become dangerous
My husband and I are Willow Glen residents. Last Friday, June 15, around 6:30 p.m., my husband was going to drive over to Jake's Restaurant to pick up something to go. He returned in his car a few seconds later saying Lincoln Avenue was too crowded with traffic. We live right off Lincoln.
He came back, food in hand, about 30 minutes later. He told me after he had left Jake's, and was going to cross Lincoln at the crosswalk a tow truck gunned his engine and came straight for him. The tow truck was coming northbound down Lincoln Avenue. My husband jumped back on the curb for fear of his life. Another tow truck, same company, stopped to let my husband cross, but as he was walking and passing the stopped tow truck, a car zooming by on the other side of the tow truck almost struck him. Again my husband had to jump back out of danger's way. In a matter of minutes my husband was nearly struck twice by vehicles zooming down Lincoln Avenue.
I am sure there will be a pedestrian fatality. We called the tow truck company up and complained when my husband finally arrived home.
Our quiet lovely little Willow Glen is no more. It is truly unsafe to walk the avenue, or to try to cross it.
On Friday nights around 1 a.m. I hear hot rod cars zooming down the avenue, along with motorcycles, loud and fast enough to wake me up from my sleep.
What can be done about this? Why aren't the police out here to enforce the traffic rules? How can we take our streets back? Or can we? This is truly getting out of hand.
Robin Walker-Wells
Glen Eyrie Avenue
Festival attendees complain about tickets
To the community of Willow Glen, the sponsors of Dancing on the Avenue 2001 festival and the San Jose Police Department.
First of all, I'd like to say thank you for an extremely enjoyable evening. My husband and I have only lived in the area for a little over a year, and we were delighted with the turnout for the event (our first!) and the overall sense of community we felt as we shared music, food and dancing with our neighbors.
My husband and I do, however, have one small suggestion for future events such as this.
We were happily grooving away to The Joe Sharino Band when it was called to our attention that drink sales would end at 9:30 p.m. I looked at my watch and saw it was 9:20 p.m.
We decided we'd each like one more, so we headed over to the ticket booth, where we were sold $8 worth of tickets. Then we marched quickly over to the wine booth and were promptly told they had stopped selling wine. By my watch, and the watches of several others in line, it was only 9:25 p.m. But the representative for the police said it was past 9:30 p.m. and our options were limited to soda or water.
While we were certainly frustrated that we'd missed the cutoff by mere seconds, my husband and I were primarily bothered by the fact that we had just been sold tickets for something we could no longer buy. We were then stuck with $8 in useless tickets.
I asked another booth representative if there was something charitable we could do with these tickets, but she said no. I specifically was interested in the Books for Treats booth, but it had closed up. So, sadly, we left with our tickets unspent.
I understand Willow Glen and its sponsors need to make money from this event. I also understand the police need to strictly enforce a cutoff time-and everyone's watches will be different. What I do not understand is the waste of ticket money that must have occurred between 9:15 and 9:30 p.m. I would have very much enjoyed giving our leftover tickets to a worthy local charity, and I heartily suggest that next year's event offer a different color ticket sale between, say, 9 and 9:30 p.m.--so that people like my husband and me, who are just a minute too late, may still find something useful to do with our money, instead of leaving with the feeling that we just threw money away.
Again, we did have a fabulous time, and we thank the people that made the event possible. Please consider options for charitable donations for leftover tickets next year.
Sarah Close
Darlene Avenue
Festival disappoints children and parents
Don't get me wrong, I had a great time at the annual Willow Glen Dancing on the Avenue festival, but my kids didn't! What happened to all of the children's activities that were announced? I have spoken to a number of people who said to me, "Where is all of the stuff that was supposed to be here for the kids?" Even your newspaper's main article about the event was subtitled "Entertainment for the entire family will be featured at the 'dancing' event." The article went on to describe inflatable bounce houses, a dancing parade and other activities. I was there all day and I didn't see any of that. If you weren't at least a teenager, there was nothing for you to do there.
Each year, this event caters less and less to the true Willow Glen residents, and more to masses of San Jose. Dancing on the Avenue is now just an open street party for anyone who can find a parking spot in front of one of the neighborhood houses. I don't know how many people there were here this year, but it was certainly bigger than last year. So, to whomever helps organize this event, you blew it this year.
Next year let's make this an event for the entire family!
Mark Woodward
Newport Avenue
DeCinzo cartoon missed the point
Your DeCinzo cartoon bashing Larry Ellison for his courtroom victory over the San Jose Airport heavy aircraft curfew hit the wrong target.
The purpose of this curfew is to reduce nighttime noise and is based on the assumption that heavy aircraft are noisier than lighter. Bad assumption. There is undoubtedly a weight-noise correlation, but not a very good one. DeCinzo could as well have praised Ellison for purchasing a modern low-noise aircraft, when Ellison could have saved money by flying a noisy, but nighttime legal, smaller but older jet.
It's crazy. Our city fathers would rather spend major bucks on lawyers to defend a flawed concept, than to go to the (admittedly considerable) trouble of basing the regulations on noise, as opposed to aircraft weight, or other extraneous factors. These are the guys your cartoonist should be lampooning.
J.J. Magee
San Jose
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
