Willow Glen, California Since 1992
Speak Out
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Advocating a single-payer health insurance system Thanks to Carl Heintze and the Willow Glen Resident for the July 3 column advocating universal, single-payer health care in America. Such a system would cover medical care for all people with a single, government-administered insurance plan. Every other industrialized country in the world already has this system. As health care in America rapidly goes into meltdown, the universal, single-payer system is an idea whose time has come. Hospitals are closing (e.g., San Jose Medical Center), 40 million Americans have no health insurance at all, and premiums are skyrocketing for everyone else. My only disagreement with Heintze is his implication that single-payer health care is expensive. Studies done by the General Accounting Office of the U.S. Congress and the state of California indicate the opposite—that single-payer will not only cover everyone but will actually save us money. The Labor Party has created a website, www.justhealthcare.org, as part of its campaign for national health insurance that guarantees lifetime coverage to every resident of the United States. The party estimates that a single-payer plan will save us 30 percent in overall medical costs by simplifying administration and eliminating the outrageous CEO salaries and shareholder profits of insurance companies and HMOs. Under the Labor Party Just Health Care plan, 95 percent of taxpayers will pay less than they do right now. In San Jose, a group of concerned residents is circulating a resolution supporting single-payer universal health care. Our intention is to take it to the San Jose Human Rights Commission, the San Jose City Council, and ultimately to the voters. Although a resolution at the local level cannot implement actual reform, our intention is to educate the public and build the grassroots movement. We feel that once the American public becomes aware of this alternative, the popular groundswell will make it irresistible. —Sandy Perry, Hull Avenue Against moving traffic to someone else's front door I agree with Helen Beth Morris' letter to the editor in the July 10 issue of the Willow Glen Resident. I, too, oppose moving one person's problem to another's front door. I have lived on Malone Road for 55 years and we have had bus traffic, school traffic and walk-home traffic. We have learned to live with it because it is necessary. People do have to move around the city, so why make it more difficult for them? —Barbara Martin, Malone Road More parking needed for ice cream vendors I enjoyed William Jeske's article, "Lincoln Avenue may get an ice cream headache this summer," in the July 10 issue of the Willow Glen Resident. Both Baskin-Robbins and Willow Glen Frozen Yogurt have opened since I moved to the neighborhood in mid-March. It has been satisfying to see both businesses apparently doing well. I hope that "there is plenty of room for everyone," as the owner of Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company said. It does seem disingenuous for Michael Levine of Baskin-Robbins to say that "Cake's the most profitable part of this business. In a way, we are more like a bakery." I live across the street from Baskin-Robbins. The people who eat cones sitting on the curb in front of my house, stand outside their cars chatting loudly and make U-turns by using my driveway do not appear to be purchasing cakes. As I mentioned, I am happy to see both businesses doing well. I just wish there was more off-street parking for their customers. —Kristen Pendleton, Blewett Avenue Gonzales should have cancelled trip I read, with interest, the July 10 article outlining the plans for San Jose Mayor Ron Gonzales' trip to Ireland with a delegation. I also noted that several of the city council members have cancelled their trips with him, as he is taking his girlfriend. I am disappointed that honest politicians are defrayed from taking a trip to represent our fair city because of the mayor's inappropriateness. Perhaps Mayor Gonzales should be the one to cancel his trip, allowing others to attend in the spirit of developing relationships for our city. If Mayor Gonzales wishes to take a personal trip, then it should be on his own time and not combined with city business. —Pat Leader, Hamilton Avenue All street traffic must be 'calmed' I read the July 10 front-page article regarding commercial vehicles on Hicks Avenue and am appalled. The debate regarding the traffic on Hicks Avenue has been ongoing. I understand the well-meaning citizens of Hicks Avenue and their efforts to reduce traffic on their precious street, but who is considering the rest of us? I am most concerned about the danger to small children caused by the rerouting of traffic to other neighborhood streets, such as Cherry and Lupton. While the new signs serve to "calm" the traffic on Hicks, they force drivers to find another route to use to reach their own homes. Hicks is a wider street, and as others have pointed out, has always been used as a thoroughfare. What is the reasoning behind redirecting that traffic down other neighborhood streets? I feel that all the streets should have traffic calming, which would consist of posted speed limits and their enforcement. Drivers treat my own street as if it were a racetrack. Why should any one Willow Glen street earn the privilege of banning commute-hour traffic? What would happen if all of us approached the city council and screamed and cried about the traffic on our streets and demanded that traffic not be allowed to turn into our neighborhood during commute times? Enforcing speed limits, through photo radar and police ticketing is one way. I have seen in other neighborhoods in San Jose that speed bumps have been installed in areas where streets are used as a thoroughfare (case in point: Cahalan Avenue in South San Jose). —Pat Leader, Hamilton Avenue |
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