By Packard a good role model

In reference to the latest Los Altos Town Crier, Linda Taaffe’s article about the “Save the Village” movement, is disturbing. There is much to be said about the way Los Altos is changing. Many of those changes have seemed to “spoil the village image.” But when you really stop and look at the whole picture, we still have the small town environment and a wonderful place to live.

The Packard Foundation’s impact on our town has been very positive and a good role model. They have contributed so much to Los Altos and neighboring communities that we would hate to see them driven out of town. Los Altos would be the loser if they were to move elsewhere.

Emmett and Ruth HearnLos Altos

Lack of Internet access appalling

The recent DSL discussions are interesting and it really is appalling that in the heart of Silicon Valley there are few means for better internet access. I’ve had DSL for over two years and it certainly is an improvement over dial-up. DSL is by no means a panacea, however, and is already overwhelmed by some of the data that can be had. DSL is no more than a crude patch applied to an ancient copper infrastructure never intended for data. Wireless and satellite solutions also have problems as readers pointed out.

What is needed is a way to wire the city with fiber to the curb. Maybe we pay for it using something like a sewer assessment in partnership with a phone company or cable company. Certainly not a trivial problem and whatever is done must have an economic payoff.

Speaking of sewers, several U.S. cities are using a German developed robot to crawl sewers at night (the flow is low) installing fiber without digging up streets. It is claimed costs are dramatically lower and installation much faster.

Beating on the phone company to extend DSL coverage is not a long-term solution. Fiber is the only answer and the phone company is not about to implement it without prodding. Determination and leadership are required to put in fiber and it’s not clear where that will come from. But, unless we find the will and the way, we will not see much improvement in net access for a couple of decades.

Bob PerdriauLos Altos

Parks can never be completely safe

I read with interest your story on Kiersten Ligeti’s campaign for safer parks. I, too, played as a child at Shoup Park, Marymeade Park (I was there before they even put the SAND in!) and most of the other local parks. I never, as a child or an adult, felt that it was the park’s responsibility to totally make a park so safe that a child never falls down or is injured in any way.

Parents do not want their children to be injured, I understand, but injuries ARE a part of childhood. No matter how safe you make a park, no matter how deep the rubber, eventually a child will find a way to get a few stitches.

I personally LIKE the old-style metal slides and playground equipment. They last longer and do not become faded, ugly and cracked like the new plastic does. I LIKE real wood.

But the point is that children have been playing in parks generations. Some of these parks had nothing but gravel underneath. Some were dirt. There comes a time when equipment MUST be replaced because it is worn out, but NOTHING is going to stop a child from getting hurt. If not in the park, in the home.

We cannot make the whole world liable because manufacturers did not make a harness or a springboard that keeps our children from injury. The BEST way to prevent injury to children is to watch them carefully … even then, we cannot keep everything from happening to them … nor should we … it is a natural lesson not to do something again.

When I fell at parks, bonked my head, skinned my knees, etc., it occurred to me that I needed to be more careful next time, instead of it being someone else’s fault that I fell because I was not being careful. I think I think of “safe” parks as places where children are free to run and play, but not as a place where they are guaranteed no injury.

M.S. Lowryformer Los Altos resident

Frustrated with Rosita pool delays

I’m a Rosita Park neighbor and am delighted with the prospect of a new pool in our neighborhood. When we moved to Los Altos, the pool was a big selling point and our children joined the team as soon as possible. We were delighted to be part of a community that puts such a high value on a wide variety of recreational and athletic facilities for all ages.

I’m still delighted to be part of such a community, but am growing frustrated with ongoing delays. Various letters to the editor have bewailed the “suddenness” with which the pool plan was proposed. Yet, as neighbors of the park, we’ve received letters inviting us to city council meetings discussing the issue regularly over the last three to four years. Neighbors asked for more open swim hours. SPLASH listened and responded with design changes that would make extended hours possible. The city asked that the pool continue operating profitably. SPLASH and Los Altos Masters listened and responded with a design that made that possible, too. Families with small children asked for a wading pool. SPLASH listened and included a wading pool in the design. Is three years a sudden move? I don’t think so.

Other letters and editorials have urged patience. Our youth swim team has patiently put in lap after lap, mile after mile in several different far-flung temporary foster pools for the past 12 months while the City Council rehashes issues that have already been hashed out in late-night meeting after late-night meeting for years on end. Families, including my own, who used to walk to the pool now add to neighborhood traffic with daily trips to other cities.

I believe that the city can address many of the neighborhood concerns through conscientious attention to existing traffic codes. Traffic that’s hazardous at 35 mph isn’t nearly as scary when kept to 20 or 25 mph.

Beefing up communications and traffic code enforcement are two things that Los Altos has needed to work on for several years. It’s SPLASH’s job to build a pool, not to resolve every issue that has plagued our city throughout history. Please let SPLASH do its job so our swimmers can get back in the pool, and our toddlers have a place to learn to swim.

Mary Cooper Feliz

Los Altos