By Murals are not art

Saving the student murals in the Los Altos School District is an inane idea propagated by a few who consider the murals “works of art.” Copying an artist’s work is NOT art. A true work of art engages the imagination, the emotions, the senses and the creative spirit of the artist. At best, the mural assignment was a lesson in enlarging and perhaps color-mixing. It is not art.

If the “Save the Murals” group wants to preserve this junior high work at $8,000 per mural, let them pay for the removal themselves and not burden the school district with this outrageous expense.

I would hope that today’s and tomorrow’s students will have the opportunity to create new murals, using their own ideas, their own designs and not those of Monet, O’Keeffe. Picasso, etc.

Nancy MarstonLos Altos

No symphony in ‘Deaf Valley’

The Silicon Valley, just like Ludwig van Beethoven, the greatest orchestral composer of all time, has lost its hearing. Just like Beethoven, we are deprived of hearing either the orchestra or the applause. This valley, without classical music and the San Jose Symphony, might as well be called the “Deaf Valley.”

I wonder if the $2.5 million deficit resulted in the “Unfinished Symphony” for Franz Schubert in 1822? Let’s hope this letter finds the corporate executives in Silicon Valley on a happy note and they will find a way to bring back the sounds of music to our Valley of Delights.

Lina BroydoLos Altos Hills

Reiterating: District never addressed traffic

On July 8,2000 I wrote you re the then threatened lawsuit of the Portola Avenue group against the Los Altos School District and the resultant effect that the heightened traffic caused by Blach school had upon the sale of our home.

I now reiterate the statement I made then: “The LASD has never (in the 44 years we lived there) ever tried to minimize that traffic and congestion, caused when school busing ceased, by trying to mitigate traffic problems that it caused.”

Today I read in your Nov. 7 edition the ridiculous statement by school officials that they should be responsible for only a fraction of the cost for traffic control at the Covington and Miramomte intersection.

The traffic delay study at Covington and Miramonte taken by the city projected a maximum delay of 180.9 seconds but did not project the delay of getting there on the one block from Eastwood, which even now takes a minimum of 2-4 minutes at peak hours. Someone has to do a little better homework.

What is actually needed is two go-rounds on Covington Road at Thatcher and at Hayman and a possible four-way arterial stop at Covington and Eastwood. This would serve to discourage the mounting through traffic to and from Grant Road used by many drivers to cut through to Foothill Expressway and other exits. Believe me, I watched them do it for years.

Richard J. Roberts, Jr.Lincoln

Thanks for the flu shots

I want to thank and compliment the staff at the Los Altos Senior Center for their excellent handling of the flu shots Nov. 7. The procedure was well organized and professionally administered. Everyone knew exactly what to do and it was completed quickly.

Dorothy Grenbeaux

Los Altos