Other options to BIDs

The Los Altos Village Association would like to respond to the front-page BID (business improvement district) story of your April 5 edition of the Los Altos Town Crier.

It is a well-known fact that services the city of Los Altos offers the downtown have been in decline the past two years. This is evidenced by the demise of the much admired flowers at the entrance to downtown at Edith Avenue and Main Street.

The downtown triangle is the heart of the city. It is a community gathering place. The impact of fewer services being extended by the city to the downtown affects more than just downtown businesses of the Los Altos community. The effect extends to shoppers and visitors who love our town.

LAVA understands the need for improvements downtown. We feel the first questions asked should focus on what improvements business owners and merchants want and what are the different funding options that will most effectively use funds collected. The cost of administering a BID program for downtown Los Altos is an unknown factor. This is a concern for us.

One of the problems with the city’s having a general fund is that it is hard to separate information in order to evaluate it. We believe that it is important to know what portion of the sales tax revenue generated by the downtown triangle benefits the downtown triangle. The services offered by the city now are very baseline. The city spends a mere 6-1/2 hours a week on parking plaza and landscape maintenance.

In our opinion, this is an unacceptable level of effort. It results in empty planters, weed-filled center dividers, trash-strewn parking areas and other conditions. Is our downtown deserving of such neglect? We don’t think so.

The city of Los Altos says it does not have money to do more for the downtown. Where does this leave us? We hold to the position that there must be another way. Viable alternatives can be brought to the table.

Let’s not divide the business community that is downtown Los Altos. Let’s come together, bringing ideas, energy and a willingness to work harder to make downtown Los Altos the best place it can be.

Debra Schlueter,

president Los Altos Village Association

Nancy Dunaway, executive director, Los Altos Village Association

A case of too much crust?

The city of Los Altos is now crying poor-mouth (”Will city ‘BID’ to improve downtown?” April 5). Let’s take a look.

The city has shifted the burden of maintaining the space between the street and the homeowners’ properties. The city used to do this. The homeowner now must prune and maintain city trees. But any pruned material cannot be taken to the Corporation Yard for disposal. The homeowner must pay to have it hauled away.

With that burden now removed from city responsibility, it would seem city maintenance people are freed to pick up the trash in the parking lots.

There should be enough money to power-wash the downtown streets. Or maybe they can pass an ordinance requiring businesses to power-wash their abutting sidewalks. What’s good for city trees ought to work for sidewalks.

The city had a lady (Carol McKee) maintaining the downtown with flowers and shrubs. Suddenly she was moved to some other job. Was she was moved so the city could seek a BID to do that work?

The BID consultant who got $5,000 for her March 23 appearance spent more time bragging about her curriculum vitae than going around Los Altos and getting a sense of the business climate. It would be much better to say what is planned and how much it would cost. And why the city can’t pay for any of that, or why only State and Main streets are involved. Why exempt all other downtown businesses?

It seems the city has more crust than a restaurant pie. As a former first lady put it, “Just say no.”

Charles Halleck,

treasurer, Gallery 9

Los Altos

Herbicide dangerous to town ducks

Driving our grandchildren down Moody Road one Friday, we were excited to see a male and female duck. They were the mallard couple we have seen previously near the intersection of Moody and Altamont roads.

The mallards were waddling around on the side of the road where there are small puddles of water. The other side of the road carries water in a drainage ditch which empties into Adobe Creek. Along the last several yards of the ditch is the sickly orange foliage which is the tell-tale indication that herbicide has been used. Instead of fresh water for the mallard couple, they find a poisoned environment.

This is the time of year when ducks lay their eggs and raise their families. I am torn between hoping my grandchildren can see some mallard ducklings along Moody Road and wanting the ducklings to be raised in a safe, unpoisoned environment.

Clark Pest Control told the Town Herbicide Reduction SubCommittee this winter that they do not spray herbicide (Roundup) in drainage ditches or creeks. Perhaps a gardener or homeowner chose to use herbicide.

Studies of Roundup’s effect on aquatic life indicate that Roundup is toxic to aquatic creatures. It should not be used in creeks or ditches without a compelling reason (http://www.pitt.edu/~relyea/Roundup.html).

I feel blessed when I see mallard ducks beside the road. We need to protect these creatures and encourage more of them to make their homes here.

Karen Lemes

Los Altos Hills

Supports council’s vote on sexual orientation

I realize the ban on proclamations regarding sexual orientation was not unanimous, but I wanted to express my strong support for the majority’s decision.

The climate of forced political correctness has gone so far out of control that individual freedom to not overtly approve of or be indifferent to a particular lifestyle choice is being infringed upon. It seems that proclamations and parades are a way to get in the face of people who don’t even have a problem with a fellow citizen’s lifestyle as long as that fellow citizen behaves in a reasonably private, tasteful and civilized manner (as we would hope all would behave). But simply existing unrecognized is not good enough. Instead, attention and approval from the community is demanded. Anyone who doesn’t want to openly celebrate the wide spectrum of sexual proclivities and lifestyles is labeled a bigot.

I read a San Jose Mercury editorial on April 19 that claimed that the Los Altos City Council had embarrassed Los Altos and that an “apology” would extract Los Altos from the “Stone Age.” How ridiculous. Why is putting a stop to the insanity of the rest of the Bay Area an embarrassment? It’s actually sanity amid a din of chaos.

The politicians who will ultimately help bring people together will stop dividing the community by race, religion or sexual orientation, and stop rewarding sub-groups by facilitating the inappropriate forcing of lifestyle choices into the faces of others.

The city government does not need to get involved with people’s sexual orientation. This type of involvement by a city council could cut both ways in a different political climate. Many (I believe the majority) of people are simply tired of having other people’s sexual preferences and personal habits, etc., forced into their faces. People who want to be accepted by society should simply behave with dignity and bravery. The respect and acceptance they seek will follow. No one is going to be forced to feel this way by parades and proclamations, and city government should not become involved with people’s freedom to approve of or not approve of others’ private sexual behavior.

Thank you, Los Altos City Council, for being brave enough to take a stand against proclamations based on sexual orientation.

Susan Grinstead

Los Altos Hills