Diesel generator sets bad precedent

The following is an open letter to the Los Altos City Council.

Coronavirus measures are canceling everything. School is out and many of us are amateur-hour home-schooling our kids – learning the new stress of both full-time parenting while simultaneously working from home. Luckily for many of us, we will still receive our salaries and health insurance benefits. That’s not the case for our El Camino YMCA teams, who are furloughed during the closure.

In nonpandemic times, we depend on the staff of the El Camino YMCA after-school programs to keep our kids alive, safe and loved while we are in our full-time jobs. Now that we’ve all been sent home for the coming weeks, our YMCA teams are out of work. We’ve been refunded, and that means they won’t be paid once their very limited vacation time runs out. Their health insurance also will lapse in one month.

The coronavirus pandemic has some of us thinking, “This just can’t be happening.” But it is.

Still, optimism abounds. Los Altos residents are finding reasons to smile and stay grounded. They’re channeling anxiety into action and looking to help those less fortunate.

Every day brings about a change as we see the old normal quickly disappearing and the new normal emerging. Well, it’s not a new normal, as it’s constantly changing as well.

Do your part to keep restaurants afloat

In response to the coronavirus threat, many of us are self-isolating or practicing social distancing, which is essentially the same thing.

Among other things, that means we aren’t eating out as much as we normally would. This is placing an enormous strain on the restaurant industry. I was at Aldo Los Altos picking up a to-go order Friday, March 13, at about 7 p.m. On a typical Friday the place would have been bustling. But there was only one table occupied, and only one other to-go order on the counter besides mine. Obviously, this is not sustainable.

Is the coronavirus our greatest global challenge for survival since World War II?

Everywhere you look, from the major cities to small-town Los Altos, people are hunkering down at home and employing “social distancing” as the coronavirus continues to spread. World financial markets and small businesses alike are breaking under the weight of a virus unseen by the human eye.