January 31, 2008

ValleyViewpoints

‘Cool Mom’ had better beware

Editor,
Regarding the small write-up last week’s Almaden Times Weekly:

...Officers responded to the above location on a report of a fight in the street involving 30-plus juveniles. Upon arrival the subjects had left the area of the street but fled into a nearby residence. Officers determined that the homeowner was contributing to the delinquency of minors by allowing alcohol to be consumed. There were approximately 30 teenagers in the residence. The homeowner was booked into county jail. Two teenagers involved in the fight were treated at a local hospital but declined to press charges.

I am an Almaden mother of five children who all have gone through Almaden schools. The youngest is now finishing high school. This is not the first “cool mom” or the last that I have/will encounter here. It has been going on for the last nine years that I have had children in high school.

I certainly wasn't surprised (or saddened for that matter) that this mom was caught doing what so many others are doing every weekend.

How can someone see anything positive about this? Is it to be your child's friend? Our kids have a lot of friends, but they only have one mother. I hardly think this is the way to build a friendship with your child. Does she think the other kids cared about her at all? They don't! It was just the place to party for that night.

Because of her ignorant "I'm going to create a safe drinking environment for the kids" way of thinking, a fight broke out and kids were sent to the hospital for treatment. She is then arrested and the child in school is left to defend her mother's irresponsible actions as word spreads quickly. Way to go mom!

Underage drinking is a very big problem. Why make it a bigger problem by facilitating the bad behavior?

As you can see, this is a very sore subject for me. I really hope that this mother faces the stiffest penalties the law will allow so that a message is sent out to all of the other criminal parents who consider doing the same thing.

An angry Almaden mother
Name withheld on request

Eliminate the budget deficit

Editor,
According to a recent poll, most San Jose residents prefer to eliminate the budget deficit with cost reductions instead of tax increases or cuts in essential services, such as fire and police protection as well as infrastructure maintenance.

Those residents in the poll who work in the private sector no doubt know that each year, thanks to competition, they must do more with less, all to the advantage of the consumer. They are now realizing that government, on the other hand generally grows both in good and bad times. They also will not be surprised if the city’s employee unions, who represent well over 50 percent of the city’s workforce, will vigorously oppose cost reductions.

We will soon know how much influence employee unions and their allies wield if the council resolves the deficit with more taxes than cost decreases against the wishes of the voters.

Jerry Mungai
Almaden

Global Warming is serious business

While enjoying the excellent photograph ("Snow frosts Mt. Umunhum," Almaden Times, Page 10, Vol. 22, No. 5) I took note of the last line in the brief article/long caption, which read, "Now, shall we discuss global warming?"

I realize the line was written for a bit of levity in the context of a snow covered—having just moved from Colorado I can hardly say—"mountain," but it is in the name, Mt. Umunhum. Again, I understand there is no attempt at editorial content here nor is it intended as a fact-based assessment of global warming, but there is subtle, if not intended, support for people who deny global warming.

In fact, the cycle of global warming is projected to include not a steady progression, but periods of extreme weather—more tropical storms, colder temperatures in areas that are traditionally warmer, etc., of which snow on Mt. Umunhum may be a good example.

At any rate, I enjoy the Almaden Times and it has been entertaining, informative and useful in my transition (difficult at times) to a new home.

Tom Emswiller
Almaden

Safe Graystone working with city, county

Editor,
Thank you for keeping community efforts to increase traffic and pedestrian safety in the Graystone area in the forefront, the latest example, being the article in the Almaden Times this past week (Daughters file claim against city, county, Jan. 25).

Efforts in the Graystone area have become a much-watched model for government response to organized neighborhood requests for support in improving traffic safety in our neighborhoods. Safe Graystone Neighborhood (SGN), a community group formed after the July 2007 accident [which killed four people], has been working with the city of San Jose AND Santa Clara County to address safety issues in an area with shared jurisdictional oversight.

While this sharing has been synonymous with excuse for doing nothing in the past, the Safe Graystone group is expending much energy to turn that around into a symbiotic relationship between the two parties. As demonstrated by the public forum they organized in October (Almaden Times, Nov. 7), all parties must be in the room at the same time so that responsibility does not degrade into finger pointing.

The fifth community update, distributed since Safe Graystone Neighborhood was established, is below. Despite appearances of nothing being done, there has been steady and relentless correspondence between SGN and government agencies to assure that efforts are kept on track.

Current efforts focus on a compiling into a community survey the results of county and city price and timing studies of measures to improve the Graystone Lane speedway and Via Santa Teresa. Those two roads form the single thoroughfare that serves as a feeder street for Graystone residents in and out of their neighborhood. With a measured 4,000 car trips per day on this thoroughfare, safety measures will have to be appropriate for a well-traveled road, not a bucolic country lane, despite the name.

Neighborhood Update #5: January 2008

January has arrived and with it the three-month time point for the pledges issued at the Oct. 22 Forum, organized by Safe Graystone Neighborhood. The two government organizations with jurisdiction over traffic in our neighborhood - Santa Clara County Roads and Airports and the city of San Jose’s Department of Transportation, pledged to evaluate a list of options for roadway improvements. In return, Safe Graystone Neighborhood pledged to serve as a conduit of consolidated community priorities back to the city and county.

To summarize improvements since the October Forum:

The city set up a new speed limit sign two new "stop ahead" signs, a new "side street intersection" warning sign at the western end of Graystone Lane; and a white paint strip on the outside edge of the curve, Botts' Dots and reflectors in the double yellow lines in center of the curve and a new "right turn" sign posted on the south side of the curve, visible coming down the hill at the eastern sharp turn on Graystone Lane, by Briana Court.

The county has set up about a dozen flexible white reflector posts along the eastern edge of Graystone Lane between the eastern Graystone Lane sharp curve and Via Santa Teresa.
Hats off to those responsible for enacting these measures!

There continues to be urgent need for effective traffic calming measures since the tragic crash on July 23. Among many options, we are focusing on roadway reminders for visitors and frequent users to maintain safe speeds. Anyone who has driven the "Graystone Speedway" knows how easy it is to be preoccupied and allow one's speed to increase, forgetting how easy it is not to notice a car pulling into the roadway from Carriage Hill or Annie Lane, a car backing out of a driveway, pedestrians or a deer darting into the street.

In a recent crash on Jan. 10, a plumbing truck backed from a driveway into Graystone Lane and was hit by an oncoming car. The airbags in the car protected the driver and passengers from severe injury, but one wonders whether roadway speed control measures to promote cautious driving might have prevented this incident.

Safe Graystone Neighborhood organizers met on Jan. 12, to formulate an update to focus on providing a channel for neighborhood members to provide educated feedback to the city and county on roadway safety measures. It is our wish that the next steps of selection and installation of speed control devices should take place soon.

To that end, we are compiling a poll listing traffic calming measures. As agreed at the forum in October, this month the city and county are to provide for each of the listed measures: (1) cost, (2) time to completion and (3) feasibility/appropriateness to our setting along Graystone Lane. Once drafted, the survey will be sent to all community members, soliciting your prioritization, so that we may provide consolidated and informed feedback to the government agencies.

The list includes:

Stop signs
Speed/warning sign and striping
Speed humps, bumps, strips, dots, cushions (with appropriate striping
and warning signs)
Electronic speed sign indicators
Traffic circles
Raised intersections
Turn restriction signs
Landscaping trees
Sidewalks
Curbed walkways or other pedestrian options

We will send out the poll soon after receiving the city and county input, and will hope for a quick turn-around in your responses so that we can promptly supply feedback to the city and county in a manner that reflects statistically the priorities of the community.

Robin Beresford
Jane Frommer
Robert Garner
Safe Graystone Neighborhood

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