May 13, 2008

Letters

California Avenue fountain

Dear Editor: Once again the Palo Alto city staff has recommended replacing a classical city entrance icon (been to Italy lately?) with a doubtful piece of art (to be determined and argued over).

Why not match our uniquely Palo Alto living art that moves with the rising sun and continues to respond to run itself - a true marriage of technology, function and art, i.e., the solar-driven umbrellas on California Avenue?

Why not make the "costly plumbing repairs" to the California Avenue fountain? I will donate the first $100 toward the work. I hope that perhaps the plumbers' union members who contribute so much to the building and housing stock in this city may be willing to make this public-private effort to preserve a universally recognized gathering place - our wonderful California Avenue fountain. Perhaps others will pitch in $5, $10, or more to do the job. There it is, waiting to welcome travelers coming into the transit center, another gateway to our beautiful city.

Cecelia M. Horn,

Palo Alto



Tuskegee case

Dear Editor: Let me join Paul Pitlick in wondering why you publish some misguided rants (his in this case, Letters May 7). He complains about Jonah Goldberg's article (May 4).

Mr. Goldberg documented several instances in which media (including Fox) had purveyed the idea that the U.S. government infected people with syphilis, and then he laid out the facts of the Tuskegee case. Several hundred African-Americans with syphilis were enrolled in a study that told them they were being treated when in fact they were merely being monitored. The false version is being used as evidence that the government is capable of inventing HIV in order to kill African-Americans.

Why Mr. Pitlick would so powerfully resent Mr. Goldberg's factual correction of the record is a real puzzle. Perhaps he does not subscribe to the notion that science and society are best served by accuracy and truth.

Raymond R. White,

Palo Alto



Censorship

Dear Editor: [The following is an open letter to Comcast] I am outraged that you are censoring political speech by refusing to accept the paid content of the "Rubber Chicken" video regarding Nancy Pelosi, which criticizes Pelosi for not doing enough to halt the war in Iraq.

Who appointed you to be censor? Have you heard about freedom of speech? Get a grip or lose some customers. Would that get your attention?

Daniel L. Majhor,

Sunnyvale



Social injustice

Dear Editor: An interesting case of social injustice is occurring in Belmont. As you may well know, two houses were recently constructed on a plot of land along Ralston Avenue between the Alameda and Cipriani intersections in Belmont. Despite the fact that the parcels of land have always included an easement that would give the property owners full access to traffic in both directions, the city of Belmont has denied the rights of the owners to use the easement. I have been told that there is no legal basis for this decision; rather, the city has chosen to block the easement based on complaints from a few neighbors.

When the neighbors purchased their houses, they certainly should have been aware that an easement existed on their street and that it would be used by other neighbors at some point in the future. Nonetheless, the easement's usage has been prohibited by the city of Belmont, and the houses at 2200 and 2230 Ralston Avenue therefore remain unsold. The contractor, Fred Thayer, faces damaging losses and the neighbors' home values will be severely lowered by their location adjacent to two empty properties.

The city has wasted the land, which seems now to be frozen in a permanent state of desertion and lost opportunity. Why would the city allow a contractor to build on land they would later deprive of its easement, the aspect essential for the property's success?

Alison Green,

Belmont