Apr 1, 2008

Letters

High-density housing

Dear Editor: I read Will Oremus' article Sunday about the Stanford researchers' poll of 238 San Mateo County residents on the subject of high-density housing. I don't know where the researchers found these 238 people. They sure don't live around me.

All of the people in my neighborhood are dead against high-density housing near us. We are fed up with increased traffic and the lack of traffic control in San Mateo. A recent attempt to develop the former San Mateo Times site with high-density housing and some commercial use has been put on hold due to the opposition of the homeowners in Sunnybrae. None of the Sunnybrae people were in favor of more traffic and congestion in their neighborhood.

It's time for the residents of San Mateo to just say "no" to new development that includes high-density housing.

John Kensinger,

San Mateo



Mideast letters

Dear Editor: I do hope you would be so kind as to review the number of times letters on the same issue are published in the Daily News. I am talking specifically of the spate of letters concerning Israel and Palestine. There was a nice period when no letters concerning this ongoing feud appeared. Sometimes letters on the same subject, sometimes almost formulaic, are published for a period of more than 10 days. This is one issue where both sides are intransigent about their beliefs as to which is right and which is wrong.

The best arbiter is the Web site for B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group that deals in facts and statistics without bias.

We have enough bickering amongst the primary candidates to last a long time. Hamas needs to stop sending its rockets into Israel with the wish to destroy Israel and Israel needs to get out of the West Bank completely.

Mary Morphy,

Menlo Park



Self-indulgence

Dear Editor: We all love the unique beauty of the city of Palo Alto while suffering the cries of neighboring cities about our smugness and self-idolatry. Nowhere is our narcissism more embarrassing than our misbegotten, bizarre and self-indulgent "The Color of Palo Alto" wallow in civic vanity - 22,339 pockmarked photos stacked to the heavens, a Tower of Pixels. The "art" is indiscernible. Binoculars don't help. This expensive, interminable waste of public money could have been better spent for the homeless, teachers or fixing potholes. Expect the final hue as the color of brown mud or worse. What's next, City Hall, "The Sound of Palo Alto"? Tinkling wineglasses, espresso machines, garbage trucks, Caltrains, sirens, Alma Speedway and jet planes? I have a tape recorder at the ready. How much will you pay?

Vic Befera,

Palo Alto