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Letters

Teaching kids to hit and run

Dear Editor,

My wife was heading to work about 3:20 in the afternoon on Dec. 2, minding her own business, enjoying the quaint little shops in downtown Pleasanton, when she was hit at the stop sign in front of the gas station on Main Street. She didn't panic since it was just a fender bender, nothing too big. She looked in her rear view mirror to see a mother and her kids inside a gray/silver SUV with their hands clasped to their faces in shock.

So my wife pulled into the little gas station, got out and turned to see where they were parked -- and she saw them pull right through the stop sign and take off like nothing ever happened. Wow. She couldn't believe it. Who does that? Especially with her children inside the car.

So I "applaud" you (hands clapping in disappointment, shaking my head), the mom that decided it was a good idea to rear end someone and take off. My analogy is that she was like a dog who grabs a piece of pizza off the table then scampers to hide under the table knowing that you won't go under there to scold him in front of her children.

Dublin values students

Dear Editor,

I just recently attended a Realtor Tour of Dublin High School. It is clear that Dublin values their students. The new buildings are light, airy, and high tech. Construction continues while the students use the campus. Spirits and scores are high.

Bravo, Dublin!

Winter break too late

Dear Editor,

What was the Pleasanton Unified School District thinking when they set the 2011-12 calendar? Keeping kids in school until Dec. 23 is ridiculous.

Fact: All other school districts end school for the holidays on Dec. 16, allowing families time to travel and enjoy the winter holidays.

Fact: Kids, especially those in elementary school, have a hard time focusing in class when visions of sugarplums crowd out long division.

Fact: Families who wish to honor the school schedule and not receive truancy slips will miss travel, baking cookies with grandmas and trips to see the valley lights.

For a school district that routinely gives kids eight days off in November, trying to make up for that lost time by taking an extra week in December won't work and every other school district around us knows it. The week of Dec. 19-23 will be a waste of time. Let's hope the schools figure out a better way to manage their calendars next year.

Bad reception

Dear Editor,

Is my neighborhood the only neighborhood in Pleasanton with terrible cell phone reception? I live in the Vintage Hills II neighborhood. Why is it that I get cell phone reception most places in the East Bay, except in Pleasanton?

Fears low-cost housing

Dear Editor,

Your recent article on the city moving forward with the court-imposed high-density, lower-cost housing mandate made me afraid for the town I've known for over 25 years. My parents moved here in the early '80s. I moved back (to an apartment) this summer after having to give up being a homeowner in San Leandro.

I am a single mother, raising an amazing biracial daughter, who is a wonderful human being and awesome student. Harvest Park is making her work harder for her straight A's in eighth grade and I appreciate it immensely. Knowing that developers will be able to build this type of housing, which will inevitably bring more crime and inhabitants who have less pride in their homes, deters me from trying to buy a home again here.

This is not a racist or elitist, un-PC judgment, rather an observation. One need only ask the San Ramon Police Department about the number of call-outs to the lower-income apartments near Dougherty Valley High School. If the city of Pleasanton is be forced to allow such development, can we at least insist that very strict CC&R's be imposed on those who are fortunate enough to be given a chance to join a superior community, so Pleasanton doesn't become more like the majority of Alameda County?

Don't need combat team

Dear Editor,

The Dec. 2 Pleasanton Weekly has on the cover a terrifying figure of a police "officer" decked out in full camouflage. The article itself was extremely superficial and explained how much money we as taxpayers are saving by combining teams.

What was left out of the story is how much money we spend maintaining a combat team that to my knowledge we have never used, except to torture peaceful protestors. This is a team in search of something to do, and the misapplication of violence perpetrated by the police indicates to me not only how unnecessary it is for a town to have a full time combat squad, but the damage that results to the honor and integrity of the community when this force is unleashed on its own citizens.

I would call for the dissolution of combat squads in the police at the local level and maintain a much smaller force for the very specific purposes such as hostage situations. We spend too much money on military solutions to political problems.

John Williams

Posted by Fairlands mom, a resident of the Pleasanton Meadows neighborhood, on Dec 16, 2011 at 6:08 pm

What a sad letter from Mrs. Christine Gibney (Fears low-cost housing). She has decided that poor people are criminals. Let me tell you: Pleasanton is a beautiful town but we are by no means "superior" we have our flaws, we have dishonest people, criminals and our share of thieves but especially I am concerned about the people in our town not being tolerant to those who are different or have less than they do. Poor people are not less proud of their properties, they just have to give priority to other things besides landscaping.

Please Mrs. Gibney don't buy a house is Pleasanton move away to another town who deserves people like you.

Posted by Steve, a resident of the Parkside neighborhood, on Dec 17, 2011 at 8:04 am

Tolerate: to put up with, endure, suffer through in silence.

We don't need to tolerate a decline in our home values or pride in our community. Why do you think areas with foreclosures are blighted? No one makes the effort to maintain their property, for their own good and those around them. Yeah, they give priority to other things first......drugs, alcohol, 22 inch rims for their low riders. Not denying there's palace for this type of 'culture', but it's not Pleasanton.