Letters to the Editor

The historical Villa Hotel: the end? ("Historic hotel plans switch to housing" in the Oct. 2 edition of the Daily Journal). I remember as a young boy going to Roosevelt School in Burlingame in September of 1939, riding my bike south on a deserted El Camino Real. I stopped to look around. A blue Pontiac Opera Coup 5 pulled up and a man got out. "Who is this man?" I thought. Glenn Miller in an army coat got out. A blonde lady driver got out, followed by a parcel truck and band members smoking cigars and cigarettes. I thought they must have been bound for the 1939 Golden Gate Exposition Fair at Treasure Island.

Years later, I contacted the Villa Hotel managers, and they had no record of the Miller Band there. The elderly owners were not too cooperative.

I was surprised at this attitude, which I had forgotten about until now. The planned closing of a beautiful historical hotel going way back before 1945 is frightening; now they have planned a kind of life for many going in and out of gridlock, with too many going nowhere with more gridlock traffic. We may be hitting what scientists call a "saturation point," with too many upset drivers who don't move.

Also the end of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel in San Mateo where as a kid I watched and heard the blues dance while Arthur Lake and Harry James visited. Why not cut down all those 100-year-old Eucalyptus trees to get more room? The elderly owners with their wealth and no care for what they have done to this Villa Hotel are doomed and frivolous.

Charles DeSoto

Belmont

Measure Q does not

create more open space

Editor,

I'm appalled - not surprised though - when supporters of Measure Q (like Tina Davis in her letter of Oct. 13) try to make the argument that retail office space will improve the environment in our county.

Once elk grazed in the meadows that surrounded our bay. Beaver and river otter lived in the streams that came down from the hills, and sea otters swam after dungeness crabs in the salt water just off the shore. The flocks of ducks and geese were so thick the Ohlone Indians could catch them by tossing nets up into the air. Now we have warnings not to eat fish from the bay more than twice a month because they contain so much toxic mercury. And where there was once 200,000 acres of tidal marches around the bay, now there are less than 40,000.

Despite this shrinking natural environment, the supporters of Q argue that building more condos and strip malls will give us more ... open space? How? By taking away what little open space we have now? These areas are where we locals go jogging, walk our dogs, play with our children, and get away from the sprawl that Tina Davis talks about.

And how will bringing 2000 more families into our region decrease congestion? The developers behind Measure Q want to put more businesses with their toxic emissions next to our bay. I would like to see us working to return the bay to a healthier, more natural state. The region planned for development may not be very natural now, but it is far easier to regenerate native marshland on a vacant lot than underneath the thousands of tons of concrete the developers want to lay down on it.

Measure Q means big bucks for a few developers - and more congestion and pollution and less open space and wild nature for the rest of us. I am voting no on Measure Q.

Mitchell Smith

San Mateo

Housing, not big box retail

Editor,

Housing or big box retail. That's the choice we are making when we vote on Measure Q. The answer is a no-brainer. Redwood City doesn't want or need big box retail and commercial development. We need housing. We need affordable housing. Measure Q gives us 1,930 homes, including 290 affordable homes.

The facts are clear. Something will be built at the Marina Shores Village site. The current zoning permits 1.25 million square feet of commercial space and big box retail. Measure Q will change that zoning.

Approval of Measure Q gives us desperately needed affordable housing, traffic and water improvements, revenues for public schools, and new parks and open space. It doesn't give us another commercial development. A commercial development will bring increased traffic to our city with no benefits. No new parks or open space, no new money for our schools or city services, and equally important no new housing.

Marina Shores Village will benefit all Redwood City residents. The millions of dollars in improvements to our city will be paid for by the builder. There is no cost to us, the taxpayers. Now is the time to think about the future of our community and the quality of life we want for our family. I look forward to walking or bicycling along the new paths at Marina Shores Village.

The best choice for Redwood City is new housing, not big box retail.

I am voting yes on Measure Q.

Will Richardson

Redwood City

Doomed to evil

Editor,

This is in response to Don Havis' Oct. 4 letter. Don cannot accept the fact that secular humanism is a religion based on atheism. It is the opposite of Christian principals, the religion of Satan!

In June 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court stated, "among religions in this country which do not teach the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, ethical culture, secular humanism and others." According to the humanist manifestos 1 and 11, humanism is "a philosophical, religious, and a moral point of view."

So, secular humanism, then, can be defined as a religious world view based on naturalism, evolution and ethical relativism.

As I have mentioned before, the legalization of birth control, for married or unmarried, abortion on demand, pray banned in schools, homosexuality, sodomy, and other future perverted rulings is in effect the establishment of the religion of secular humanism, Satanism!

Also, Don is very troubled with tax money being used to support Christian organizations and activities regarding religion.

Well, Don, how about the Supreme Court rulings that I have listed above which are being supported by our hard-earned tax dollars. In reality, our tax dollars are supporting the perverted rulings, or dogmas, of the religion of secular humanism. So, in truth, our government is in violation of the separation of church and state!

I have to admit that the humanists have successfully hidden their identity as a religion, with of course, the help of their co-workers that, now, control all areas of our government today.

Lastly, if the Christians in this country do not wake up to stop this conspiracy that intends to destroy every vestige of Christian principals and replace it with atheism, we are doomed to evil!

Ross Foti

Belmont