Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor (April 30, 2004)

Entire community had stake in parcel tax vote

Editor:

For Aaron Katz to assert that no one has a stake in Measure J unless they own property in Mountain View is ridiculous. Everyone who lives in this community has a stake in the quality of the schools.

Measure J was a result of dialogue between many sectors of the community, including large-scale landlords, merchants, parents, seniors, and educators. By Mr. Katz's logic -- if your April 23 article quotes him accurately -- property owners should vote in every district where they own property, renters should vote nowhere, and only people with children in schools should support the school district.

It is important to realize that the value of Mr. Katz's rental properties is sustained by the caliber of the schools, as well as by every other tax-supported aspect of Mountain View's infrastructure. If Mr. Katz is concerned about holding tenants in a renter's market, how much more should he worry if the schools are abandoned by this community?

We rent a home in Mountain View and voted "Yes" on Measure J. We offered to pay our landlords the tax on our home and theirs. Our landlords, a realtor/developer and a teacher who no longer have school-age children, supported Measure J as strongly as we did. Mr. Katz must not have spoken to them because they would have been able to enlighten him about how Measure J benefits all of us.

John and Jennifer Ezell
Sun Mor Avenue

Property owner takes issue with parcel tax lawsuit

Editor:

As a home and rental property owner in Mountain View who voted in favor of the property tax increase, I am frustrated by Aaron Katz's suit against the Measure J parcel tax and confused by his arguments.

If none of the property owners he knows would have voted for the increase, who did? Is it possible that all the owners he knows are also non-residents and are so short-sighted as to not see a connection between better local amenities and higher potential rents? Does he believe that the renters of Mountain View do not realize that a vote to increase property tax is a vote to increase their rent?

Perhaps the renters (who, by his argument, are the only ones who voted for the tax increase) are simply intelligent enough to realize that a $6.25 monthly increase in their rent is not insurmountable, and certainly not a reason to move.

Sula Bloore
Sonia Way

Remembering Kate Wakerly through YWCA work

Editor:

I have recently returned from a trip to China and learned of Kate Wakerly's passing.

I met Kate during the decade I spent at the Palo Alto Weekly, during which time the Voice was acquired by the parent company, Embarcadero Publishing Co. I also knew of her philanthropic work through the YWCA of the Mid-Peninsula.

It is not lost on me that Kate's six-year struggle to survive cancer mirrored the timeline our board endeavored to save the agency and that the sale of the building was announced the week she died.

I think Kate would be pleased to know that the YW's mission of empowering women and eliminating racism will live on through a donor-advised fund at the Women's Foundation, even as her legacy will be the love, humor and community-building efforts of her amazing family and her own philanthropic work in Mountain View and around the world.

Debbie Ford-Scriba
Marion Way

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