Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor (December 10, 2004)

Anesthesiology issues fault of hospital, not doctors

Editor:

El Camino Hospital's recent actions do not benefit patients. Both patient welfare and human dignity have come out losers.

Yes, the cost of health care is very high. This country does not have a good health care system for its citizens. But the doctors who work within our flawed system should not be made the scapegoats.

What about the "hospital administration?" How many administrators does it take to run one hospital? What are their salaries? El Camino does quite a bit of marketing. How much is spent on that?

Anesthesiologists have salaries commensurate with their education, training and experience, coupled with the high degree of responsibility and risk inherent in the nature of their work. The El Camino anesthesiologists were not even negotiating a raise; they were merely trying to keep their salary from being cut.

For that they were thrown out like garbage: fired without a two-week notice or severance pay, without any word of regret or appreciation for their fine work and dedication, and escorted out by the police.

Since when did salary negotiation become a crime? This sounds like a horror story from the days before labor laws or workers' rights. Even if the administrators' actions were legal, they were certainly not decent or humane.

There was no concern shown for the patients at Washington Hospital in Fremont whose anesthesiologists were snatched away without notice to serve as scabs. Some brave doctors at El Camino expressed their distress over the incident. But undoubtedly many more doctors, as well as nurses, and other workers, must feel stunned and saddened, not to mention fearful in regard to their own vulnerability.

How can El Camino patients get good medical attention in such a setting? And patients are still left with the spiraling health care costs caused by our system, not by a handful of anesthesiologists. Laura Kostinsky Elka Avenue

Monta Loma positions hard to define

Editor:

In response to Pat Ryan's letter, "Monta Lomans unwelcoming" last week, I caution against judging people, neighborhoods, or circumstances based on newspaper accounts. The situation is usually much more complex and nuanced than is reported.

Like Pat, I chose to live in Mountain View for its many wonderful attributes. And I love living in Monta Loma, which is a true neighborhood, unlike many places in the Bay Area. I think it is obscene that housing prices are so high that more people cannot afford to live here, or in the Bay Area in general.

It's true that many Monta Lomans do not want high-density housing on the Mayfield site. That's not the same as wanting no housing. But we do not want anything done to the site until the city council has pro-actively assessed what the best use of it would be for the city of Mountain View. Yes, for the whole city. The neighborhood petition against rezoning at this time would allow time for that assessment to happen. The Mayfield site is one of the largest parcels of land within the city and offers a unique opportunity. We don't want hasty decisions to be made in reaction to a specific development proposal that we may later regret.

In response to Fred Duperrault's letter, "Housing versus commercial zoning" last week, the Toll Brothers developers estimate that the luxury homes they propose to build at Mayfield will be priced in the high $400,000s (for the smallest condominium) to the high $700,000s (for the largest single-family home). If the upward trend in housing prices continues, those numbers will likely go up. Is this "affordable" enough for lower income people to live here?

If the city wants to provide truly affordable housing options, it needs to consider using city land that nonprofit housing organizations can develop for low-income residents. For-profit developers are not going to meet those needs.

Monta Lomans are not unwelcoming and have nothing of which to be ashamed. We just want a thoughtful process to determine what's best for all of us in the long run. Sheri Morrison Anna Avenue

Fed up with lack of playing fields

Editor:

After reading the article in this week's Voice about the city council's decision not to use the Charleston site for additional sports fields, I feel compelled to voice my displeasure with the council.

I think council members, with the exception of Greg Perry, should be ashamed of themselves. I've been listening to the council's excuse for not using that site for too long. I'd like to know when this hotel is going to be built.

The youth of Mountain View and their sports organizations are constantly being crammed on overused and overbooked fields or refused use altogether. The Mountain View Marauders don't have a home field to practice and play on.

We have too few soccer fields for all of the kids to play on. There is only one full-size baseball diamond in this city, and it's not only overused by baseball leagues, but it doubles as a practice facility for other sports.

I'd like to know when this city is going to start putting its youth ahead of the bottom line. If the council is so concerned with tax revenue then maybe it shouldn't have granted tax-exempt status to the new health care facility slated for the old Emporium site. I mean, we all know that health care facilities don't make any money -- just take a look at your doctor's bills.

As a lifelong resident of Mountain View, a parent of two children and a business owner in this city, I'm fed up with listening to this city say it will do something about this issue some day. In a day and age where youth sports can do so much to help keep kids out of trouble, not to mention add to their overall development, I have to ask when this city is going to step up and do something about the lack of sports fields for its youth leagues. Joe Cree Morgan Street

E-mail a friend a link to this story.