LANN’s 5^th Birthday!

Happy Birthday to the Los Altos Neighborhood Network. LANN has celebrated its 5^th year as a neighborhood support organization. We thank all of our members for making this happen.

The origins of LANN began in the living room of Leslie Lodestro, founder, original President and now Membership Chairperson. With a few impromptu meetings with Ken Lorell, Vice President, Tom Anderson, Advisor, and a few others, Leslie felt strongly that the community needed a group like LANN. According to Leslie, "The Los Altos Neighborhood Network operates with a simple goal which is to preserve our small town character.  It helps to have a board rich in character to fulfill this goal." So Leslie, thank you for your passion and commitment to take LANN from an idea in your living room, to an asset in the community and an organization of approximately 500 households.

The newsletter is the core of LANN. In addition, we regularly assist many residents over the phone on an "as needed" basis. However, it is the newsletter that is our most visible product. Over the last 5 years, LANN has produced 60 newsletters! We have had 240 articles written by 50 different authors. Every contributor has had a passion or desire to share an important Los Altos issue. We know that writing these articles took time, research and sacrifices to meet our deadlines. There are 4 individuals that need to be acknowledged for their extraordinary efforts and contributions to our newsletter. Three of these individuals are recognized for the volume of articles they have produced and the fourth is "behind the scene"; we are fortunate to have all of them are on our Board.

First, he is known as "Mr. Traffic" around Los Altos. Anybody who is anybody will always go to him first to gain an understanding of the traffic issues. Bill Crook has managed to keep us "in the know" and updated with traffic and safety with an average of an article every other month. With over 32 articles to his name, we would like to acknowledge Bill for his efforts.

Next, as if founding LANN, being the first president and then continuing on as membership chair hasn’t been enough, Leslie Lodestro has also found the time to penn at least 54 articles to her name and many more that she did not receive credit for. So Leslie, thank you for all your contributions and for 54 articles!

We have been fortunate to have on our Board an individual that contributes a minimum of 3 to 4 articles per year ALONG WITH a monthly column. She is completely dependent on the city for her monthly information, yet she has never missed a deadline. Her monthly column for LANN has now been picked up by the Town Crier. Between her articles and column, Kathy Putman has been featured in our newsletter over 75 times!!!

Last, we gave her a "Cause for Applause" last month and we’re still applauding. Vickie Clements is the individual who receives the articles in various states and then blends them into a cohesive newsletter. She’s a wiz with words, layouts and at negotiating with contributors regarding article length and deadlines.

Thank you to our members, all of our contributors, and the continued support of the community. To quote Kate Disney, Planning Commissioner and Advisor to LANN, "Over the last five years, LANN has proven itself to be an inclusive and democratic organization with a shared vision among its board to inform and assist the citizens of Los Altos."

Here’s to another 5 years!

1.  05-SC-59 -- R. Shahidi -- 502 Palm Avenue. Consideration of design review

to demolish an existing 1232 square-foot single-story home and construct  a new 3029 square-foot two-story home.  The project includes a first story of 1,847 square-feet and a second story of 1,182 square feet. Project Planner: Beaudin

This summer the City of Los Altos completed a Safe Routes to School (SR2S) project on El Monte at the back of Almond School. The project includes a raised crosswalk at El Monte and South Clark to increase pedestrian safety for students accessing Almond School from the back entrance, and landscaped median chicanes to narrow the street and slow traffic. The improvements were funded by a $310,000 SR2S Grant (awarded fall 2002) and a $40,000 Transportation Fund for Clean Air Grant.

Collector streets, as defined in the City’s General Plan, provide access and traffic circulation within residential and non-residential areas (in other words, they connect local streets to arterials and expressways.) Collector streets are meant to handle higher traffic volumes while at the same time accommodating pedestrians and bicyclists. Many of our city’s collector roads pass next to or near by schools (Almond, El Monte, Cuesta, Springer, Miramonte, Grant), making the journey to school more challenging for students. As an example, Fremont Ave. between Springer and Hwy. 85 is a collector but does not pass next to a school. And, San Antonio Road is an arterial, designed to handle a higher volume of vehicles than a collector but at a slower speed limit than an expressway.

And finally, a City of Mountain View SR2S project funded the radar speed signs on Springer Road at Rosita and Rose earlier this year. The signs are intended to slow motorists for students crossing Springer Road on their journey to Springer School.

Recently I attended an Architectural and Site Committee meeting to voice my concerns about two builder’s spec homes being proposed on my street. Before I showed up at the meeting, I spoke with each of the three-committee members individually. I even met with one of them at the proposed site. I listened carefully to what they had to say. The interactions were not just me espousing my views but them sharing theirs. I considered carefully what they said and prepared my presentation. I compromised some of my positions so that we could find some middle ground. Their ruling and instruction to the developer addressed my concerns. My two-hour investment of time was well worth it. I had a big smile on my face as I rode my bike home.

A friend and mom from my kid’s school attended that same meeting to talk about a different item. She had concerns about a multi-unit development being proposed near her home on a church property. I had read her emails, which she circulated widely. I was long gone by the time she addressed the committee, but she called me that night dumbfounded. She said she felt the committee did not listen to her. She felt they were dismissive. She is a smart woman who had some legitimate concerns, but she had not taken the time to meet, face to face with the committee members prior to the meeting. She did not understand how necessary this step in the process is.

Most people do not like surprises. To change an important decision at the last minute based on brand new information runs counter to human nature. To present a gripe for the first time to a commission, council, committee or board in a public meeting with a three-minute sound bite just does not work. The lack of response by committee members leaves the resident feeling surprised.

Our public servants need time to digest an argument. The people who serve on our commissions, committees councils and boards are mostly open minded, thoughtful individuals who are willing to spend a lot of time listening to points of view before developing their own. If no points of view are offered they go with what they have. The most compelling argument, when presented for the first time in a meeting, cannot derail a decision that has taken days, sometimes weeks to form in the minds of our public servants. Nothing would ever get done in town if every last minute argument presented in every meeting were considered.

Things happen based on relationships. It is imperative that residents develop relationships with the movers and shakers that make decisions if they have an issue that is important to them. Meaningful relationships are not developed through email or letter writing. Email is useful as an appointment maker but the spoken word is a powerful thing. Our public servants are very amenable to personal meetings and more residents should take advantage of that before marching up to the podium in a public forum.

LANN has a well-developed formula for meeting with commissioners and for presenting ideas in public forums. 1) Do not overwhelm the pre-meeting with many attendees. Pull together 1-3 residents to present an idea. 2) If the issue involves any kind of land use, meet at the site in daylight. 3) Listen carefully, ask for and be open to guidance in preparing for the public meeting. 4) Be willing to move your position if you find your ideas are not being met with any support. 5) During the public meeting, make sure that the speakers (if there is more than one) do not repeat points. 6) Not everyone supporting your idea needs to speak. Elected officials have attention spans too.

I have requested many meetings with many different elected and appointed town officials over the years. My request for a meeting, in my home has never been turned down. I am not special; this is an accommodation that all residents can expect. I have not always gotten the result I have asked for, but come meeting time I have an understanding of the leanings of the officials and I am never surprised by their rulings.

Crime & Punishment, Con’t.

I RSVP’d to the wedding of a high school friend once and I ended up not going. No call, no communication, just didn’t go. The memory still makes me blush. How rude, how dare I. While I’m sure she wasn’t walking down the aisle wondering where I was I am certain she missed me at some point. I was too embarrassed even to call her with my very lame excuse. I’ve gotten a little better, but not much and I’m not alone. What is it in this generation that causes us to behave like careless friends and acquaintances? Perhaps it is the volume of invitations and the form in which they arrive.

I rarely take an email invitation seriously. I save them with the intention of checking my calendar which I always forget to do. The next time I check my email; there are a hundred other, (seemingly) more important items to tend to. The invitation festers, forgotten at the bottom of my screen and then in time is squashed beyond view by new incoming mail.

Birthday invitations for my kids pile by the phone until one of them whines, "mom, it’s Drew’s birthday this weekend." Darn! Goody bags are expensive. A host parent does not want to have to assemble more than are necessary and my neglect creates a moving target on the kid count. (The whole goody bag phenomenon is a costly, expected tradition that we mother’s impose upon ourselves. The goody bag does serve one useful purpose in that it gets kids out the door and into their departing vehicles like a cannon shot because they can’t wait to rip into the contents.)

I have a wedding invitation sitting next to my computer right now. The wedding is in two weeks. I forgot to RSVP and the mother of the bride had to call me to get our menu choices. Darn! Thank heavens we are close enough that she did not judge me. She just wanted to make sure I got fed.

The Los Altos Neighborhood Network threw a thank you party for all of our contributing writers. We sent out 75 invitations. They were cute. The addresses were hand-written. They said RSVP by a certain date. We only received 15 responses. Some did come in at the last minute. While the response rate was pitiful the party actually was well attended.

So here’s the scoop on RSVP. It comes from the French word respndez s’il vous plait, which means "please reply". The request is a practical one designed to allow hosts to make sure they have enough food and drink. Formal, written invitations should be responded to the day they arrive. Other forms of invites, verbal, electronic, flyer style deserve the RSVP they request but rarely seem to get the same treatment as expensive, printed invitations or hand written invitations. Another popular form of collecting head counts is the "regrets only" type of RSVP. Hah! For me that is just an open invitation not only not to call, but not to go, and with less guilt.

My New Year’s resolution is to respond to all invitations I receive in a timely way. I don’t respond to many invitations because I feel guilty about not being able to attend the event that someone thought enough to ask me to. But the guilty bad manners I live with are worse. As I head into the holidays, I’m going to practice my response skills and be ready when January 1 rolls around. I’m trading in my guilt for an organized calendar and polite, timely responses to all invitations.