Serving Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, and Woodside for 47 years.
Viewpoint IDEAS, THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS
ABOUT LOCAL ISSUES FROM PEOPLE IN OUR COMMUNITY. EDITED BY TOM GIBBONEY
EDITOR & PUBLISHER Tom Gibboney (223-6507) NEWSROOM Managing Editor Richard Hine (223-6525) News Editor Renee Batti (223-6528) Lifestyles Editor Jane Knoerle (223-6531) Staff Writers Dave Boyce (223-6527), Sandy Brundage (223-6529) Contributors Marjorie Mader, Barbara Wood, Kate Daly Special Sections Editor Carol Blitzer Photographer Michelle Le (223-6530) DESIGN & PRODUCTION Design Director Shannon Corey (223-6560) Designers Linda Atilano, Lili Cao, Rosanna Leung, Paul Llewellyn, Scott Peterson, Kameron Sawyer ADVERTISING Vice President Sales and Marketing Tom Zahiralis (223-6570) Display Advertising Sales Wendy Suzuki (223-6569) Real Estate Manager Neal Fine (223-6583)
Woodside History Committee
Our Regional Heritage The Folger Estate in Woodside was the site of many social affairs, including the wedding festivities in this undated photo. James A. Folger II, whose father founded San Francisco-based Folgers Coffee company, moved to Woodside in 1902, according to a history of Woodside by Woodside History Committee member Thalia Lubin and local historian Bob Dougherty. In 1905, he commissioned architect Arthur Brown Jr. to design an Edwardian-style mansion on what was called Hazelwood Estate, and the 13-acre property, complete with sulfur springs and a stable designed in the French Baroque style, was renamed the Folger Estate.
Real Estate & Advertising Coordinator Diane Martin (223-6584) Legal Advertising Alicia Santillan (223-6578)
LETTERS Our readers write
Published every Wednesday at 3525 Alameda De Las Pulgas, Menlo Park, CA 94025 Newsroom: (650) 223-6525 Newsroom Fax: (650) 223-7525 Advertising: (650) 854-2626 Advertising Fax: (650) 223-7570 Email news and photos with captions to: Editor@AlmanacNews.com Email letters to: letters@AlmanacNews.com The Almanac, established in October 1965, is delivered each week to residents of Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside and adjacent unincorporated areas of southern San Mateo County. The Almanac is qualified by decree of the Superior Court of San Mateo County to publish public notices of a governmental and legal nature, as stated in Decree No. 147530, issued December 21, 1969. ©2013 by Embarcadero Media Company. All rights reserved. Subscriptions are $60 for one year and $100 for two years.
■ WHAT’S YOUR VIEW? All views must include a home address and contact phone number. Published letters will also appear on the web site, www.TheAlmanacOnline.com, and occasionally on the Town Square forum.
Town Square forum Post your views on the Town Square forum at www.TheAlmanacOnline. com Email your views to: letters@almanacnews.com and note this it is a letter to the editor in the subject line. Mail
or deliver to: Editor at the Almanac, 3525 Alameda de las Pulgas, Menlo Park, CA 94025.
Call
the Viewpoint desk at 223-6507.
Safety more important than couch sculpture Editor: As a working artist I could weigh in on the aesthetic merits of the Willow Road “Couch Sculpture,” but I recall the Eiffel Tower in Paris had critics and fans as well. More important to me is the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists of our town. For example Coleman Avenue, a major street to Laurel School, is an obstacle course of danger. The road not only lacks sidewalks and bike paths, its rutted edge is often blocked by ivy, trash cans, asphalt diverters, and so on. I actually saw a woman with a baby strapped to her chest fall forward into the gravel. (I did stop to help.) Apparently the “rural aesthetic” of a few vocal residents is enough to squash any changes toward safety. Yes, I know there are different municipal jurisdictions involved, but they somehow managed to get El Camino Real and Middlefield Road to line up. Safety First. Jill Andre Pope Street, Menlo Park
18 N The Almanac N TheAlmanacOnline.com N July 10, 2013
Secret money poisoning our democracy By Congresswoman Anna Eshoo
to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into political “Star Trek” parody video, line dance lessons, and campaigns under the secrecy provided by 501(c)(4) presidential hotel suites. These are just some status. This secret money from unknown donors is poisonof the outrageous things the Internal Revenue Service spent $49 million of taxpayer money on at more ing our electoral system and our democracy. So long as than 200 employee conferences from 2010 through their primary purpose is to promote social welfare — 2012. The findings, presented at a recent Congressio- arguably a mere 51 percent — 501(c)(4) organizations nal oversight hearing, come amid revelations that the with innocuous-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity can pour the remainder of their IRS inappropriately held up applications for funds into political campaigns, all without tax-exempt status by groups with “Tea Party,” disclosing their big-money backers. For all “patriot,” and “progressive” in their names. we know, foreign nationals could be influDoes this sound unacceptable? I’d certainly encing our elections with undisclosed consay so. But the IRS is complicit in a broader tributions. Furthermore, taxpayers end up breach of trust with the American people subsidizing the political agendas of special — one that is threatening the fabric of our interests. democracy. The IRS attempted to rectify how it GUEST Beyond gross misuse of taxpayer money and mishandling the applications of mom-and- OPINION considers 501(c)(4) applications this week. Applicants who have been waiting more pop nonprofits, the IRS is wrongfully allowthan 120 days for a decision will be approved ing secret, big-money interests to conceal millions of dollars in political campaign spending and run if they “self-certify” that no more than 40 percent of spending goes toward elections. Rather than pull an roughshod over our elections. All of the estimated $300 million in secret money arbitrary standard from thin air, the IRS should update spent in the 2012 election cycle can be traced back to a its rule to ensure that 501(c)(4) organizations function single provision in our tax laws, called Section 501(c) “exclusively” to promote social welfare, as Congress (4). Originating in the Revenue Act of 1913, Section intended. The burden of ridding our elections of secret money 501(c)(4) provides tax-exempt status to nonprofit groups “operated exclusively for the promotion of social doesn’t fall entirely on the IRS. A constitutional welfare.” Like many nonprofits, 501(c)(4) groups are amendment overruling the “Citizens United” decision is necessary to grant Congress full regulatory authornot required to publicly disclose their donors. The operative word in the law is that these organi- ity over campaign contributions and expenditures. zations are required to function “exclusively” for the Congress should also pass legislation that requires general public’s benefit, meaning they are prohibited corporations, labor unions and nonprofit groups to from engaging in political campaigns. But in a 1959 disclose all campaign-related spending or donations rulemaking, the IRS turned this simple standard on its within 24 hours. Our government is being bought and sold on the head, changing the word “exclusively” to “primarily.” This seemingly small change opened up a loophole in auction block by unlimited money from anonymous our tax law that, until the Supreme Court’s infamous buyers. That is not a democracy, and the American “Citizens United” decision, had gone relatively unno- people should not stand for it. Anna G. Eshoo, a Democrat, represents ticed. Once “Citizens United” opened the spigot of California’s 18th Congressional district. corporate money in elections, special interests rushed
A