Cupertino's Independent Weekly
12 December 2008
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iPhone, iPod, iRestaurant by Francesca De La Rosa, Courant Food Editor Talk on Your iPhone, Listen to your iPod, Create an iMovie and Eat iFood all at the same time! A restaurant has opened in the old House of Sichuan location. iRestaurant, attempts to capitalize on the success of the products produced by Cupertino's largest private employer.
iRestaurant Courant Food Editor Francesca De La Rosa stopped by iRestaurant and talked to the owners. The restaurant has been totally redecorated, and the owner said that they have hired a professional wait staff in order to solve the service problems that plagued their House of Sichuan venture. When informed that Steve Jobs is a pescatarian, they pointed to the tanks that hold live fish. Steve, your table is waiting for you. Seniors Decry Lack of Retail Progress at Cupertino Square by Rick Lowe, Courant Local Editor Cupertino's seniors are losing patience with Cupertino Square's revitalization. The Courant interviewed a group of seniors that were waiting at Target for the bus from their senior condominium complex to pick them up.
Cupertino Square: The Only Thing Missing is Stores and Shoppers "There just aren't enough retail stores there," said Sadie Jamison. "When I want to purchase gifts for my grandchildren I go to Target, or I take the VTA bus to Valley Fair. At 85, I don't feel comfortable driving very far out of Cupertino." Her friend Mitzi Polacek agreed, stating, "Vallco has nothing that my grandchildren want." Seniors like the new AMC movie theater, and are frequent patrons. "The theater is beautiful," said J.T. Orlando. "I go there about every three weeks, but bring my own snacks and drinks." Residents complained about the lack of dining options at the mall. "Todai and Dynasty are too expensive, and Fresh Choice charges extra for many items," said Opal Thurston. "The new food court is an improvement, but Subway and Popeye's aren't foods that a lot of seniors will eat." Emily Katz commented, "I'm 83 years old. I'll be gone from this earth before there are any new stores at Vallco." She added with a wink, "If my husband were still alive then I'd buy myself some lingerie from Victoria Secrets." When asked why they still refer to the mall as Vallco, when the official name is now Cupertino Square, the group response was "it'll always be Vallco to us, we still call De Anza Boulevard highway 9 too." Curry House by Francesca De La Rosa, Courant Food Editor One of the major failures of public policy in Cupertino has been "mixed-use" complexes. Most of the available retail space has not been leased, or has been leased only briefly before the business failed. That may be changing with the opening of the Curry House restaurant on De Anza Boulevard. Curry House is a southern California chain that is expanding north.
Banner Proclaims Grand Opening of Curry House In Japan, wax models of menu items are used in the display window of restaurants. Curry House has imported that tradition so new customers can see what they are ordering. While there is no street parking, there is plenty of free parking available in the parking garage behind the restaurant. The chain's web site can be found at http://tinyurl.com/7ld9p. Technology Corner by Steve Scharf, Courant Technology Editor Digital SLR or Point and Shoot Camera?
Dear Steven:
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Technology Corner (continued from previous column)
If you want better low light performance you'll
need to upgrade to a digital SLR. The much larger sensor of the
digital SLR means larger pixels, which improve the low-light
performance.
Canon XSi is a Popular Consumer-Level D-SLR
E-mail your technology questions to scharf@cupertinocourant.com. Steven will answer as many as space allows in future issues. FUHSD Continues their "Get Tough" Policy by Cecily Chou, Courant Education Editor The letters from Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD) arrived at the homes of the 8th grade students in December, and parents began scrambling to find property tax bills, birth certificates, and passports.
The district requires a birth certificate or passport for the student. Parents must supply an original property tax bill (or a copy of a rental lease). Parents also need to supply a driver's license, state ID card or passport, plus a valid vehicle registration, W2, or paycheck stub. Non-residents have tried many tricks to get into Cupertino Schools. Some will buy rental property and then use the address as their home address. To combat this fraud, FUHSD requires that the property tax bill show the $7000 homeowners exemption. Some will have their child attempt to enroll using the address of a relative in Cupertino. This is the second year of the "get-tough" policy. Earlier this year, there was a long line outside the cafeteria at Cupertino High on February 5th where residency verification was taking place, and The Courant talked to two parents. "I don't mind doing this," said Steve Sobolstein, who lives on Tantau Avenue. "It's unfair for us to pay for non-residents in our schools." Molly McGuire, another Rancho Resident, agreed, "it's a hassle but they're pretty efficient and they provide free coffee and cookies." The Ski Renter Opens by Rick Lowe, Local Editor Cupertino used to have two stores that rented skis, Bud Hoffman's landmark Any Mountain store and national retailer REI. When those stores moved out of Cupertino residents had to travel out of town to rent skis. With ski season approaching, it's time to check out The Ski Renter on the corner of De Anza Boulevard and Bollinger Road.
There are several advantages to renting equipment locally. First, the prices are much lower than what the ski resorts charge. For example, a complete adult ski package at The Ski Renter costs $40 for two days. At the ski areas you'll pay $35-40 per day. Second, you don't have to wait in a long line to rent skis at the resort. cutting into your skiing time. Third, you have a wider selection of equipment. The down side is that you have to transport the equipment up to the ski areas, and if you have a problem with the equipment during the trip you're out of luck in terms of getting it repaired or replaced. Low Cost Cellular Cellular Available for as Little as 83¢ per Month by Steve Scharf, Courant Technology Editor Residents that don't want to spend $40 per month on cell phone service have several alternatives to signing a contract with one of the four major cellular providers. In Cupertino, the low-cost option with the best coverage is little-known PagePlus, which costs as little as $2.31 per month, with airtime costs from 5-11¢ per minute. PagePlus uses Verizon's network, which has the best coverage in Cupertino.
T-Mobile offers service for as little as 83¢ a month after the first year. Coverage in Cupertino is marginal, but improving (T-Mobile recently installed a new tower over by Tin-Tin Market). Mike Markenson, the father of two Homestead high school students told The Courant, "I got PagePlus for my two teenagers and told them to not have gabfests with their friends. I'm paying 5¢ a minute, and they've been using about 150 minutes a month each, which costs me $8 or so per month per line." Some parents buy their kids $400 iPhones and pay $70/month per phone, but I guess my kids will just be un-cool. |
Mayor Forgets to Ask Cyclists About State of Cycling in Cupertino Courant Investigative Report by Rick Lowe In her state of the city address earlier this year, former Mayor Sandoval mentioned the conditions for bicyclists in Cupertino. Unfortunately, she neglected to actually ask any area cyclists about the issues affecting bicycling in Cupertino. Cyclists in Cupertino have long-complained about the city's bicycle-unfriendliness.
A letter outlining some of the issues that affect bicycling in Cupertino was sent to the LAB (League of American Bicyclists) by a group of Cupertino cyclists in response to Cupertino's plan to apply for LAB's "Bicycle Friendly Community" status. Some of the issues raised in the letter are as follows: Issues with Bicycling in Cupertino 1. Narrowing of important arterial routes by converting parallel street parking to angled parking. 2. Lack of traffic enforcement. Budget cuts for police services have resulted in an epidemic of red-light running, speeding, and failure to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. This discourages bicycling, and makes parents reluctant to allow their children to ride their bicycles to school. 3. Traffic signals that cannot be activated by a bicyclist, either by a sensor or by a button. There are busy intersections in the city where a bicyclist is forced to run the red light, because there is no way to trigger the signal. 4. Dangerous narrowing of streets. Some streets were narrowed by concrete islands used for traffic control equipment that has since been removed. The islands remain in place, and vehicles squeeze out bicyclists. Cyclists have requested that these islands be removed, but no action has been taken.
Old Concrete Islands on Pacifica Are a Danger to Cyclists because they Narrow the Road Making it more Dangerous for Cyclists and Vehicles to Share the Road. 5. Bicycle lanes used for parking. There are bicycle lanes that are signed "No Parking Any Time," but in areas near some schools, these lanes are used by parents as a pick up area for students. 6. Lack of bicycle education. The police (Santa Clara County Sheriff) used to provide bicycle safety education in the Cupertino schools. Budget cuts in police services have eliminated this program. 7. Uncontrolled intersections. There are hundreds of uncontrolled intersections in the city, which are especially dangerous to bicyclists because vehicles often do not see bicycles coming, and they fail to treat the intersection as an all-way stop as required by law. 8. Unsound growth policies. Rezoning of existing industrial, commercial, and retail land for high density housing, has reduced jobs and retail in the city, forcing residents to drive long distances to work and shop. The city has sold out to developers, looking to make a quick profit. 9. Lack of traffic calming measures. The city is reluctant to implement proven traffic calming measures that would make the streets safer for both cyclists and pedestrians. Proposition 13 Under Fire as Seniors Pass Homes to Adult Children by Cecily Chou, Courant Education Editor Proposition 13 helped stop seniors from losing their homes due to huge property tax increases caused by rapid increases in assessed values, but provisions of the popular proposition are a real headache for the state budget.
The people who owned homes back in 1978 are now passing their tax exemptions on to their children. It's not uncommon for a professional couple in Cupertino earning over $200,000 per year to be paying less than $1000 in property tax on a home valued over a million dollars. They send their children to the same schools as their neighbors who are paying $15,000 per year in property tax. "Parents of school children rail against school boards for closing schools due to budget constraints, then some of them go home and revel about their artificially low property taxes, failing to see the connection," said one school board member who wanted to remain anonymous. "$1000 in property tax doesn't even cover one sixth of the cost of one student. Legislators are looking at tax code changes that could reduce the inequities, without touching Proposition 13 itself. Subscribe to The Courant To subscribe to the Courant PDF edition, send an e-mail to subscribepdf@cupertinocourant.com. It's free, recyclable, and it won't sit in your driveway for weeks. Such a deal. New features scheduled to debut over the next few months are restaurant reviews and a local event calendar. Our apologies to those that were unable to access our website last week. We were not prepared for the number of hits that the site received. Our web hosting service has now been changed to one with no bandwidth restrictions. Contact Us Editor: Joseph C. Cortez cortez@cupertioncourant.com Education Editor: Cecily Chou: chou@cupertioncourant.com
Food Editor:
Francesca De La Rosa
fdlr@cupertioncourant.com Local Editor: Rick Lowe: lowe@cupertioncourant.com Circulation: circulation@cupertioncourant.com Advertising: advertising@cupertioncourant.com
© 2008, Volume 2, Number 5 |
Photograph by Francesca De La Rosa
