Letters Letters (June 11, 2004)

Why single out Wal-Mart?

Editor,

I am appalled at the Pleasanton Planning Commission's unwarranted assault on a thriving local business. The local community blight de jour is Wal-Mart, but Home Depot has had some trouble on the peninsula, and I'm sure it's just a matter of time before it is targeted as well. The Planning Commission needs to stop trying to keep up with the anti-capitalist trend in the Bay Area to target successful chain businesses.

As the article states, the city planners forced Wal-Mart to make numerous changes 10 years ago. Wal-Mart complied with those not-so-voluntary requests but is now being told by the same Planning Commission that the architecture is suddenly ugly, and it needs to make even more improvements.

In my opinion, Wal-Mart is fine as it is. Before the city planners require Wal-Mart to spend money on improvements, they need to explain why other businesses don't require such scrutiny. Why isn't JC Penney plaza (near Stoneridge Mall) required to improve its outdated and eclectic architecture? Why did they allow a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant to open so close to the housing development on Bernal, and on a main entrance to our city? What about the countless businesses on Santa Rita Road that haven't improved their architecture in 40 years?

Is it because Wal-Mart is successful that it deserves special scrutiny? Perhaps the Planning Commission should also explain to the employees of Wal-Mart why their raises next year will be spent on architectural improvements. Steve LynnPleasanton It's a small world

Editor,

I read with extreme interest your May 28 article about Jim Faggiano, the young American prisoner of war interned by the Japanese at Santo Tomas University, Manilla, The Phillipines during World War II.

Everything Mr. Faggiano recalls about life at Santo Tomas is quite accurate. I know, because my father, Eugene Brush, was also interned there and he has recounted many, many similar stories about the Japanese camp.

My father was at that time an employee of Pan American Airways, working on the Clipper Ships flying between San Francisco and Manilla. Shortly after Pearl Harbor was bombed, he found himself among several thousand American, English, Dutch and Australian civilians, men, women and children, imprisoned by the Imperial Japanese Army at Santo Tomas.

When Corregidor fell, Army nurses and two Army dietitians were added to the POW population there. One of those dietitians was Ruby Motley, who was made manager of the children's kitchen. My father was head cook under Ms. Motley. The kitchen prepared all meals for the 600 youngsters at Santo Tomas, and Mr. Faggiano would most certainly have been served by my father during those long years of internment.

Small world after all!

I have forwarded this article to my father, who I know will also be interested in reading about Mr. Faggiano memories. Virginia RossiPleasanton

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