My wife and I have lived in the county since 1933 and 1943 respectively. Neither of us is opposed to progress but do strongly believe that the people whose lives are most affected by progress should be the ones to determine when our quality of life has deteriorated to the point where further progress should be halted. We believe that we have reached this point and are in strong opposition to the development of the Coyote Valley.
For far too long the developers and their kept politicians have had their way.

One notices that it is called the North Coyote Valley development from which we are to infer that the rest of the Valley is sacrosanct. At this point in time the Tooth Fairy has more credibility. The North Valley development will just be the beginning of the destruction of the entire agricultural region. The Green Line is already under attack by the Young (sometimes spelled Yeoung) and the Richmond interests.

I've attached a copy of the letter I sent to the SJ Mercury but which was not printed in case anyone is interested.

Hank & Ruth Bielefeld

The Public Relations department of Cisco Systems and its proponents predict that the campus will bring $6 million in revenue to the city of San Jose each year for the next 30 years. This is truly a bold prediction considering the extreme volatility of the high technology business world. Even if one accepts their figure at its face value, with an extremely low inflation rate of 2.5% per year the buying power of $6 million will have shrunk to about $4 million in 15 years and to about $3 million 30 years from now. In addition, since this revenue flow begins at zero and builds up over a period of years, the effects of inflation will be even greater.

When one considers the amount of the subsidies that the taxpayers must bear for acquiring the land needed to widen roads, the costs of the roads themselves, and the huge cost of the infrastructure needed to support this campus and the 20,000 or so employees and their families it doesn't seem like such a good deal. The projected taxpayer spending has already reached $50 million and will probably greatly exceed that. The tired old mantra that "the expanded tax base will cover the costs" no longer has any credibility.

Much is made of the fact that the Coyote Valley plan is 20 years old. Twenty years ago we did not have gridlock, 4 hour commutes, ever-increasing pollution, double-digit annual rent increases, etc. Most businesses review their business plans every year, perhaps the time has come to review the Coyote Valley Plan.

Henry J. Bielefeld