Silicon Valley’s State of Emergency

Charles Piller’s “Silicon Valley Paying the Price for Its Own Success” [Innovation, Sept. 20] presented the facts but still didn’t portray the real state of emergency building in the Santa Clara Valley and all the counties surrounding this high-tech “off”-center.

Besides generations of families being forced out of the area due to silicon dollars and the hyper-inflated cost of living, our children are truly paying the cost.

How can parents pass on values, beliefs and family experience when both parents are forced, due to economics, to commute for hours daily?

Children are shuffled off to overcrowded classrooms, day care, after-school care and onto anyone who will keep half an eye on the kids . . . if they are that lucky.

Silicon Valley corporations keep on recruiting from all over the world, bringing in more and more workers and their families. It’s the same practice with governmental agencies. Not only do these corporations’ work forces severely impact the population figures, these captains of the industry are the ones leading the charge against bond measures for new schools and parks, made necessary by their drive for success.

And we wonder why children act out.

DAN YOUNG

Aptos, Calif.