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News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods Instant Citizens Campbell--Thanks to the Child Citizenship Act of 2000, which took effect on Feb. 27, foreign-adopted children can now automatically become U.S. citizens. This will relieve pressure felt by parents to obtain citizenship for their adoptees--a process, often accompanied by a mountain of paperwork, that can take up to two years. In the past, while parents waited for their child's citizenship to go through, they also worried about their children being deported. "It really takes some of the urgency out of the way," said Toni Bell, who adopted two Russian daughters with her husband David. Sister Sister Los Gatos--There was a time when nuns strolled in their long, black habits down the corridors of Catholic schools and hospitals. But nuns are disappearing. They are becoming a shadow of the past--almost mythical figures whose work is being taken over by lay people, many of them associates who have not taken vows. The big order of the day, says Sister Joan Doyle, the current administrator at Holy Names, is how to keep vowed religious life going. During the 1950s, as many as 35 or 40 women became novices in Holy Names' California province every year. Now there are only five novices. "We are called not to let religious life die out," Doyle, says. She adds, "If it's God's will." Side Tracked? Saratoga--Plans to create an 8.7-mile trail along a Union Pacific Railroad line through Saratoga and Los Gatos have the railway up in arms. Union Pacific sees having people walking and biking so close to a rail line carrying a heavy load as a dangerous risk, according to the Union Pacific spokesman Mike Furtney. "People in the rail industry sort of shudder at the prospect of adding to what we know already goes on unofficially." The cost of the project is expected to be $9.2 million. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]