More Ramen? A Balanced Article About Payday Loans? Amazing!

Re: "Big Softy" by Laura Onstot (March 12)

Thanks for writing a balanced article about the payday lending industry. Like any industry, there are critics of payday lending. There are also consumers who misuse the product and have buyer's remorse, like Ms. Davis, even though she says it helped her when she needed it. And there are lenders in the industry who don't positively contribute to its reputation. The same could be said of any industry.

But most of the people in the payday loan industry and its customers are decent, honest, responsible, and want to do the right thing. Mr. Bassford is one of the good guys. Congrats, Seattle Weekly, you've done what others have failed to do: write a balanced piece that challenges not just the claims of the industry but those of its critics equally.—Veritas

That's bullsh*t!!!! You can't charge anyone over 300 percent interest, as payday "check-cashing" companies are allowed to do in this state, and call yourself honest by any stretch of the imagination. This creates a horrible dynamic for more and more of us—not just minorities. These places should be outlawed, and the CEOs prosecuted as the usurious predatory individuals they are.—Christal Wood

Let's remember that many payday loan establishments actually started as a check-cashing business—a service that was greatly needed in low-income communities because traditional banks would not provide financial services—which is why many of the payday lenders are located in communities of color. When your car breaks down and you won't have the money to get it fixed for a week, this short-term loan is vital to your ability to continue your employment.

Sure, there are people who get in trouble with the short-term credit, but there are folks who get in over their heads with traditional credit, and I don't see anyone protesting Citibank. And, Moneytree will extend your loan if you can't pay it back when you promised without any additional fees. Will B of A give you the same courtesy?

I get tired of folks treating the working poor like children. The adults who borrow money are responsible enough to have jobs and checking accounts. Surely, they can decide if they can afford a payday loan.—Former Customer

I have taken out payday loans on occasion to balance my account and avoid bank fees. On average, a $100 loan charges $15 over two weeks compared to a bank's charge of $35 on an overdraft on the same day of the charge (no matter how much you have overdrawn). If you calculate the APR on the aforementioned bank's NSF, it can easily top 10,000 percent compared to the lesser 391 percent from the mentioned payday loan. Can you imagine the banks having to justify that? Learn the facts. Don't be emotional about it.—Do the math

Re: "Down the Commode" by Rick Anderson (March 12)

The simple solution is to charge money for the use of the toilets, as they do in major European cities. Get with the program, Seattle, and stop being so g_ d_ passive-aggressive! Pay to pee and it'll go toward maintenance costs AND keep the bums out (so to speak).—K

When the public toilets in Pioneer Square opened for the 1909 World's Fair, they were touted in Harper's as being the most beautiful in the country. They were closed up in the '30s or '40s...but A MILLION DOLLARS could go far to renovate them (a historic attraction) and then HIRE some of the panhandlers of Pioneer Square to keep them clean as attendants...offering real jobs to real people....Maybe not as high-tech, but this would serve several positive functions with just one program....Maybe it makes too much sense?—Seattle Guide Greg

The only people I have ever seen entering or leaving those toilets are drugged-up burnouts who went in there to shoot up. Stop wasting your money, Seattle. Sally Clark's idea to "align" with businesses to open their rest rooms to tourists and the homeless is ridiculous. Anyone with a brain knows that no successful business owner is going to open up their paying customers' rest rooms to vagrants. Not only would that drive away their business, but it would also be a health/safety risk.—Jewell

I used—or tried to use—one last week at the Pike Place Market and the door wouldn't close. When I walked away I saw a guy go in and, the door still stuck open, take a pee anyway. Certainly adds color to the Market!—Jane Wright

Adding together the lease money spent, the contract-terminating cost, and the removal expenses, we will have flushed more than $3 million down those toilets. And nobody's going to jail?—Bud

These toilets should be coin-operated. Make them $.50 a turn, and the money can be used to rehab them. Offer people a job to run the toilets. Perhaps subcontract it out to Real Change or [the] Matt Talbot [Center]. Most other countries I've traveled to have public rest rooms, and almost all are pay-to-use. Making business pay to provide toilets for all is not the answer.—Andy Hallock