MAYBE THAT’S WHAT CITIZEN KANE MEANT
I loved the Dining Guide [“Three Square Meals—and Then Some,” April 20]. Thanks. I think that Rosebud is the best breakfast in town—creative with an interesting twist on classic breakfast items. Also, a very simple yet yummy omelet can be had at Voula’s Offshore Cafe next to Northlake Tavern.Their omelets have many thin layers of eggs—kind of like a croissant. Just delicious!
Jeff Eccles
Seattle
IGNORING THE BURBS
I read your 2005 Dining Guide [“Three Square Meals—and Then Some,” April 20] with the kind of disappointment I have become accustomed to in your paper. Although I realize that the title is Seattle Weekly, silly me, I consider it to be serving the Seattle metro area, not just the city proper. So I was again disappointed at the way you continue to ignore anything on the Eastside. My unscientific survey showed a total of three restaurants in your entire report that were on the Eastside. This despite the fact that at least a third of the population is located there. But that’s business as usual for you guys.
Ben Klausner
Redmond
SOMETHING FISHY AT RAY’S
I’m sorry to say that Ray’s is one of the worst restaurants I’ve been to [2005 Dining Guide, “Three Square Meals—and Then Some,” April 20]. I went there last week with some friends for dinner, upstairs in the cafe. First off, they took their time with the drink orders, but that’s besides the point. Our calamari was awful—very, very greasy. My fish and chips were disgusting; they tasted fishy and had way too much breading. My friend’s dish, which was a special that night, was gross—a pile of white rice with scallops and way too much sauce. We all went home feeling sick. Ray’s sucks
Tom J. Smith
Seattle
KIDS EAT FREELY
Heather Logue’s review of the Old Spaghetti Factory [“Red in the Face,” April 20] reminded me of why my wife and I take my young daughters to the joint—probably the same reason Logue’s parents took her there 15 years ago. Kids actually eat the food. I can imagine inflicting some fancy-schmancy “bistro” on my children, having them served something they would describe as a “plateful of worms,” and enduring their throw-up noises. OSF is the only restaurant, outside of Denny’s and the Chelan Cafe, I’ll ever take my daughters.
Joe Follansbee
Seattle
HIGHER-TECH TRANSIT
” . . . [T]here are many who note that the monorail’s planned technology isn’t state of the art now (why not maglev?), let alone when the system is finished” [“U.S. to Earth: Drop Dead,” April 20].
I couldn’t agree more. Why not maglev? It is unfortunate that Seattle charged off with the preconception that the Alweg derivatives from Hitachi and Bombardier would be the best solution for their problems without considering how monorail could fit into a regional transportation solution. As an Eastsider, I’m tempted to say that I really don’t care how Seattle spends its money. But I do care. Once the Green Line is operating, it will be very hard to resist extending it across the 520 bridge to form the core of a regional system. We will then be stuck with Seattle’s choice, even though it is not well suited to our needs.
We badly need some unbiased study of the current and emerging state-of-the-art in transit as it applies to the Greater Puget Sound Region. Sound Transit’s long-range planning looks no further ahead than extending light rail within Seattle and running express buses in the HOV lanes on the Eastside. If we had used their ultraconservative phase-two criteria when developing air travel, we would still be flying in propeller-driven biplanes.
Len Newstrum
Yarrow Point
THE CO-OPTS
In his article on the Madison Market [“Our Co-ops Co-opted,” April 20], Geov Parrish disses PCC and REI for being “corporate” rather than grassroots. I’ve been a member of REI for 40 years and was on the PCC board for eight years, as president for a while, and am compelled to respond.
First, form of ownership matters. In a profit enterprise, the job of management is to extract money from customers and give it to owners. In a consumer cooperative, the customers and owners are the same people. Management’s job is to provide value to these people. The value generated by REI is returned to members in a substantial dividend. The small profit margins and frequent transactions in the grocery business make dividends infeasible for PCC, but the value the business generates is still returned to members in product quality and price. In both cases, the value stays in the local economy instead of being sent to wherever the owners of a profit enterprise would happen to live. For this benefit, larger is definitely better.
Second, PCC has played a major role in building the market for organic food in the Northwest. It was able to do this because it succeeded as a business. We pushed organic hard to create enough volume to interest large and efficient producers and distributors. When they got involved—not to save the Earth but to make money—prices dropped and quality rose. This helped make the market larger. Organic is still a small part of agriculture but is the fastest-growing part. Topsoil is thicker, water is cleaner, and much habitat is better as a result.
I remember the battles to which Parrish refers. Longtime PCC members would complain about low turnout in co-op elections and urge us to go back to the days when PCC was a large part of every member’s life. To me, the low turnout was unfortunate but also a sign of success. It meant new members were coming to us for goods rather than ideology. They were voting with their dollars. It meant that cooperative ownership of a business could succeed.
Membership in PCC and REI no longer means high involvement by a few people. It means low involvement by many people. There may be less fraternity and less enjoyment in being one of the enlightened few, but there is a lot more positive impact on the world.
Peter Harris
Bainbridge Island
NICKELS FOREVER
I thank God every day for Greg Nickels [Mossback, “Bad Democrats,” April 20]. For the first time in modern memory, we have a mayor who isn’t afraid to use the power of his office to actually get things done.
I have lived in this town for 15-plus years, and it is refreshing to see a “grown-up” running the show rather than a bunch of ineffectual, mealymouthed, process-happy council members. Nickels has my vote for as long as he intends to remain in office.
Brian Lauro
Seattle
WORLD NEEDS TORI
Tori Amos’ music is “too safe to matter” [“Down for the Count,” April 20]? How can Neal Schindler say that? His article is full of bitterness and negativity. I agree that her toned-down popish songs have lost a little edge, the edge that made us fall in love with her after Under the Pink and Pele. But she still remains one of the most talented and brilliant artists of our time and deserves respect! Even though her “Precious Things” or “Waitress” angst seems to have passed, she remains a musical genius. “[Songs from The Beekeeper] have no emotional urgency—a fancy way of saying they didn’t really need to be written.” Schindler is so wrong; she’d be cheating the world if she muted anything that flows from her soul.
Vanessa Rentschler
Seattle
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