Online-only Letters

Shopping list of problems

Abandoned carts

Editor, The Times:

Nicole Brodeur suggests that, in order to be considered a metropolitan city, Bellevue should accept increased crime and abandoned shopping carts littering its parks and streets [ "Carried away over shopping carts?" Nicole Brodeur Column, Aug. 14].

I wonder, why must we resign ourselves to lawlessness and filth as we grow? The very day The Times published "Bellevue readies rules on abandoned shopping carts" [Local News, Aug. 10] the 8-year-old I was with saw an abandoned cart lying partway across the sidewalk in the bushes by his former school.

"Hey," he asked, "Is it OK to leave carts there like that?" It was satisfying to be able to answer with a simple "No," without having to explain that it's OK to leave carts as long as you are a customer, but it isn't OK to leave other things lying around, which is called "litter." And, it is OK to take $400 of store property, as long as it's a cart. But, it is not OK take $400 of merchandise, because that is theft.

Stores should not be penalized for being "repeat offenders." The people who continually remove the carts from store property are the offenders, not the stores that provide the carts as a service to their customers while on store property.

Brodeur suggests that stores "go get" the carts from half a mile away. Requiring a store to canvass a square mile of area or to absorb the loss of its property will bring costs that will be passed on to customers as surely as fines imposed on the store would. The increased prices will most hurt those whom she says are "doing without."

There are other solutions. Elderly people carrying their groceries home in canvas bags are a common sight in Crossroads. My mother-in-law used her own little two-wheeled cart. Stores could sell the small carts, as many already do the canvas bags. Or they could loan them out with a deposit sufficient to ensure that they will be returned to the store, not to be tripped over as we try to move from a car culture to one that uses its sidewalks.

But, certainly, the people who take store property and leave it lying in our streets, our parks and our yards should be fined or prosecuted as litterers or thieves, lest we send the message that anything goes and our 8-year-olds grow up to be criminals or victims.

-- Daniel Morris, Renton

Thieves

I'm absolutely flabbergasted at Nicole Brodeur's take on shopping-cart theft. Not having a car justifies taking a cart away from the store and leaving it?

It probably never occurred to her that more than one trip might be necessary to carry bags from store to home. Or, that the shopping cart should be returned to the store. Or, that people who steal things should be punished.

No, she says we should just roll with it. Unbelievable.

-- Glen Showalter, Bremerton

A new nightclub solution

Its all in the clause

The Seattle City Council is pondering restrictive licensing of downtown nightclubs; possibly a good solution, but let me offer an alternative.

One way to combat disruption to their neighbors is to have an anti-neighborhood-disruption clause in the lease.

Until fairly recently, I owned a building that housed two nightclubs; one of which is now targeted by the council. My tenants took that clause relatively seriously, and although there was some occasional disruption, it is apparently much worse now that the clause is gone. It's up to the landlords to insert such a clause.

-- Martin Paup, Seattle

A walk down memory lane

Dream come true

"Old memories linger at new hotel" [guest commentary, Aug. 7] brought back great memories. My family moved to Seattle in the 1950s. My dad was an accountant for the Northern Pacific Railway and his office was in the Smith Tower.

My dad walked by "The Store" to and from work everyday for well more than 20 years. My dad loved Warshal's and it became his personal treasure chest.

He loved buying fishing gear, camping gear and, most important of all, camera "stuff." My father loved to take pictures and his dream was to own a really good setup. He quickly learned about layaway! Over many years he slowly came to own a wonderful Nikon system. Which, as his son, I use to this day.

Memories of "The Store" will live a long and rich life. Thanks for reminding me of a truly wonderful Seattle store. I cannot walk by the old location and not see my dad through the windows of my mind buying his treasures, and the nice people who worked there to help people like my father make their dreams come true.

-- David H. Gross

Like a kid again

"Old memories linger at new hotel" brought back many memories of the Warshal family's store and my childhood.

As a child I would take the bus downtown for swim lessons at the YMCA. Sometimes I'd skip my lessons and stop by Warshal's to gander over BB guns, baseball gloves and fishing reels.

One of my largest purchases as a teenager was a Spalding Tournament 100 leather basketball that I had saved my paper route money for. I lusted over that basketball for months at Warshal's before I was finally able to buy it. It was really sad to see the store go. I recently dined at Boka and didn't stop to think that it was the site of Warshal's. Next time, it will be a different experience.

-- Curtis Yamamoto

Warning: safe?

DDT ban reversed

Letter writer Tom Lasam deserves a reply [ "Afraid in the USA" Northwest Voices, Aug 15]. He used DDT as an example of a harmful U.S. chemical shipped overseas.

The World Health Organization recently reversed the ban on DDT, declaring it "safe for human use."

Giving support

Bravo, gay dads

It is absolutely fantastic that men are taking matters into their own hands and supporting each other in ways we can't begin to [ "Gay dads meet kindred spirits" Local News, Aug. 13].

Not only is it great for the children -- who get to know families like their own -- but also the fathers because there are so few support groups that can fully comprehend and give the full support gay fathers need.

It's also great for people new to the area who are going through the same thing with no support or even knowing there's this kind of support group out there. So bravo gentleman, and keep up the good work, it good to know people are taking initiative on these matters.

-- Renata Bryant, Kent

Illegal immigrants and criminals

America's slippery hands

"Tracking sex offenders" [editorial, Aug. 4] begins by describing Terapon Adhahn -- the accused murderer of young Zina Linnick -- as "a convicted sex offender who fell through the cracks of Washington state's sex-offender-tracking policy." Amid the public hand-wringing by politicians, officials and the media, one fact seems to have been deliberately downplayed: Adhahn is not a legal resident of this country.

Though Adhahn originally entered America legally with a valid visa, he had already overstayed his visa at the time he was convicted and imprisoned as a sex offender. And regardless of his visa status, his crime rendered him ineligible to remain in America.

Why were federal officials not waiting at the doors of the prison when Adhahn was released in the early 1990s, to escort him to the nearest airport and onto the first flight back to his homeland? They certainly knew where to find him; whatever "cracks" there would later be to fall through in our state would have been irrelevant.

This tragic case underscores just one of the many reasons why whom we let enter, and stay, in our country is a serious matter. Dismissing the illegal immigrant problem as merely people coming here to "do jobs Americans won't do" just doesn't cut it.

-- Chris Bauer, Kent

Empty airwaves

A voice to be missed

I was very sorry to read in The Times that KIRO-AM has eliminated Ron Reagan's talk show [ "Two KIRO radio hosts out as format refocuses on 'news talk'" Local News, Aug. 9].

Reagan was the best talk-show host, and the only one I listened to on KIRO, or any other radio station. I listen primarily to National Public Radio (NPR), but got hooked on Reagan's show, always wishing it was longer.

Filling in for Dave Ross does not do Reagan justice; I hope to find him with his own, longer show on another radio station. This is going to be a huge loss for KIRO-AM

Ron Reagan's talk show will be missed.

-- Jeannine Lupton, Edmonds

Ulterior motives

Bridge not the only thing that's "structurally deficient"

While watching the tragedy of the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis unfold, I am amazed by the use of "doublespeak" by our politicians and government officials. As I understand it, the term "structurally deficient" actually didn't mean that the bridge was, as the words imply, structurally unsound. It was simply a term used by government officials to bleed more money from taxpayers, so that they had a larger hoard of money to be spent on their pet "vote-getting" pork-barrel projects.

Some of the money, of course, was used in endless "studies" favored by politicians everywhere to delay actually having to do something about a problem. Everyone knows that building a new bridge is a much bigger news event, and sure to bring more votes, than the mundane task of maintaining bridges.

Minnesota politicians are reportedly considering spending 392 million taxpayer dollars for a sports stadium. That should bring a lot of comfort to the families of victims of tragedies such as this. It will undoubtedly warm the hearts of the folks who have the stadium collapse on their heads someday when it is not maintained either.

In this case, this particular bridge actually was structurally unsound, and had the temerity to collapse -- on national television. This, of course, caused the politicians to leap right up in front of the cameras, and deny any responsibility for the awful event. Imagine the unimaginable, their own "doublespeak" had just bitten them on the behind. The words "structurally deficient" actually had meaning, and this dumb bridge brought it home in prime time.

What were they to do? Of course, every politician in the country used it as a "photo op" and jetted directly to the scene where they could be observed shedding tears on television. No one would have watched them actually solving the problem. It is very "un-vote-getting" to be seen doing your job behind the scenes.

Can the citizens stand a little truth in government? Can we afford not to?

-- Charles George, Stanwood