ARISTOCRATS AT
ARISTOCRATS
CHARLES MUDEDE: I am writing to refute some misinformation with your August 31 Police Beat. I believe that your article was misinformed and portrayed our club and our patrons in an unfair light. The parking lot you mention in your article is not Aristocrat's parking lot. The club is located on the same street, but it is not our parking lot, and in fact is a public lot shared by several clubs in the area, including Manila Bay, Mantra, and others. The staff at Aristocrats patrols these lots, even though they are not ours, for the safety of our patrons. Aristocrats has a fine reputation with the city, and we do all we can to secure the safety of our patrons. Many of the parking lot's problems that our staff has to deal with are a result of the other clubs whose patrons use the parking lots on Fourth Avenue.
Aristocrats has been in our present location for eight years and has had a great relationship with the city of Seattle. We always work hard to secure the safety of our patrons and our neighborhood. How many other clubs have security that makes sure that everyone leaves the neighborhood and clears parking lots that are not theirs? We serve a high-class hiphop clientele on Saturdays, not the type who engage in the outrageous behavior that you mention in Police Beat. Not to mention that we are not open on Sundays, so things that happen when we are closed cannot be attributed to us! I will not say that our patrons are angels, but we do our best to make sure everyone is safe, and the sort of antics mentioned in your article are not permitted. I would say that other hiphop nights in the area that cater to the dregs of the hiphop community with cheap drinks and no dress codes, unlike Aristocrats, would be far more likely to be responsible for these sorts of public nuisances.
Matt S.,
Aristocrats Night Club
SLIGHTLY SNIPPY
EDITOR: We can have a rational discussion about the medical merits of circumcision ["No Skin Off My Dick," Dave Maass, Aug 31] without resorting to language such as telling a Muslim, "Well you must want your kids to look Jewish." This story has a barely constrained veneer of anti-Jewish hostility, wrapped in a foreskin of seeming "respectability" about an important medical procedure. For the Jewish people circumcision is a ritual that allows a baby boy to join a covenant that preceded his birth by thousands of years. It is a way for the community to welcome the child into the world. And in almost every case it is done by professionals whose first and foremost concern is one of Judaism's highest values: maintaining and preserving the health and well-being of the child. Whether a parent chooses to have a son circumcised is certainly their decision, but mixing the medical perspective with this Jewish hostility certainly does nothing to illuminate the issue in any meaningful way.
David Novak
DE! LIC! IOUS!
THADIUS VAN LANDINGHAM III: Thanks for the review on Indo Cafe ["One of a Kind," Aug 31]! We went there yesterday and will definitely come back! We followed your suggestions and the risole and the fried noodles were excellent! My hubby is half Indonesian and he loved it! We would not have known that Indo Cafe even exists if it were not for your review!
Rachel
BIGOTRY AIN'T CHRISTIAN
EDITOR: As a Christian, I can't sit back and let Richard Qualey's letter in the August 24 issue of The Stranger go unchecked. While Jesus said a great number of things about helping the poor, not judging, and not committing adultery, he did not say one gosh darn thing about homosexuality being wrong. Don't believe me? Check the bible. The hate mongering of Focus on the Family is not Christian, it is insane, and goes against the love and compassion that Jesus truly taught us to strive for.
Dave Monk
WALKS ON WATER
EDITOR: Jamie Pedersen is not a lobbyist [Primary Election Endorsements, Aug 31]. He's a lawyer and an excellent citizen. He gives back to his community by donating hundreds of hours of free legal services. Clients include gay and lesbian couples seeking marriage equality, oppressed immigrants seeking asylum, and numerous nonprofits—Pride Foundation, Lambert House, and more. Jamie helped the Puyallup River Watershed Council organize to save the salmon. When a lunch program for the homeless on Capitol Hill lost its funding, Jamie helped put together a group to keep the meals coming.
For money, Jamie helps businesses, many of them small, solve their problems. One example is PacMed. When it was in danger of failing financially, Jamie helped design the plan that turned it around. It's now thriving.
Democrats in the 43rd want a leader who fights for what's right. This year, that's Jamie Pedersen.
Dave Horn
