KEEPING BROADWAY COOL

TO THE EDITOR: The LAST thing the businesses along Broadway
seek to resemble is a “sterile, upscale shopping mall” [“Taming Broadway,” Samantha
M. Shapiro, April 1]. As the Executive Director of the Broadway Business Improvement
Association, and spokesperson for Broadway’s business community, I had attempted
to convey that point to Samantha Shapiro when she interviewed me for her article.
Clearly my attempt failed. Broadway is an urban business district, for better
or worse, and no business on this street has any desire to become suburban. The
vast diversity of the street life here on Broadway and our eclectic group of merchants
are what has made this street great.

Broadway will change and will see development. This is, after all, Seattle in 1999. This development can be driven haphazardly by market forces. Or, Broadway’s evolution could be guided by the people who live and work here and have made Broadway the coolest street in Seattle: the owners of its small businesses. If in five years Broadway has become “Anywhere, U.S.A.,” I will personally feel that my work here has been a failure.

Kevin B. Guertin
Executive Director Broadway Business Improvement Association


GLARING INACCURACIES

TO THE EDITOR: I am writing to correct glaring inaccuracies in Ms.
Shapiro’s article “Taming Broadway.” I have not been “battling a proposal to
put security guards around the Broadway Market.” As far as I know, the Broadway
Market [already] has security guards. Last fall, while the decision to hire
security guards was under discussion, the Broadway Business Improvement Association
and some social service providers decided to convene a “street safety task force”
to look at other ways to improve safety in addition to or instead of security
guards. I have been participating in this safety task force, which I told Ms.
Shapiro.

Most alarming are Ms. Shapiro’s descriptions of incidents the [Capitol Hill Youth Center] had with police this winter. I made it quite clear that there were no ongoing problems with police. Ms. Shapiro [referred to] “a spate of police raids on the center that began in January,” implying that the problem is ongoing. The two problems we had were resolved soon after they occurred. The police consulted their legal department and deserve credit for responding to our concerns. A number of police officers and youth center staff and board members put serious effort into building better relations. This is a major omission.

The Stranger‘s interest in protecting the civil rights of street youth is noble. However, misrepresenting the facts is bad journalism. When Ms. Shapiro came back to talk to me the second time, she said her editor told her she needed more color. She seems to have achieved “color” at the expense of accuracy.

Jan Munger
Director, Capitol Hill Youth Center

Samantha Shapiro responds: I realize that my portrayal of relations
between police and the Capitol Hill Youth Center probably put Ms. Munger in
a delicate political position, but it was not inaccurate. During our interview,
Munger told me she was opposed to hiring security guards in the Broadway Market,
and that she had voiced that opposition through the safety task force. I didn’t
emphasize police efforts to “build better relationships” with the Youth Center
because conversations with Ms. Munger, other social service providers, and homeless
youth led me to believe that relations between police and street youth continue
to be strained, even contentious.

UPPITY SMART-ASSES

TO THE EDITOR: Ben Jacklet obviously does NOT live in hearing
radius of Studio 420 [“Hiphop Hit Squad,” April 1]. If he did, he would have
written a much different article. I live in an apartment around the corner from
Studio 420. Ben should come out and sit on the sidewalk beneath my window from
11 p.m. to 6 a.m. on a Friday or Saturday night. He would see and hear for himself
what the city and local residents are really trying to curtail. It has nothing
to do with the club itself, the owners, the type of music they play there, nor
the age, race, or style of people who go there. It is about inconsiderate, obnoxious,
smart-ass, disrespectful, drug-dealing, drunk, and vandalistic patrons who attend
the club. [They] screech tires, rev engines, stand on the sidewalk at 3, 4,
5, or 6 a.m. and shout, laugh, hustle, jive, scream, yell, trash-talk, drive
cars that pour 120 decibels of BOOM BOOM BOOM out open windows, throw bottles,
spray paint their tags on businesses, deal drugs and pass bottles in the parking
lots on Olive Way, knock over the city trash cans, and then get uppity and smart-ass
when the police show up.

Ben paints a nice picture of the young immigrant kids just trying to run a small business who claim that “Hiphop… is about peace, love, and unity.” Maybe so. But that is NOT what is going on in the streets around the club.

Karl


SERB INTELLECTS

TO THE EDITOR: After reading Samantha Shapiro’s article on the protests
and prayer vigils held by some members of Seattle’s Serbian population, I wondered
where Ms. Shapiro found the clowns she quoted [“Serbs Blast Bombers,” April
1]. Sreten Nesic cites a growing disenchantment with American democracy as part
of the reason he was pleased to learn of the downing of an American plane. He
[states], “This country is made of immigrants. You can’t destroy one group in
the name of the other, because those people live here.” Huh? Is this guy aware
that his countrymen are engaged in an orchestrated program to displace and destroy
the Kosovo Albanians?

Mirko Spasojevic will be leaving this country to join the Serbian Army to fight U.S. forces. His reasoning? He believes the U.S. government is fascist. Tired of fascism in the United States, Mirko Spasojevic leaves for Serbia to assist his fellow Serbs in eradicating every other ethnic group within their borders. Maybe we can find some more intellects like this guy for the Serbian Army.

S. D. Beary


SACRED STEAK

TO THE EDITOR: Y’all pretty much hit the nail on the head
in your “Kill-Yr-Idols” supplement. While bands I like got skewered along with
those I don’t, I have to agree that each one you mentioned deserved the lumps.
Musicians: give us your music and spare us your self-aggrandized egos. Fans
and critics: slay your sacred cows and have a steak for dinner. I can only hope
that at whatever level of success my scrappy little combo may or may not achieve,
I can maintain the one quality that so often seems lacking in the hysterical
realm of popular music: humility.

Graham Short


WHO BROKE NIRVANA?

TO THE EDITOR: In the Sleater-Kinney section of the “Kill-Yr-Idols”
feature, Elizabeth Harler writes, “Everett True claims major responsibility
for ‘breaking’ the ‘Pacific Northwest Scene.’ Some call him the man who broke
Nirvana, even.” And just who might those people be? Nirvana “broke” in America
before they “broke” in Britain. At the time, Mr. True was writing for Melody
Maker, a British weekly music paper that the vast majority of Americans
do not read. How could he have possibly had a hand in “breaking” Nirvana? Or
did he pay Ms. Harler a tidy sum to write such rubbish, hoping that rumor might
become fact in the minds of the majority?

Mark Craig


WHERE THE GIRLS ARE

TO THE EDITOR: In response to the “Queer Club Guide” [Adrian Ryan,
March 25]: This was not a “Queer” Club Guide, it was a Gay Man’s Club
Guide! This “guide” failed to accurately list anything happening in the
local lesbian scene besides the Wild Rose. So, maybe Seattle’s ladies are wondering
what’s really going on? Let’s start with the biggest lesbian night in
town, and one of ARO.space’s biggest nights–Hot Box. Hot Box is the first Friday
of every month and features lesbian DJs. There is always a floor show, and a
helluva lot of babes everywhere you look. Cover $6.

Every Saturday night at Re-bar is Women’s Night–this is one of Re-bar’s busiest nights as well. The DJ is longtime Seattle favorite MC Queen Lucky. Cover $5. And let’s not forget Soiree des Femmes, Seattle’s newest lesbian night, which happens every Wednesday at the Back Door Lounge. Soiree features a different lady DJ each week. Ladies always get in free, and so do men in drag. Funny, all these events are advertised regularly in The Stranger. Does Adrian even read the paper?

Another lesbian hangout is the Ditto Tavern. This old Seattle dive has been given a face-lift by its new owners, and is now sporting a healthy lesbian crowd.

Jen Gapay
Thirsty Girl Promotions

IN DEFENSE OF CHANGES

TO THE EDITOR: Adrian Ryan’s article “Queer Club Guide” was the
most hyperbolically negative article I have ever had the displeasure of reading.
I don’t frequent any of the bars in the article except for Changes. [I go to]
Changes because the owner, bartenders, and patrons are friendly. Changes is
a neighborhood gay bar, and gals, older people, and even straights are treated
with respect.

An Old Fart Who Appreciates Changes