Letters for December 9, 2010

Gimme some Pie-Face

Re “Tight squeeze” (Foodfinds, Dec. 2):

My mouth was watering after reading that article. I think K.J. Sullivan ended up marketing Pie-Face Pizza Co. (Too packed?) Calzones, specialty pizzas and beer! Who wouldn’t like that? Maybe some baby restaurant critic trying to make a name by having an attitude. Notice how almost every negative statement began with a near compliment. At least grow some huevos and just say what you really feel, like, “I’m jealous.”

Matt Jason Green
Nevada City, Calif.

Hipster irony

Re “Tight squeeze” (Foodfinds, Dec. 2):

Recently, I went to Pie-face Pizza Co. restaurant. I didn’t know what to do. There was no hostess stand, and there weren’t any waiters walking around. There was a line where people were talking to an employee, who sat behind a computer screen. They were talking about food and toppings, inches, numbers and money. I even overheard someone talking about alcohol. I’m not really into that, though. I just wanted to place an order for some pizza. Adjacent to that line, there was another area, vacant of employees and customers, but it was fully loaded with garnishes and water glasses. There was even a giant roll of paper towels. There wasn’t any pizza there, so why have it in a restaurant? Then I noticed a sign that said, “Walk away, you don’t have common sense.” This place doesn’t even have pizza because I couldn’t find any. They just pay people to occupy the place. Pie-Face Pizza is horrible. I don’t know why the city voted it as best pizza in Reno. I walked in and didn’t even get to order my food. The sign said leave so I did. I feel so … taken advantage of. I guess it could always be worse.

Zach Rawlinson
Reno

Bad news

Re “Limited discourse” (News, Nov. 24):

I was disappointed in Dennis Myers’ coverage of the Join Together Northern Nevada press conference called by Mayor Bob Cashell to raise awareness for the growing use of heroin among the youth of our area. It seems Myers did not listen to, or read, what was provided to him. It rather appears that Myers is predisposed to challenge anything JTNN supports.

Three years ago, my kids were in college, and I personally came to know six kids who were using heroin. This really scared me. I had absolutely no idea that heroin was in our market and that you could buy it for $10. If I didn’t know, then I was sure many other parents didn’t either. I wanted to do something, and based on my background, a media campaign made the most sense. I had to figure out how to get this campaign going.

It took me a year to find my way to Join Together Northern Nevada, a group of people who work with health care professionals, the school district, the police department, business people, etc. … all working to help people stay off drugs, or get help if they are on them. Myers found a way to turn this group into something negative. He spent most of his article quoting someone who was not even at the press conference.

The entire point of our message is:

To make parents aware that heroin is easily available in our area;

To let kids know that it is dangerous;

To give people a way to find help;

To keep heroin from becoming a bigger problem in the Reno area.

Our message has absolutely nothing to do with whether any drug should be legal or illegal. It has everything to do with awareness and help. After the TV stations ran their stories, the phones at both JTNN and Bristlecone (treatment center) rang off the hook with people looking for help from heroin. We now have a group of parents who want to start a heroin support group. The stories that the TV stations and the RG-J ran gave people awareness and a possible path to help. I seriously doubt that anyone who reads Myers’ story will reach out for help.

I love the News & Review, but I am very disappointed with this coverage. It was not even mentioned that we are trying to raise money, or that someone in need can go to JTNN for help. I doubt very much that the RN&R supports the use of heroin among our youth, so I will be contacting the RN&R to see if you will run some PSA ads for us.

If you are interested in helping to stop the rise of heroin use in our market, please go to JTNN.org and make a donation. Any amount would be greatly appreciated.

Laura Newman
JTNN chairAnti Heroin Committee

Make the switch

Re “Give fossil subsidies the boot” (Greenspace, Nov. 24):

The International Energy Agency was set up to monitor present and future supplies of energy for member countries. The statement in the most recent IEA report that reducing subsidies to the fossil fuel industry would increase energy security may seem counter intuitive to many since fossil fuels are currently our main source of energy. The statement follows from their observation that global oil production peaked in 2006, and that despite this being in part due to the global recession, there will be a growing gap between oil demand and oil production which needs to be filled by as of yet undiscovered sources. Due to the uncertainty of these sources, development of alternative, renewable energy sources is recommended. This would be aided by the market incentive of higher prices on fossil fuels, which would result from reduced subsidies.

What the report does not discuss is net energy, which is the amount of energy from extracted oil or other source that is available to do useful work after you subtract out all the energy used to extract, transport, and process it. This is decreasing faster than the declining rate of oil discovery. Energy return on energy invested (EROEI) is lower on new oil discoveries because they require more energy to extract and make available for use due to their location and/or form.

The oil field discovery rate has been decreasing since the 1960s, so not only are we not finding as much oil, we are not getting as much useful energy out of the oil being produced from newer fields. Some see this as the cause of the malaise of the global economy. It requires more energy to do more activities to increase the economy, but the net energy available to grow the economy is decreasing. This could be counteracted by increases in efficiency, but we in the U.S. have not expended much effort as a nation to improve efficiency—the EU has about twice our energy efficiency, an obvious competitive advantage as fuel costs increase.

The transition to renewable energy sources must occur before the non-renewable sources become too scarce, limiting the energy required to make the transition, and/or making it too costly to afford. Making this transition sooner results in a higher sustainable standard of living with more food, consumer goods, and services per capita, due to the greater difficulty and cost in finding and extracting resources if we delay. The authors of “Limits” expend some effort on explaining that “no growth” is not the same as “no development.” A static population can have a robust economy due to development. The longer we delay the transition, the more difficult it will be for future generations.

Tom Wicker
Reno