Letters for June 10, 2004

Counting down on Hooters

Re “Much ado about nothing” (SN&R Editorial, June 3):

Top 10 reasons why SN&R’s editorial team doesn’t get it about Hooters:

(10) Why should parents have to explain to their young child what a “hooter” is on a trip to the grocery store?

(9) If Hooters in Sacramento is such a good idea, why doesn’t SN&R court one to go next door to SN&R’s Midtown office?

(8) Hooters would have had a “right” to open if it had been up-front about who it was when it applied for business and zoning approval. It hid behind its corporate umbrella company name instead.

(7) Since when is cheap, bad-tasting, overpriced beer enough impetus to determine zoning decisions, as implied by your article?

(6) So, SN&R thinks it’s OK for out-of-town young people to protest a food-and-agriculture convention in downtown Sacramento, but it’s not OK for neighbors to protest a risqué business being established in a housing area? What part of the First Amendment and free speech got edited out of your word processor?

(5) While your article is correct that sex is everywhere, most displays of terms such as “hooters” are kept in the adult sections of stores, off-limits to young children. Hooters’ restaurant sign likely will be displayed prominently in the parking lot for everyone to see.

(4) Why should teachers at a nearby elementary school be required to explain to their young students what a “hooter” is?

(3) By SN&R’s standard, the only difference between a nude juice bar and a burger joint called “Hooters” is a Lycra or nylon pair of sheer running shorts. Note to risquè businesses moving to the ’burbs: Invest in Lycra shorts for uniforms and advertise in SN&R.

(2) To be fair, a competitive restaurant named “Dick & Fuzzy Balls” should be opened next door to Hooters. And the waiters should wear jock straps, although that might bring a different clientele and put Faces out of business. Ah, well, business is business, as you say.

And the No. 1 reason SN&R just doesn’t get it on this issue:

(1) Since we’re talking about money, we homeowners pay the taxes in that area and have a right to influence how it develops. Your publication doesn’t and is an outsider.

Tom Lutzenberger
North Natomas

Indifferent to the facts

Re “Much ado about nothing” (SN&R Editorial, June 3):

Yawn. Shrug. Whatever.

July 24, 2002: Christopher Fugate, a 19-year-old cook at a Hooters in Leon County, Fla., left the restaurant drunk and killed himself in car wreck within minutes.

2001: An underage patron of a Hooters in Ocala, Fla., allegedly became drunk there before wandering onto Interstate 75. He was hit and killed by a truck.

September 14, 2001: Four Hooters employees from Fayette County, Ga., were arrested after one of them served alcohol to the other three, who were underage.

Your penetrating and thoughtful editorial on Hooters coming to North Natomas peeled back the layers of deception that the citizens of that area have been carefully concocting. It couldn’t be their stated desire to find a mutually acceptable location for Hooters away from the family shopping area. It couldn’t be their concern about the proximity to a high school. No, instead it is a “moral battle cry” that gathers the faithful; it is an effort to impose morality.

What a wonderful job you’ve done, speaking as the voice of reason against the frenzied hordes of suburbia. Let us hope a daughter of Sacramento does not get drunk and kill herself in a car wreck. Let us hope a son of Sacramento does not drunkenly wander out into oncoming traffic, and his death. Let us hope your yawning, shrugging and brutal indifference are applied next after you’ve done your research and understood the facts.

For shame.

Jonathan Malek
Sacramento

Big breasts and chicken wings

Re “Much ado about nothing” (SN&R Editorial, June 3):

It’s amazing how witty and intelligent you try to come across. Do some actual research, and you would find that the citizens in North Natomas aren’t opposed to Hooters itself, but to the location of the restaurant. It is going to be located across the street from the new Inderkum High School, a mere half-mile away from Natomas Park Elementary and the Natomas Charter School.

Do your research and find that this isn’t a “moral” issue. Obviously, there is a need in society for big breasts and chicken wings; we aren’t fighting that. There are going to be girls that can’t wait to put on those “snazzy” orange shorts and flaunt their sex appeal. Yeah, of course, the kids out in Natomas may see that every day on MTV, but is that an excuse to allow it in the neighborhood grocery center?

There is nothing wrong with moving the restaurant closer to Arco (with those “scantily clad royal court dancers,” as you put it) since it is indeed a “sports bar.”

Your blatant apathy is disgusting and disheartening. If we don’t set boundaries, this world will end up even more chaotic than it is! You may like to hoot (no pun intended) and holler at the fact that citizens are expressing their right to freedom of speech, but to minimize the importance of the issue is offensive.

Andrea St. Clair
Natomas Park

Living to tell about it

Re “Requiem for a featherweight” by Chrisanne Beckner (SN&R Cover, May 27):

I enjoyed your article on Mr. Savala. From the perspective of a teacher and grammarian, I think I’ll collect a dozen of this edition for my students. It’s a nice bit of writing.

I love to read stories like Trino’s. Especially for people like myself—an instructor in the California Youth Authority (YA), currently in Ione at the Preston Youth Correctional Facility—stories like his rekindle a fire that is nearly extinguished on a regular basis. The coordination of education, mental health, vocational training and other treatment factors afforded wards in YA easily becomes just another job without reminders of what “may” result in some of the lives we try to affect.

Here is one guy who’s been through the adult version of YA—CDC—and has lived to not only tell about it, but has also learned ways to stay clean and sober and help others along the way. Thank you.

Todd A. Donoho
via e-mail

Bob’s challengers are everywhere

Re “What about Bob?” (SN&R Editorial, May 27):

Thank you for pointing out Congressman Matsui’s inconsistent voting record on President Bush’s illegal war in Iraq. He certainly needs to be held at least partially accountable for that mess.

Those Sacramentans who oppose this unnecessary war actually have two antiwar options this November, a rather unusual situation considering the usual lesser-of-two-evils options offered American voters.

I, too, am challenging Robert Matsui. I am a member of the Peace and Freedom Party, a party with a long and unbroken record of opposing imperialist wars. We have opposed every single war (declared or undeclared) since our founding during the Vietnam War.

Matsui needs to be challenged on his support for this unconstitutional war, but also for his failure to support meaningful health-care reform, like a single-payer health-care plan. Perhaps even more importantly, we need a congressman who will challenge the broken election system, one that protects incumbents better than that of the old Soviet Politburo.

John C. Reiger
Peace and Freedom Party candidate for Congress, 5thDistrict

Happiness is a warm gun

Re “Partners, guns and money” (SN&R Bites, May 27):

I do not think it was very nice of Bites to poke fun at the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA). They give lots of good advice to assault-weapon owners. After all, any macho person who needs to assert their manliness by owning an assault weapon certainly does need guidance, if not from a psychiatrist then surely from the CRPA.

I do have a question for Bites: Is it OK for gun owners to sleep with their weapons?

James G. Updegraff III
Sacramento

Fines for swimming, doggone it!

Re “Dog days” by Dawg Doggy Dogg, as told to Jackson Griffith (SN&R Summer Guide, May 20):

While “Dog days” was cute, it certainly doesn’t reflect what’s going on with Sacramento doggie politics.

Thanks to the efforts of the Sacramento Dog Owners Group (SacDOG), city, county, park-district officials and dog owners are now working cooperatively to try to address the Sacramento region’s pressing need for more off-leash recreation areas.

You suggest taking a dip along the American River Parkway as a fun thing for dogs to do this summer. Your readers might want to know that if your dog is off-leash while dipping (and what dog wouldn’t be, for God sake?) the guardian of that dog could be the recipient of a $77 citation.

For more information on SacDOG and on off-leash recreation, visit our Web site at www.sacdog.org.

Jackie Kuhwarth
president, Sacramento Dog Owners Group