Ross: It鈥檚 going to take a little courage to save Seattle
Mar 11, 2022, 5:59 AM | Updated: 8:51 am
Normally busy downtown streets are virtually empty at rush hour due to COVID-19 in 2020 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
(Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
On Thursday, 成人X站 Newsradio’s Gee Scott and Ursula Reutin followed up on last week’s interview with Leyla Farange, who is the owner of Gyros Place, which is in Century Square on Fourth Avenue in downtown Seattle. They serve the Greek gyros, the shredded chicken, the grilled skewers, the fries, the Baklava 鈥� but last week, Leyla was pretty upset with the street drugs and the crime in the neighborhood:
“It’s just so bad, it’s awful down here right now. I don’t see any officers. Where are our officers?鈥�
It was especially difficult because her cook had a heart attack and she鈥檚 been running the place herself while he recovers.
鈥淏ecause I love this job. I love people coming here.鈥�
But somebody in charge must have heard her story, because when Leyla came back on with Gee & Ursula yesterday 鈥� she said he couldn鈥檛 believe how the street scene had changed:
“I saw officers are patrolling Third Avenue, Pike, Pine, and Fourth Avenue. It’s just like day and night. It’s so calm. The atmosphere is just so positive. You can walk around. It’s just unbelievable.”
But she knows that restoring order alone isn鈥檛 enough. People have to come back downtown 鈥� which is what I was talking about in yesterday鈥檚 commentary 鈥� and that’s a tough sell:
“Business is rough. It gets better and then a shooting happens. People are saying, you know, we cannot catch a breath.鈥�
After my appeal yesterday, a listener emailed: 鈥淒ave, today we have malls all over the place so why go downtown? As long as our officers are told not to arrest people for misdemeanors and the judges ain’t putting them in jail if they get arrested, what’s the point?鈥�
There鈥檚 the problem.
It鈥檚 going to take a little courage. But we ought to be able to muster some of that, don’t you think?
There are places in the world right now where to save their cities, people are ready to risk everything.
All we have to do to save ours is to park, go to a show, and get something delicious to eat.
By the way 鈥� Gee himself has been down to Leyla鈥檚 place and highly recommends the fries 鈥�
“Those fresh cut potatoes! It was so good, it was a blessing to my soul! I’m coming back to get some of those fries — tell the people about the fries!鈥�
I hear the fries are pretty good! So 鈥� you should try them.
Listen to Seattle鈥檚 Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O鈥橞rien weekday mornings from 5 鈥� 9 a.m. on 成人X站 Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the聽podcast here.
