By Mel Bloch Santa Monica
Editor: I am told I have been cut to the quick, but for the life of me I cannot find the wound. Re: Omelets and Sundays: Which came first the chicken or the dead horse? My letter was not mean spirited, it was a response in real time to an issue which affects more people than a few businesses.
FACT: The Main Street Business Association as a whole does not support the views held by either of the complainers.
Apparently the McCool ownership was amused... PERFECT! A little humor is good for you. However in pointing out the “inaccuracies” of my argument, not one of them was refuted in fact. Nor was the position of the Main Street Merchants’ body represented.
As to my wish to eat on Main Street on a Sunday morning for less than $9 an omelet: The owners of McCool’s and Lula’s are known to be among the finer restauranteurs and providers to the Westside, but their “let them eat cake,” cavalier attitude (not to mention slurring of Denny’s) is astounding, unless of course one picks up on the “trickle down” slap in the face to those who are without major disposable income.
A Denny’s nearer to Main would demonstrate the realities of the market far better than any argument this poor citizen could provide. And that is the point.
If a business is not prepared to make adjustments in relation to the times, then the public should not be asked to participate in a bailout of that business. (Query: Jake and Annie’s became McCool's in response to NO market considerations?) As to parking:...( here I know I press a Buzzword Button),... In a resurrected neighborhood, snatched like Lazarus from the dead, you should be so lucky to have a parking problem.
It means your zone is successful. Competition for goods services and even parking begins not at the doorstep of the business in question, rather at the doorsteps of the public.
Anyway... I am certain you will receive more than this poor epistle, and I am sure that the debate will be hard nosed and vicious. This is true of all local politic issues. The arguments are mean and personal precisely because so little is at stake.
Thanks again for the forum.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 26, 2002. Read the original PDF.