Ross: It’s going to take a little courage to save Seattle

On Thursday, KIRO 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 – 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?”

It was especially difficult because her cook had a heart attack and she’s been running the place herself while he recovers.

“Because I love this job. I love people coming here.”

But somebody in charge must have heard her story, because when Leyla came back on with Gee & Ursula yesterday – she said he couldn’t 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’t enough. People have to come back downtown – which is what I was talking about in yesterday’s commentary … 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.”

After my appeal yesterday, a listener emailed: “Dave, 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?”

There’s the problem.

It’s 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 – Gee himself has been down to Leyla’s place and highly recommends the fries …

“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!”

I hear the fries are pretty good! So … you should try them.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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