travesty happen?

Lori Hinton's article about Coyotes Mexican Grill would have been better titled, "Alcoholics and drunkards encouraged to make Alki their home." Gee, what happened to Hinton's earlier focus in "101 Things to do in West Seattle" that didn't involve going out to dinner or getting sloshed? Her story about Coyote mentions alcohol eight different times.

Is there nothing else to do at Coyote except drink? Oh, yes. One can drink to excess with the "giant, 46 ounce, fish bowl-size Coyotes ultimate margarita." That would be 14 ounces more than a quart. Yum.

As if we didn't have enough problems with alcohol consumption in our neighborhood with all the bars (excuse me, restaurants) and by beach-goers bringing their own. I can hardly wait to have Coyote patrons wandering our streets looking for their cars after attending the two happy happy hours at the bar (excuse me, it's a restaurant). And what a treat! Their outdoor seating wraps around the corner of 62nd Avenue and Alki Avenue. There's always room for one more!

How did this neighborhood travesty slip past us? Well, we have some paperwork snafus (and you do know what the acronym snafu means, don't you?) between the City of Seattle and the Liquor Control Board to thank for that.

We're all accustomed to seeing the application for a liquor permit on the window of new restaurants and bars like Coyote. This gives local residents an opportunity to communicate their concerns about a given businesses and whether they feel it is appropriate for a bar like Coyotes (I keep forgetting! It's a restaurant) to be serving booze-hounds until midnight or broadcasting loud music after 10 p.m. in what is a residential neighborhood. There was no comment period at all for Coyotes. None. Zero. Zilch. Now, we're stuck with it - though, if you want to visit Seattle's version of Cannes, come on down.

It is the height of either arrogance or complete stupidity for the owners of Coyotes to classify our neighborhood as a "resort-like, beach atmosphere." Our residential neighborhood has a small strip of about two dozen businesses (increasingly all of them are "restaurants" serving alcohol) between 55th and 63rd. Yes indeed; those of us who live in Alki sure enjoy the "care-free attitude" here. We don't have a care in the world so we stay off the beach during the summer invasion. Who cares about the late-night drinkers urinating in our yards, tripping over themselves in the dark, shouting and yelling to each other, booming their car stereos or revving their engines while we try to sleep? We are certainly a bunch of carefree Alki residents, you bet!

There was a time when "Alki" was not pronounced as it is now. It was derisively called, "Al-key" as in "Al-key-holic." It looks like we're going to have to change back to the former pronunciation. Thank you, Coyotes. I can hardly wait for the next restaurant - make that, the next bar - to open up in our neighborhood. Maybe I can start selling orange juice on my sidewalk. If I call myself a restaurant, I could put tequila in it.

If you are tired of our residential neighborhood being touted as a "destination," a "resort," or any other boosterism phrase to justify the sale of alcohol late into the night, send a letter to your mayor and city council. They are currently working with Department of Planning and Development and the Liquor Control Board to create some guidelines so that a few businesses aren't allowed to ride roughshod over neighborhood residents.

Peter Stekel

Alki