I am a longtime resident of the Alki community. I am writing this letter to express my anger about how the Alki Community Council is targeting certain restaurants on Alki Beach with bogus complaints.

The people who are in charge of the Alki Community Council have been writing letters and communicating with the city to complain about the fact that more restaurants that serve alcohol are opening on Alki Beach. They claim that residents do not want more restaurants that serve alcohol and that these restaurants contribute to some of the noise problems on the beach.

This is not true. Jackie Ramels, the presidents of the Alki Community Council does not even live on the beach but on Admiral Way which is blocks away from the restaurants so it is hard to understand how she could have personal knowledge of any of these restaurants' operations.

The other Alki Community Council board members have very personal agendas and they are using their status as Alki Community Council board members to influence city officials. They have not bothered to put the matter before the Alki residents for a discussion or vote on the matter at any scheduled public meeting. It is an outrage how they have tried to influence the city to hold up the licenses for Slices Pizza, Cactus and the Homestead and it is especially outrageous how they have tired to portray the Celtic Swell Irish Pub and Restaurant as some wild nightclub.

I am a regular patron of the Celtic Swell, which seems to be the most recent target of the Alki Community Council. The owners of the Celtic Swell are good people and they run a very respectable operation. The restaurant is run very professionally and with great respect to the neighbors and residents of Alki. They have excellent food.

It is hard to believe that the Alki Community Council has tried to paint a negative picture of this restaurant as some wild nightclub. It is not the case. The patrons of the Celtic Swell are professional, courteous and well behaved. I have witnessed occasions when . . . (a person) has engaged in very erratic and inappropriate behavior, and these occasions were handled very professionally by the owners of the Celtic Swell.

I am also a regular patron of the live acoustic music on the weekends and can honestly tell you that the music is at a very low level that makes it easy to have a conversation while enjoying food and beverages late into the night. You can barely hear the music when you step outside the doors of the restaurant.

From personal experience, I can confirm that there is a lot of noise on the beach during the summer. But none of it originates from the Celtic Swell or many of the other restaurants. The noise problem can be traced to the loud stereos in the cars that cruise by, the motorcycles, and the large groups of youths that gather at the beach on hot summer days and nights.

None of these people are patrons of the restaurants and the restaurants are not the draw of these people to the beach. It is just plain logical to understand that if you live near a beautiful two mile beach and it is the only one in the city, you cannot expect that it will be deserted in the summer. The Alki Community Council cannot prevent people from coming to the beach. But blaming restaurants for being the source of the problems associated with the visitors to Alki beach is irresponsible, unfounded and just plain wrong.

I believe that I speak on behalf of the majority of Alki residents when I say to the Alki Community Council and to city officials - please immediately stop focusing your energy on the restaurants of Alki and refocus on issues that would be more productive use of your time.

It seems like the same the five, six person "clique" of people who are the Alki Community Council board members/trustees and publisher of the amusingly biased Alki Community Council newsletter seem to believe that their own personal opinions represent those of the entire Alki community. If these people must continue to attack, at least they should have the decency to get input from the entire Alki community on the matter instead of trying to pass of their own agenda to city officials as being representative of the Alki community.

The Celtic Swell is a great asset to the Alki community. So is the Homestead and Slice. I am also looking forward to Cactus opening soon, and any other restaurant that want to grace the shores of Alki. I will gladly be a customer to all of these places.

The fact is overwhelming majority of Alki residents love having so many fine restaurants within walking distance, and having the option of eating food and enjoying some nice entertainment after 10 p.m. This is a benefit to the community. I truly believe that if the Alki Community Council stared working with some of these restraints on the real problem of Alki and not spend so mush negative energy working against them, they would be viewed in a much more productive and positive light.

I hope you find my comments helpful, as I believe that you are only getting information from a very few biased individuals and not the community at large.

Dick Nelson

Alki