I live in West Seattle near Burien and frequently enjoy the Burien King County Library and spend time in the restaurants and shops, especially along 152nd Street and some specialty shops nearby.

Yesterday, I met a Chinese immigrant at the library as a volunteer tutor to help her with her SSCC courses and parked across from the library on 152nd Street.

She was a little late and I had spent more time helping her than planned, and when we parted I was hungry so walked to a restaurant about a block away.

When I returned an officer was writing a parking ticket-- rightfully so-- since I had surpassed the 2-hour limit. Although he claimed to have marked my car 10 minutes before I had even arrived, and then gave a dumb answer when I told him so, he was right in that I had surpassed the limit and so I'm paying the fine.

I was quite shocked to find that the fine was so high, $50. I would have appreciated such a high fine to be posted at the parking sites.

It if was, I certainly would have paid closer attention to the time. From looking on Internet blogs, I see complaints about red-light camera violation fines of $101, which I also think, is rather excessive.

An employee at one of the businesses below apparently was fined for not coming to a COMPLETE stop when turning right on a red light.

At any rate, I have no control over the fine setting and since I was in violation I have paid the fine.

However, I do have control over where I go shopping, and as a form of protest, I will no longer be shopping in Burien for one year and will be forwarding this letter to businesses I have recently patronized.

Although I will be particularly sad by this, since the Aussie pies are authentic, the Danish Bakery makes the best Kringle and Danish in the state (if not the country), Han's really IS German, and Burien Honda has noticeably better prices and services than Seattle, I really feel I don't have much choice to be serious about my individual protest.

Ken Klettke
West Seattle