LETTERS: Less-expensive grocers exist downtown
To the editor:
The article about The Market, the new store in downtown Las Vegas, stated that there were no other grocers downtown (“Downtown Las Vegas gains a grocer,” Oct. 10 Review-Journal). I feel that was a bit disingenuous, because there were already two downtown stores.
There is the Ogden Mart and Deli at 823 E. Ogden Ave., which has been there for a number of years. The Ogden Mart has everything the new mart has as far as shopping needs for the downtown community. It’s not as big as a major grocery store, but it has many items that can be found in those same stores, at reasonable prices to boot. The store also has a great full-service deli and prepared foods (the roasted chicken and sub sandwiches are excellent).
Family Food Mart, at 1102 Fremont St., was previously at the location of the new market many years ago, before being forced out to make room for the Downtown Project. True, it was a bit more of a convenience store, but it also had many items people needed, and kept them from having to travel as far. Family Food Market is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, while the Ogden Mart is open from 7 a.m. until 11 p.m., seven days a week.
I have shopped at these stores regularly since I moved downtown six years ago, in addition to shopping farther away at Smith’s and Albertson’s. The new store everyone seems to be raving about is considered “upscale,” which in my world means more expensive than I can afford or even want to pay. Also, The Market seems like the type of store in which I would either not be welcome or would be followed from the time I walked in the door until I left. I know this because downtown has become an inhospitable place to live for people like me.
There are and have been choices to shop downtown for a long time. The area has not been a so-called food desert.
JOSEPH BATCHELOR
LAS VEGAS
Hillary not so scary now
To the editor:
I’m a dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying Republican and have been for 60 years. The first time I heard a Democrat say the party was pushing Hillary Clinton for president, I fainted.
When I got on my feet again, I started thinking: Here’s a woman who spent eight years in the White House. I know her husband was president, but you don’t live with a plumber for eight years and not learn the difference between a monkey wrench and a screwdriver.
She then went on to find a place dumb enough — New York — to elect her senator. Then she went on to become secretary of state, not a job for the faint of heart. I would think it was pretty scary going into some of those Arab countries where they treat women worse than most countries treat animals.
When I added all this up, I got more than 16 years of service in government. That’s many more years of experience than our current commander in chief. I’ve never heard of Mrs. Clinton going to the golf course, so maybe she would spend more than a few minutes in the Oval Office every day. Maybe she would read a daily briefing once in a while. Maybe she would listen.
You can’t scare me with Mrs. Clinton anymore. If you bring out another neighborhood organizer from Chicago, that will terrorize me.
DANIEL THOMPSON
PAHRUMP
School district woes
To the editor:
Congratulations on Trevon Milliard’s focused and incisive reporting on the deepening and dismaying problems within the Clark County School District (“Crisis deepens inside district,” Oct. 26 Review-Journal). The question now is: When will the Review-Journal editorial board take these revelations seriously and pull its endorsement of Clark County School Board President Erin Cranor?
FRAN ABBOTT
LAS VEGAS
