The issue of supermarkets leaving inner cities has less to do with a lack of customers and more to do with the difficulty of trying to run a supermarket in inner cities. I watched stores like Lucky, Safeway, and others move out of inner city Seattle. Issues like shoplifting, vandalism and other unusual expenses made it unprofitable to attempt to continue operating in the city. I don't think civic leaders have the insight to know how to respond to the issue. Decades of suburban development has created habits of thought and policy that create the problems they're now experiencing. Zoning restrictions prevent neighborhood food stores from setting up shop in the midst of their customers. Instead, commercial activity is limited to the major thoroughfares, farther away from customers. To my mind, convenience stores should be eliminated from neighborhoods and prevented from selling edible goods. We don't allow sexual pornography to exist in neighborhoods, why do we allow food porn?

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know how early I can start tomatoes in Seattle if I use a tunnel cloche (PVC hoops, 3' high, covered to the ground in plastic)? I would be using from hardened-off starts and planting them directly in the ground under the cloche. In the past we found that putting some water bottles under the cloche to absorb heat from sunlight seems to help a bit. I am hoping to put the tomatoes out around May 1. Steve Solomon seems pretty gung ho about this in his book, he even talks about planting tomatoes out under a cloche, before the last frost date, but he is in the Williamette Valley, and in any case he probably has a better cloche than my jury-rigged PVC and plastic job. Granted waiting later might be a better idea, but my home-grown starts are going to be around 10 weeks old at that time, and I don't want them to stay in the pots too long. Can I get away with putting them under the cloche around May 1? Also, we do have Walls'o'water, but I am not sure how much they can extend the season compared with a full cloche.

Thanks for the kind thoughts all. Though I still have a couple of issues (have to watch out for lung illnesses for a few years etc) I've been really lucky. I know of others who have spent months in nursing homes because they couldn't fix their leaks. Scary stuff...I thought that stuff only happened to the '"really fat" people (eyes rolling). I learned some great life lessons about not being invincible :) FYI I did not have a bypass. Those require that you take vitamins for the rest of your life as you can not get enough healthy food in. THey have major malabsorption issues to deal with, etc. They are typically recommended for grossly obese people. The procedure I had is a new procedure that is pretty much replacing the lap band, which has turned out to be a bit of a failure long term as it requires too much maintenance and causes significant scaring long term which damages the stomach permanently. My procedure removes the stretchy part of your stomach, leaving a banana shaped muscle which functions as it always has, only can not stretch much. Lifelong you have no significant changes in how your body functions so it's healthier, safer, etc...unless you have all of the complications I had...then it's not so much :( I would recommend the procedure to anyone who had comorbidities to deal with. High BP, sleep apnea, etc, which can be life threatening, not to mention diabetes. The rates people go off of medication with this surgery is amazing. I however had it more for cosmetic reasons...that I don't recommend...the risks and rewards don't pan out. ....and yes it's now seen as the easy way out. It's not actually easy, even for those who don't have complications. You still have to have self control, watch your diet, obey the rules, etc., but you really can't "cheat" until quite far out. 80% of people are successful long term...but some do gain back some of their weight. Very few ever gain it all back because you really have to work to make that happen. Success rates with dieting alone are rather abysmal...don't get me wrong, I wish I'd not have done this, but those are the facts, so it's just fair to share them.

JuneBaby (https://www.junebabyseattle.com/) is a new Seattle restaurant that was named best new restaurant by the James Beard Foundation. We took our granddaughter there on her 18th birthday and she really liked it. You would definitely need reservations. To me, the food was a modern take on traditional southern cooking - very tasty. There is also a restaurant in Fremont that our kids and granddaughter like called Eve (https://www.evefremont.com/). If your daughter is into healthy foods, this would be perfect. Fremont is a very interesting/weird area of Seattle which has thrift stores and is fun to walk around. Agree that Wild Ginger and LePichet are terrific choices. Just an FYI: University of Washington has a home football game this Saturday (6:00 pm) so it will be crowded around University Village (which is a very nice shopping area). Hope this helps.