LETS DO LUNCH: Despite a 50% drop...

LETS DO LUNCH: Despite a 50% drop in business since work on the Costa Mesa Freeway extension began last year, downtown merchants in that town will spring for a chi-chi lunch next Monday for about 100 construction workers. . . . Because work-related traffic has driven off customers and helped close one business, some merchants initially suggested a hunger strike. But merchants association director Randy Garell said: “We’re trying to keep it on a positive basis. We see the progress they’re making and we want to show them that someone does care.”