Insomnia Cafe’s Claims Absurd

Despite the fact that Carla Diamond’s letter “Shouldn’t the Insomnia Cafe Be Welcomed and Encouraged?” (April 25) took the words right out of the mouths of the owners of the cafe, we’d like to respond on the off chance it’s taken seriously.

Her opening statement that “the whole tone of negotiations . . . has been confrontational as opposed to cooperative” ignores some facts.

The owners of of Insomnia Cafe willfully chose a location that they knew was not suited to nor legally acceptable for a restaurant, most importantly because it has no parking lot. Eight months after being served an order to comply by the city, they have not corrected the situation.

Her assertion that “Insomnia performs a number of valuable services to the community” and “City governments should hail organizations like Insomnia” is absurd and tantamount to claiming that lawbreakers should be rewarded as long as they generate income.

If rather than criticizing Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky and the zoning administrator for enforcing laws, Insomnia’s owners and customers tried sleeping at night, they might wake up to the realization that maybe the problems Insomnia has been accused of creating are real and that, just maybe, if they did something about them (i.e. abiding by the laws and policing their “tween to teen” patrons), this subject could finally become yesterday’s news.

ANN DOUGLAS

Sherman Oaks

The writer is co-chair of the Insomnia Review Committee of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.