To the Editor:

In her Sunday 12/5 column, Diana Diamond again ignores basic economics in
her repeated claims that the closing of Rickey's will cost the city
its current tax revenue.  As an analogy, suppose that there was a downturn
in Starbuck's business so they closed the most worn-out and lowest-performing
of their many stores in town.  Diamond's argument is that all of the
closed store's customers would simply stop buying coffee,
instead of going a few blocks to another store.

Also, she misrepresents the Charleston traffic study as saying that Charleston
can support pending developments now, instead of after proposed
improvements.  But that would reveal the absurdity of her portrait of
those who support the necessity of those improvements as opponents of
those developments, and of herself, who has ridiculed the improvements, as
a supporter.

And she wonders why people say she doesn't let facts or logic
interfere with her opinions.

Douglas B. Moran
790 Matadero Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94306
650.856.3302