Von's Grand City Cafe is in the Roosevelt Hotel and just a block from the Convention Center. About 20 WTO delegates are staying there and the restaurant had bought food and added staff in anticipation of a huge number of people wanting to drink the bar's renowned martinis. I was expecting we'd increase our sales by huge amounts. We ran with four or five extra servers, extra bar staff, thinking we'd just get it all. We're not getting any of it.
Officers are everywhere and people are intimidated by that.
If people don't have to come downtown, they don't. Kaupzman hasn't put a dollar value on his losses, but the managers of Il Fornaio, a restaurant, cafe and espresso bar attached to Pacific Place have. Yesterday, the restaurant told 60 of its 80 employees not to come to work until Saturday. I think he wanted to put Seattle on the map. He didn't think about the rest of us.