Dino Venti and I have a tasty conversation about Salem goings-on

Today I was having lunch in the Court Street Venti's restaurant when Dino Venti, the owner, came over to my table and said he'd like to talk with me.

After a conversation that was as tasty as the food I ate, I said "Let's have someone take a photo of us. I'll use it in a blog post and Strange Up Salem posting." 

Dino had some gripes regarding some things I've written about him. But that wasn't the most important thing we talked about. Which was...

Our agreement that people in Salem -- which naturally includes Dino and me -- need to do a better job of understanding that while we're often going to disagree with each other on various issues, we can agree to disagree in a pleasant manner.

At one point I told Dino that it'd be nice if Salem, and our country as a whole, could get back to the way things were back in the not-so-old days of Congressional politics. Senate/House Democrats and Republicans would argue vociferously, then go out for drinks together.

Kind of like a marriage, I said. My wife and I disagree all the time about this and that. But we don't get a divorce just because we think differently about a particular subject.

Dino started off our conversation by telling me how much it bothers him to have some customers threatening to boycott his two restaurants because he is publicly opposed to the mass transit payroll tax measure on the November ballot to improve Salem's Cherriots bus system. 

I assured Dino that I wouldn't stop eating at his restaurants, because I like his garlic sesame tofu too much. Also, because I agree with him that shunning a business, or a person, usually isn't a productive way of handling a disagreement on some issue.

Dino shared with me his reasons for opposing the payroll tax. I won't go into the specifics of what he said, in part because he was so open about giving me some insights into his restaurant business. 

What's important is that our conversation enabled me to better understand and empathize with his point of view, even though I came away still feeling that voters should say YES to the payroll tax. There's no substitute for old-fashioned face-to-face talking, notwithstanding the many positive sides of social media, like blogs, Facebook, and such.

Speaking of blogs... Dino brought up two subjects that I've written about where he felt I talked about him in a misleading manner: parking and food trucks. 

When I got home I used the Google search box on this blog to find the posts that included "Dino Venti."

Looking them over, I can see why Dino feels the way he does, while still standing by what I wrote. The way I see things, when someone gets publicly involved in city politics -- like Dino and I do -- he or she should expect that they'll come under public scrutiny in a different fashion than private citizens do.

Dino was one of the leaders of a group of downtown business owners who pushed for a return to parking time limits downtown. I did indeed criticize him and Jim Vu for the way they came up with recommendations of the parking group and presented them at a city council meeting.

Part of my criticism was that I asked Dino and Jim to answer some questions about how those parking recommendations were arrived at. Today Dino explained why he didn't respond to me. I appreciated the explanation. Still, it would have been better to have gotten my questions answered. 

On the food truck front, Dino said that he's heard from a number of people who believe he was responsible for the Fusion food truck being kicked out of a downtown alley across from his restaurant. He told me that my blog posts unfairly implied this.

Re-reading what I wrote, again I can understand Dino's point of view. Though I said, "I don't know which downtown restaurants were threatened by Fusion," I did go on to mention the downtown restaurants whose owners testified at a city council meeting that they feared losing business to food trucks.

Today Dino told me that he didn't have anything to do with Fusion leaving downtown, and he liked to eat at the Fusion food truck. Dino also said he wouldn't mind a few food trucks in the downtown area, yet still doesn't think that a downtown pod would be a good idea. 

Anyway, I enjoyed talking with Dino. It's easy to view individuals we disagree with on some issue as caricatures, rather than living, breathing people just like us.

Like I said before, social media, and the Internet in general, offer us wonderful new ways of communicating. But we here in Salem, as elsewhere, need to remember that just because people have different views on this or that, what we have in common is more important.

Meaning, we're all doing our best to get through life as best we can.

After talking with Dino I had a much better understanding of how challenging it is to run two restaurants and manage over sixty employees -- treating them well and compensating them fairly, while still making enough money to stay afloat.

Balance. That's the key. 

While being passionate and committed to our civic activism, no matter on what side of an issue we stand, it's important to remember that the people on the other side of an issue should be viewed as our friends and neighbors -- even as we disagree with them.

It felt good to stand next to Dino with our arms around each other while one of his employees took our photo. Dino and I will continue to agree on some things, and disagree on other things.

But today we found common ground on the need to agree and disagree with a smile on our faces. (As much as possible, at least.)

Comments

[Ty Davison]

Glad you had that conversation. I agree that's a good thing and something Salem needs more of.

That said, I'm not sure what Mr Venti expected from patrons when he stuck his name and more importantly his business front and center in the anti-mass transit movement. Of course patrons who disagree—like me, for example—are going to think twice about frequenting his restaurants. Why would I support financially the very political movement I oppose? Venti can't claim these are different things—I've got his mailer to prove it.

[Brian Hines]

Ty, good points. Dino Venti tied himself to the Chamber of Commerce campaign against the payroll tax when he allowed his name and photo to be part of a mass-mailed postcard urging a "No" vote.

Since the Chamber has been spreading lies and half-truths about the mass transit payroll tax, it isn't surprising that people in favor of the ballot measure wouldn't look favorably upon Dino's action.

This is what I was getting at when I said:

"The way I see things, when someone gets publicly involved in city politics -- like Dino and I do -- he or she should expect that they'll come under public scrutiny in a different fashion than private citizens do."

Dino told me that he was proud of his citizen activism. That's great. But with public involvement in controversial issues comes criticism from those on the other side. That's simply the way of politics.

Like you said, people look upon a business based upon everything they know about it. This includes direct experience, news stories, word of mouth, and other influences. This is what the concepts of "image" and "goodwill" are all about.

So it is understandable that customers of a business will look differently upon it after they learn something new about it. This is inescapable.

[Gary Olsen-Hasek]

An issue I always think of when discussing such things is, "Who has the most power in this situation?" It is great to be able to be friendly and get along even when having different opinions, but sometimes you have to negotiate based upon an understanding of power. People with lots of money, clout and usually White and male privilege get to decide for others. Ideally, voters with less obvious power can potentially get their perspective and desires known through the ballot box. Unless there is power through justice leadership, organizing and sometimes boycotts, demonstrations and riots, the weaker groups and individuals in our society rarely set the agenda. It is not just a matter of a different opinion if one party has more power in the relationship.

[Alex Kohan]

I think the criticism of him is completely justified. Obviously I do not believe that personal attacks have any place in political discourse so I not agree with any personal criticism of Dino Venti.

However, he has chosen to use his business to advertise his opposition to the payroll tax. When you visit Venti's website the first thing that your eyes see is a "Stop the Employer tax" picture. The same is true of Venti's facebook page and when driving by his business you see an anti-Cherriots lawn sign in front.

Dino Venti is using his position as a business owner of a well known local business to promote the No on Cherriots campaign. As such he should not be surprised when people who disagree with him boycott his business or express their displeasure with his opinions.

The obvious comparison is with the Chick-fil-A same sex marriage controversy. In that case I did not agree with any calls to boycott the fast food chain. In that case though the owners of Chick-fil-A did not, to my knowledge, use their business to promote their viewpoint. Dino Venti is very obviously using his business to promote his political opinions. Examples being the website, facebook and lawn signs.

[HarryVanderpool]

Brian, GREAT to see you with your arm around the great Dino Venti!
And I am so encouragedwith your latest admonition, "We need to do a better job of understanding that while we're often going to disagree with each other on various issues, we can agree to disagree in a pleasant manner."
I couldn't agree more!
So Brian, WHEN can we expect to see a picture of you with your arm around Salem's mayor, Awesome Anna, with a similar attitude?
Soon, I hope!
Luv-Ya-brother!!
XOXOXOXO

[Rain Trueax]

The thing for those who find fault with a business owner for trying to keep his business open should consider what would happen if their nice put-it-on-someone-else tax passes but the businesses downtown, due to boycotts and now increased expenses, must close.

Business doesn't have the luxury of thinking only of ideological purity. It has to make a profit or end what it's doing. Very few owners of any business can keep doing it at a loss. So I totally get his concern of food trucks that can come and go thereby avoiding upkeep costs and taxes he must pay and his concern at a higher payroll tax to cover the service others need and will avoid paying any fee to get (or so they think). This is so typical of how many think-- get someone else to cover a desired service.

Well, what could happen here is the nice little downtown businesses disappear. That going to improve Salem or make life better for those who wish to come in at no cost?

As a left leaning moderate, I like the idea of buses that work and cut down on traffic (even though as a rancher, I live too far out in the country to ever avail myself of one). I though think those who like the idea should pony up some of the cost not expect it to go elsewhere as a sort of freebie for them. Businesses have to stay competitive; so not all costs can be passed on... They have a firm bottom-line and talk, sweet or not, won't help them cover it.