Posted on 06/19/2007 7:44:11 AM PDT by Cat loving Texan
COMMENTARY: JOHN KELSO No sour grapes over Las Manitas It's just the city bureaucracy that leaves a bad taste.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 Jeff Courington, who has opened a new wine bar called Vino Vino at 4119 Guadalupe St., says his feelings about the Las Manitas deal are not sour grapes.
"I like the girls at Las Manitas," he said, referring to the Perez sisters, who own the Mexican food restaurant on Congress Avenue that he thinks got special treatment from the city. "But I mean, come on, they're just a business like anyone else. It's not like it's some kind of icon."
Courington points out that when he used to run a restaurant in the Warehouse District, he ate breakfast tacos at Las Manitas every morning. So, it ain't the food. He just thinks the City of Austin played favorites when it gave Las Manitas a $750,000 loan to move two doors up the street into a building it already owns.
Conversely, it sounds to me like the city handed Courington $750,000 worth of red tape while he was trying to open a new business. Which seems to be standard procedure in this town.
"My whole problem with this city thing is I think the city would have been better served if it had taken the $750,000 and created an office to help small-business people with their permitting process," Courington said.
Courington has a reason to complain. Parking. He doesn't have any. And city regulations aren't helping.
Oh, if the city would let him, he could use the parking lot next to Hyde Park Gym at night. His bar shares a wall with the gym. The parking lot, which Courington says has been there 27 years, is just a few steps away from Vino Vino. But the city, Courington says, won't let him use it, unless he gets it paved, paints yellow stripes and puts in a retention pond for flood control. He doesn't know what it would cost to do all that. "A lot more than we would want to spend," he said. But he figures the retention pond would cut the number of parking spaces in the lot from 28 to 14.
Because of the square footage of his wine bar, he needs 24 spaces to meet city code. So, redoing the lot would be paying through the nose to kick himself in the butt.
"I don't know anybody who's going to spend money to get less," Courington said. Besides, he adds, repaving would take out three "majestic" pecan trees. "That would bring the city arborist into play."
To avoid that hassle, he's made an agreement with the Midas Muffler shop a few doors down to rent its parking lot at night. Sometime this month or next, he'll present that plan to the city's Planning and Zoning Commission.
The Midas lot is about two blocks away, which is sort of a hike for wine drinkers. But it'll fulfill city regulations and, besides, he got it for a good price.
"I rented it for two cases of wine for three years, " Courington said.
So, what kind of wine did he give up for the lot? "(Stuff) I wanted to get rid of," Courington admitted.
The planning and zoning meeting is critical to Courington. So, for the meeting, Courington plans to bring 60 or so supporters.
Everything with the city is "dog and pony," Courington said. So, he's bringing the dogs and the ponies.
He says that when he started working on his new wine place two years ago, he figured it would cost him $250,000 to open. He says he's spent $400,000, thanks to city rules.
"Delays have cost me a fortune," Courington said. "Consultants. It's hard to get anything done in this city without a consultant." He says it took him a month and a half just to pull a remodeling permit.
"I don't know if you've ever dealt with the city, but if you ask five people, you get five different answers."
So, Courington wishes Las Manitas all the best. He just wishes he'd gotten to walk down the same red carpet.
John Kelso's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 445-3606 or jkelso@statesman.com.
I live in Williamson County. Close enough to the action, yet worlds away.
You might say we traded Austin socialists for Williamson County tax ‘n spend Country Club Republicans.
But at least we don’t have a “Leslie” transvestite on every corner.
If Courington's name was Rodriguez, Gonzalez or Dominguez he would be getting the red carpet escort. It is all his fault.
>> If Courington’s name was Rodriguez, Gonzalez or Dominguez he would be getting the red carpet escort.
Hey, now, that’s racist! You don’t have to be hispanic to get Austin city perks. You can also be a Person of Color*, or queer, or feminazi, or communist. Or any permutation of the above (diversity is encouraged).
*Any color but white that is. White male, fuhgeddaboutit.
True. I too live in Williamson County. My Austin freinds laugh at me because I tell them I feel 'dirty' when I have to go into the city.
Hey, now, that’s racist! You don’t have to be hispanic to get Austin city perks. You can also be a Person of Color*, or queer, or feminazi, or communist. Or any permutation of the above (diversity is encouraged).
*Any color but white that is. White male, fuhgeddaboutit.
That is true. When the Midtown nightclub (basically all black club) burned, they got city help. When Bert's BBQ because the Austin fire department on the same block refused to go check after several 9-1-1 calls, they got no assistance.
Austin is the kind of sewer people like Dan Rather and his daughter crawl out of.
The best thing to ever come out of Austin is 183 North.(before it was toll)
If this guy rents the parking lot 2 blocks away all he has to do is buy a couple of rickshaws and hire some strong young guys to transport his customers back and forth to their cars. He will have an instant sensation!
They do this at the Reliant Stadium in Houston, or they did when it first opened, but you might have to park a mile away at Reliant.
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