What happened at the Commission meeting?

So it seems that all the bicyclists that were to appear at the City Commission meeting last week, in support of earlier bar closing times in the name of safety, never appeared. Neither did the hundreds of letters in support that supposedly came in from the spandex masses. A few letters from years ago did come in and those were taken out of context to support the 3 am issue

And Ms. Janet Mondshein, exec director of the local MADD group gave her plea and presentation for nothing it seemed. In the end, people are still drinking and driving and coming from clubs all over town after leaving bars at 5 am, 7 am and 24 hours.

One other interesting thing was that the management from CocoWalk and Mayfair felt the need to stand up and change their story from a few months ago. They were asked to speak by Commissioner Sarnoff. I am very dubious of those who don't speak on their own free will.

A few months ago, I was told by CocoWalk that Muvico didn't give care about bar closing times and that CocoWalk was suffering because they could not rent out their large club spaces due to the 3 am ordinance. Clubs wanted to stay open late and they would prefer to open in other locations where they could do that. I was told this. To my face and in a written emails. I was told, "Tom, the last movies let out 1 or 2 am, they don't care what goes on at 5 am, they are long shut down by then." I was told, "no such clause," when I asked about a stipulation in Muvico's lease and bar closing times.

Then, on Thursday night, Bob Whalen, owner of CocoWalk, said the opposite. Funny how things change like that. I have a suspicion that the permits are going to flow through like butter all of a sudden now.

And Ed Prelaz, manager of Mayfair stood up and said the same thing about keeping 3 am. And yet, not one restaurant or club space is operating at Mayfair, except the Improv, for the same 5 am reason. The place has more closed storefronts than open.

And why were the other Commissioners all shut out? They looked bored out of their skulls and they got up, left the dais, came back, drank coffee and did everything except participate. Shouldn't they have asked some questions of those speaking and even their own Commission Chair?

Tomorrow we will discuss Nathan Kurland's complaints about the Grapevine and me personally at the meeting. You can probably see that at the City Hall tv channel here (it's D1 under the list).