So a local restaurant is renting out space on Congress Avenue here in Austin. The landlords signed a deal some time ago to sell the property off for a new hotel high-rise. The restaurant is semi-popular (I never heard of it till the news on all this started) and the owners cozied up to the Keep Austin Weird crowd and the city council and bitched about how evil it was that they would have to move, Mommy make the Bad Man stop, and everyone in the 78704 zip code complained.
The Austin city council approved, in their meeting yesterday morning, a forgiveable $750,000 loan to the owners of Las Manitas so the sisters can relocate their restaurant to a building they either own or lease one block up on Congress Avenue.
Hold the verde sauce, here! They have another property already? Oh poor them, they have life so freakin’ hard. I bet I’m not the only local yokel who though these sisters were going to be out on their tuckus andd would have to find a site somewhere outside the Congress Ave. district. They’ve already got property there! They just need to convert it to a taco shack and that apparently takes $750,000? If their greasy cantina is that great, why can’t they do it themselves? I like long-time local crank John Kelso’s remarks on this:
This is a disturbing case of skewed priorities. The food is more memorable at Spamarama than it is at Las Manitas. (It’s hard to get those Spam-Alama Ding-Dongs out of your head, let alone your throat.) And you don’t go to Las Manitas for the food. You go to Las Manitas to have your liberal aura poofed, and to get your Aulde Austin credentials stamped.
Why Las Manitas and not other, just as genuine Austin eateries or establishments? Guero’s owner Rob Lippincott thinks giving the Perez sisters the forgivable loan is preferential treatment and he’s right. What about the folks who own Manuels, another Mexican food joint on Congress Avenue? Do they get free cash, too?
Nope, Austin officially endorses Las Manitas over other places. Instead of dealing with the realities of economic forces and adapting, improvising, and overcoming, the owners of Las Manitas get a handout from the taxpayers of Austin who will take it on the chin. (Chin if they’re lucky.)
The terms of the loan, per the Austin American-Statesman:
- Amount: $750,000 with 6 percent interest rate.
- Length: 20 years
- Payment plan: $4,500 monthly for first five years ($270,000), after which the city will forgive the loan
- Conditions: Owners must retain 15 full-time employees and make timely loan payments. If they sell or close the business between years five and 20, they’ll have to repay an adjusted balance.
- Where the money goes: The portion repaid will go into the Business Retention and Enhancement program.
I don’t profess to be a math whiz by any stretch of the imagination, but doesn’t a $750,000 loan at 6% interest for 20 years break down to about $5373 a month? How is it they’re only paying $4500 a month for five years? These two chicas should be paying $322,380 in five-years’ time, not $270,000.
Take the interest out to 20 years, subtract the $322,380 and Austin taxpayers lose $967,140.
Someone please tell me I’m wrong.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Jennifer Kim breaks from the free market » Swanky Conservative // Jul 16, 2007 at
[...] Kim, let the rule of law prevail on this one instead of pushing the council to do another Las Manitas favoritism measure. [...]
2 Kendall // Jul 27, 2007 at
Austin has a long history of allowing short-sighted developers to come in and close down businesses that make the city worth living in–perhaps you’ve heard of the Armadillo World Headquarters, the Club Foot, or Liberty Lunch. The businesses typically go belly up and leave Austin without the businesses that make the city interesting and, at least the three aforementioned cases, without any business whatsoever. Maybe you saw the giant, unfinished hulk that cost the city Liberty Lunch? I would have preferred that the city simply refuse to give the Marriott permits for building–the city doesn’t need another bland, faceless hotel complex–rather than giving Las Manitas a loan to relocate, but clearly short-sighted free-market forces still rule. At least the loan is a step in the right direction, and we’ll still have some local businesses downtown when they shut-down the Marriott.
I realize that quality-of-life arguments must not be very persuasive for you; you must have been living under a rock to not have been to Las Manitas. The rest of use don’t mind paying a few more dollars to try and preserve the things that make Austin unique. Perhaps you should consider living some place that lacks quality of life to erode and hence no need to commit tax dollars to preserve it.
3 everett // Jul 27, 2007 at
Liberty Lunch was one of the best, coolest venues in Austin. Putting the CSC building there sucked. Getting rid of the Armadillo sucked, too. I don’t recall who owned what, for those cases, but Las Manitas’ owners didn’t own the property. It’s that simple. You can’t tell me what I can legally do with something I own.
Las Manitas’ owners already have another location on Congress, anyway. That little late-to-be-publicized fact lost any sympathy I had for them. The Little Guy doesn’t have multiple pieces of prime downtown real estate.
As for your quality of life argument, that’s one of the most nonprogressive stances someone can take. It’s closed-minded, authoritarian and stasist. Life is change, pure and simple. I’ve lived in Austin long enough to see it happen and for the most part (CSC and Intel buildings aside) I think it’s been good. The little places that we all loved and admired (I still think Las Manitas wasn’t that great of a restaurant) might change and even leave. The day Conan’s was moved from the Drag was a sad sad day. Martin Brothers was awesome and Quackenbush’s was the best. They were great places but the world changed.
Nobody’s guaranteed permanence in this life. Especially the small business owner who doesn’t own the land under his or her establishment. If you can’t realize that, then you and the “rest of you” should take some Econ 101 courses and start up your own business. Everyone has the same shot at an opportunity to succeed. The rest is up to how good you are.
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