Update – The Struggle of Little Havana

(the comments section of the original post is worth some reading if you’re interested in this story)

So I have received some feeback from Bill Henry, the councilperson (4th district) I emailed regarding this ongoing saga. Granted, he’s not on the committee that decides the fate of Egan Marine, but in my mind that actually makes for a better method of getting honest, somewhat apolitical answers out of elected officials. At any rate, here’s what Bill had to say:

[...]

Basically, the deep-water advocates/port-related businesses want the MIZOD as big as possible, not only to maximize possible expansion, but also to provide as much of a “buffer zone” as possible.  The industrials are uncomfortable about letting Little Havana’s new location out of the MIZOD because none of them want to be right next to any busy residential or commercial use…they figure, if a couple hundred residents or customers are coming and going from the site next to them every day, that just increases the chances that someone is going to have an unpleasant industrial-related experience.

For instance, say one of their smokestacks belches a little ash one day and the wind blows it onto the property next door. Ideally, there’s another port-related industrial use there that doesn’t mind a little ash; heck, they’re probably making some of their own.  What they don’t want is for that ash to fall on a bunch of [cars] in Little Havana’s busy, busy parking lot next door…or worse, into the drinks of the people enjoying margaritas on the outside deck.

It’s easy to say now that this is the price you pay for putting your restaurant next to a factory…but it’s doubtful that the person whose car or drink has just been defiled will take it so philosophically.  At which point, they’re going to call their councilperson and demand that someone pay them for the damages and the trouble and why isn’t the City doing something to require that these factories have more safeguards to prevent this from happening – for heaven’s sake…there’s a restaurant right next door!  So that’s why they don’t want Little Havana to opt out.

All that being said, the good news is that I believe negotiations are underway to find Little Havana another location, closer to the Inner Harbor and already outside of the MIZOD.  Keep your ears open…

Will do Bill, will do.

Additionally, a commenter over at Midnight Sun sent an email to 11th district councilman Bill Cole and received this response:

Subject: RE: Let Little Havana/Egin Marine out of the MIZOD

I fully support Tim and the rest of the group at Little Havana, but the Egan property will remain in the MIZOD. Councilman Reisinger and I are working with Little Havana to come up with a better plan for their waterfront relocation.

Bill Cole

So at least that bit of rumor has been confirmed by another councilperson. It’s somewhat sad to see that the decisions have all but already been made according to the powers that be. But it would seem that in the face of labor unions and industrial advocates, and being the councilpersons of a VERY industrial set of districts, it’s politically impossible to give a small restaurant what it wants. With any luck, Obrecht Corp. (the owners of the warehouse being leased to Little Havana) will continue to renew their lease for as long as the need it. But then, if they do sell, you can bet dollars to donuts that Harborview developers will be front and center making a grab for it. 17 story highrise condos, anyone?

03/30/2009 | Evan | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

The struggle of Little Havana

little-havana-2 For the past oh, million years, Little Havana has had something of a case of creeping death. I remember back in 2004 or so when there were rumors flying around that the owners were in danger of losing their lease on the warehouse property they currently reside in, which prompted outrage on my part and a flurry of photo-taking in an effort to preserve the memory of one of my favorite bar/restaurants in the city. 2004 was also a time during which rampant house flipping and tremendous amounts of development on the waterfront were occurring, so the possibility of the owners of the establishment getting ousted in favor of condos and retail was fairly good.

Fortunately for everyone, that didn’t happen. Even more fortunately, the owners of Little Havana purchased a property about two blocks away called Egan Marine (1000 E. Key Highway) with the intent of rebuilding a new Little Havana that they actually own, without the danger of suddenly being pushed out of existence entirely when the owner of their warehouse property decides to sell to Big Man Condo. I actually went to the location once upon a time when Little Havana threw their “Bay of Pig” celebration (a pig roast) on the 4th of July, and it looked like it could make for a good space for a restaurant – even if the view of many rust bucket junkers sitting in the water wasn’t entirely appealing.

But, as far as things go, even purchasing their own space can’t seem to save them from the inevitable, it would seem.  A little thing called MIZOD (Maritime Industrial Zoning Overlay District) was put in place in 2004, a zoning legality that restricts the use of any such waterfront properties in that area for anything aside from industry. No condos, no retail, no restaurants. Little Havana placed a statement on their website explaining the situation a while ago, and the zoning district was set to expire in 2014, a time at which mixed used development (such as Silo Point, etc) could continue. But after what seems to be a lot of pressure from unions and industrial advocates, the city council took a vote this past Monday to extend MIZOD to 2024, or eventually even permanently putting it in place. And most people think it would pass pretty easily.

So essentially, this means that unless Little Havana can remove their property from the zone, they’re kind of screwed.

It’s kind of a conundrum – on one hand, I agree entirely with the aim of a MIZOD – to ablate the clear cutting of industry in Baltimore, preserving jobs and maintaining at least some of the heritage that Baltimore has as an industrial port city. On the other hand, if catastophes like Silo Point can be built, why can’t a very small restaurant on the outer most outskirts of the industrial zone be built too? There’s no real reason that the city couldn’t allow development on the land portion of the lot, while retaining the rights to use the “deep water” lining the area. Or rather I should say, the palms aren’t greased enough for it to happen.

Furthermore, and as others have noted, the industrial businesses in the maritime zone aren’t exactly expanding. Far from it. And again, I agree that buying up unused industrial zones and propping up condos isn’t a good idea – because once it’s gone, it’s gone – but on a case-by-case basis building a new Little Havana at 1000 E Key Highway would do nothing to endanger the future of the harbor’s industry, nor would it impede on any future use of the waterways surrounding the lot. It should be removed from the MIZOD.

If you care enough to make your opinion known, tell your district councilman and make the case for a new Little Havana. (I will)

UPDATE: The city council will be voting this coming Monday (the 30th) for final passage on the MIZOD extension, and will provide for the ability of property owners to apply for removal of their properties from the District. So, if the measure passes (it will), the owners may have a pretty good shot if they get some work done and try to do so. Fingers crossed!

DOUBLE UPDATE: Statement from facebook group regarding the cause. Definitely worth reading.

(click here for Part 2)

03/26/2009 | Evan | Tags: , , , , | 8 Comments »

New! From Quiznos! (not actually new)

I mean, I enjoy Quiznos subs and all, despite the fact that they make it …difficult to find their nutrition information (in that, there is no comprehensive list of their data anywhere except via 3rd party sites) and their commercials have been historically ssstupid, but their newest venture has the one-two punch of being pretty lame and sounding super lame.

Duuuumb

Duuuumb

Yup, you too can be one of the first to try a Toasty…. Torpedo. Torpedo. Coz like, a sub is too big, you know? And torpedoes are weapons shot out of subs, right? So this is like the weaponized version of a sandwich that got shot out of a larger mother sandwich. AWESOME.

Soak it in folks, this is the future of food. Slim, sleek bread (smaller size) and over a foot long (with less meat)! For only $4 – which by my count is a full dollar less than those jokers over at Subway who keep trying that $5 footlong gimmick – I mean, what a fad, am I right? Truly new and innovative – and ciabatta bread is soooooo fancy! I hear they even had it at Wendy’s at some point!

TORPEDO.

UPDATE!!! (2009-04-08) – Due to something of a “Search Engine Demand,” I have decided to put together the nutrition information for all of Quizno’s Toasty Torpedos and assemble it into a handy .pdf format – enjoy!!

(I would recommend avoiding the Big Kahuna Tuna sandwich)

(download here)

03/19/2009 | Evan | Tags: , , | 6 Comments »