Mellow Mushroom Approved

[KEGreene1]

I received an email yesterday saying I should post to MJ that Mellow Mushroom was approved and while the process was painful, "I told you they would eventually open".  I didn't know how to respond. 

If you look at the responses from the WLA crowd, who each made statements at the LUZ meeting, the Council Meeting and in the Times Union that stated with "We agree to the resolution, however..."  or make a statement that makes them feel like they will have to bee code enforcers.  Do you really feel like you moved forward?

I am happy for John Valentino and hope the best for Mellow Mushroom, but I am concerned.  What has this taught us about our City?  About our area of town?  How can we make this process better?  But ultimately, the question that remains is: How do you move forward when you have seen so many people behave badly?

If fighting over a pizza is this painful, you can see how hard Congress has over fighting over the Obamacare and the Fiscal Cliff.  What I have learned from this is that people really need to learn how to listen and more importantly learn how to compromise. 

[If_I_Loved_you]

I received an email yesterday saying I should post to MJ that Mellow Mushroom was approved and while the process was painful, "I told you they would eventually open".  I didn't know how to respond. 

If you look at the responses from the WLA crowd, who each made statements at the LUZ meeting, the Council Meeting and in the Times Union that stated with "We agree to the resolution, however..."  or make a statement that makes them feel like they will have to bee code enforcers.  Do you really feel like you moved forward?

I am happy for John Valentino and hope the best for Mellow Mushroom, but I am concerned.  What has this taught us about our City?  About our area of town?  How can we make this process better?  But ultimately, the question that remains is: How do you move forward when you have seen so many people behave badly?

If fighting over a pizza is this painful, you can see how hard Congress has over fighting over the Obamacare and the Fiscal Cliff.  What I have learned from this is that people really need to learn how to listen and more importantly learn how to compromise.

(What I have learned from this is that people really need to learn how to listen and more importantly learn how to compromise.) Good Luck but people show their real colors when they feel you're stepping on there toes?

[Josh]

How do you move forward? Sadly, like so many issues raised in this town, you wait for certain people to die off.

[strider]

The fight was not over pizza.  It was over a group of people deciding they did not like the laws and wanted them changed and changed retroactively.  Though Mellow Mushroom was not in violation of any law even though the intitial proposal had to go through the process for an exception, as did, as I understand it, the other restraunts in the area, it was certainly the right of WLA to have their say.  They simple chose to do it badly and without honor.  The appeal was simply ego and wanting to be right and win rather than what was best for all involved.

We often seem to live in a complaint driven world.  No one gets action unless they complain  About the laws, about noise, about whatever they decide they do not like.  City workers have been trained to only respond to complaints.  MCCD, Councilmen; they all seem to only act when the right group or person complains. Perhaps it is the simpy the easiest path to follow.  To truly lead or advocate for real and positive change takes work, hard work.  Few seem willing.

Sadly, I fear the complants over Mellow Mushroom are ony getting started.

[cline]

MCCD, Councilmen; they all seem to only act when the right group or person complains.

This is really what it comes down to.  WLA was made up of individuals who just so happen to be very well connected in this city so they bend the "right" decision makers ears about what they what done.  The others who don't know people in high places or aren't part of the GOB are pretty much S.O.L.  This, in a nutshell, is how Jacksonville works and is how it has worked for decades.  Luckily, as Josh mentioned, this old guard is starting to die off and hopefully we can get some new blood in that is not afraid of change and is willing to make Jax a better place for everyone, not just one contingent of people.

[If_I_Loved_you]

MCCD, Councilmen; they all seem to only act when the right group or person complains.

This is really what it comes down to.  WLA was made up of individuals who just so happen to be very well connected in this city so they bend the "right" decision makers ears about what they what done.  The others who don't know people in high places or aren't part of the GOB are pretty much S.O.L.  This, in a nutshell, is how Jacksonville works and is how it has worked for decades.  Luckily, as Josh mentioned, this old guard is starting to die off and hopefully we can get some new blood in that is not afraid of change and is willing to make Jax a better place for everyone, not just one contingent of people.

( this old guard is starting to die off) If they have children they will be just like their parents?

[tufsu1]

the only answer is to make your voices heard louder....if that means needing to outnumber the old guard 3-to-1, so be it!

[tayana42]

Two points:  (1) it wasn't the WLA folks who were the most "well-connected", it was the hired guns of Mellow Mushroom; their law firm and public relations firm.  So, in that sense it was business as usual in spite of the will of the neighborhood.

(2)  Riverside Avondale wasn't named one of the 10 great neighborhoods in America because of franchise pizza and beer joints.  It was the actions of concerned residents and business owners over a long period of time who desire that we have a high quality of life.

[Captain Zissou]

Two points:  (1) it wasn't the WLA folks who were the most "well-connected", it was the hired guns of Mellow Mushroom; their law firm and public relations firm.  So, in that sense it was business as usual in spite of the will of the neighborhood.

(2)  Riverside Avondale wasn't named one of the 10 great neighborhoods in America because of franchise pizza and beer joints.  It was the actions of concerned residents and business owners over a long period of time who desire that we have a high quality of life.

Sounds like someone's a little butthurt.

[Gators312]

Two points:  (1) it wasn't the WLA folks who were the most "well-connected", it was the hired guns of Mellow Mushroom; their law firm and public relations firm.  So, in that sense it was business as usual in spite of the will of the neighborhood.

(2)  Riverside Avondale wasn't named one of the 10 great neighborhoods in America because of franchise pizza and beer joints.  It was the actions of concerned residents and business owners over a long period of time who desire that we have a high quality of life.

Let's see...WLA was founded by a couple of connected local attorneys and Ms. Grant.  They were represented by a large local law firm.  If I remember correctly they also had Susan Fraser representing them as a planning consultant, who also is well connected in the planning departments in both Clay and Duval counties.

Also, who says WLA represents the will of the neighborhood?  I think there are more people in the neighborhood that supports MM coming to the Shoppes, than those who oppose it. 

[Pinky]

Two points:  (1) it wasn't the WLA folks who were the most "well-connected", it was the hired guns of Mellow Mushroom; their law firm and public relations firm.  So, in that sense it was business as usual in spite of the will of the neighborhood

Bzzzzt.  Wrong.  To characterize Mellow's representation as "Hired Guns" is absurd, especially given that Valentino was driven to hire an attorney and a communications guy by the legal shenanigans and deliberate misinformation from potential competitors in the Avondale strip.  Otherwise, if not for that legally-baseless harassment, I'm pretty certain that Valentino would not have chosen to add that expense to the cost of building a pizza joint. 

Furthermore, enough with referring to Mellow Mushroom as "them. It's not some faceless corporation nor some carpetbagger from Somewhere Else looking to invade, it's friggin' John Valentino, who has been an Avondale resident all of his life.  Like, from childhood all the way through the present.  I know it's easier to demonize the whole thing by assigning The Royal We to the guy, but it's inaccurate.  He's an Avondale guy supporting his Avondale wife and Avondale kids. 

(2)  Riverside Avondale wasn't named one of the 10 great neighborhoods in America because of franchise pizza and beer joints.  It was the actions of concerned residents and business owners over a long period of time who desire that we have a high quality of life.

Right.  That's why the "Concerned Residents and Business Owners" have been so proactive about solving the parking problem in the past, right?  That's why the process of welcoming and integrating new business into the neighborhood is so smooth and easy?  While you're helping me with hurdling that pile of bullshit cognitive dissonance, how about squaring up the "roving bands of drunken vomiting fornicators" narrative we've all heard with the "Best Neighborhood" designation you're crowing about?  Which is it?

I would suggest that the "Best Neighborhood" designation came about in spite of the NIMBYs and the ever-more-irrelevant RAP folks, and is actually because in the past the neighborhood has largely allowed the market to set the mix of businesses in the strip..  It's the utter ineffectiveness of the very people you credit which has allowed the commercial district to thrive without interference.  That is, of course, until a few well connected NIMBYS realized that they could push Jim Love around to the point where the crazy bastard was writing legislation specifically at their direction.  If it wasn't so despicable it really might be funny.

What is funny, however, is what you get when you take the whole mess and boil it down to a paste, and I'll bet it's something that the WLA folks probably have yet to realize:

In the end, Valentino is able to tear down a historic building building that was far from ideally suited for use as a restaurant, and in it's place build a more modern, profitable and efficient structure.  Not a single peep will have to be entertained from the NIMBYS who would certainly have turned out in droves to "save the old station" in anything other than the Bizarro World they ended up creating in their zeal to shut Mellow out.  If it was an intentional play on Valentino's part it would have to go down as one of the more elegant bits of business judo I've ever seen.  Like I've said in another thread on the subject, I'm reminded of Bre'r Rabbit and The Briar Patch;  the funny part is that WLA/RAP has no idea that they're Bre'r Fox. 

[John P]

I cant believe the gas station will not be used. That is a shame.

[ben says]

I cant believe the gas station will not be used. That is a shame.

I know. Awful