City Hall Hustle: Güero’s Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Permits!

In the battle sparked by the Tweet Heard ‘Round the World – or at least South Austin over a slow news weekend – the white flag has been run up. The reference, of course, is to the words between Güero’s restaurateur and free marketeer Rob Lippincott and Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez over the city’s evening shutdown of the former’s music patio on Friday, April 9, for lack of permitting.

After the closing, Lippincott took to the airwaves, claiming his employees’ jobs had been put in jeopardy by the behemoth of city bureaucracy. KXAN-TV reported Lippincott’s claim that the city has made it “nearly impossible” for him to get the proper permits and his belief that he could keep the music going until he had procured them – which elicited a 140-character smackdown from Martinez. “So Guero’s outdoor stage was shut down last night,” tweeted His Eminence. “They’ve had 14 months to fix this. It was built w/o a permit. Plain and simple. Idiots!” The talking heads played up the interpersonal drama – until the principals decided to silence the violence. The States­man reported last week that the duo had decided to “clear the air,” quoting Lippincott as saying, “We were kind of hurt by [the tweet], but now we understand everything that happened with it. … I’ve said way worse about him and other people.”

Will the cease-fire hold? Last week, the Hustle’s interest was piqued when we saw Lippincott had signed up to address the council during its noontime citizen communi­ca­tions period – on the topic of “music permits” – but his name has since shuffled off the agenda. Nonetheless, the Hustle still wondered what was up with the unpermitted venue.

“The bottom line is, he needs to come into compliance, and he’s finally doing that,” says Martinez. Contrary to initial reports, Lippincott didn’t have an approved site plan at the time of the Friday night shutdown, but one was just recently accepted by the city. “Now that he’s done it, we can review it. … He can get a music venue permit and go about his business.” And despite murmured allegations of selective enforcement, along with the argument that the shutdown of an unpermitted stage is ridiculous when permits for actual stages are pulled few and far between, it’s worth noting that the entire patio development – masonry, electrical wiring, and more – was never permitted in the first place. “What Rob is facing is multiple issues with his site, not just a stage,” Martinez says.

While it makes good copy, it’s unlikely we’ll see the patio permitting saga play out much more in the public eye: Permit approval is an administrative task, seldom to come before the council unless for extraordinary reasons. But while Güero’s lack of any permit was at issue – as was, to an extent, the irony of the city’s Public Assembly Code Enforce­ment team looking for decibel violations along South Congress during Lonestar Rod & Kustom Round Up weekend, when overdriven engines drown out any live music, permitted or not – the incident could revive debate over outdoor music sound limits, and the 70-decibel vs. 85-decibel limit for restaurants and nightclubs, respectively. “The difference is because of the zoning category – a neighborhood is not going to object to zoning for a restaurant,” says Martinez, “but they may oppose [a stage]. This gives a clear distinction that if you are a restaurant, there are going to be some limits. We are trying to maintain our status as the live music capital of the world, but at the same time we’re trying to deal with a host of other community issues. Being the live music capital does not give someone the right to plug in an amp and jam out wherever they want.”

On Earth Day, Honor the Grackles

It’s a jamming, if not jam-packed, agenda before City Council today. The centerpiece of the Thursday, April 22, Earth Day agenda is the proposed adoption of Austin Energy’s Resource, Gener­a­tion, and Climate Protec­tion Plan (see “Generation Plan’s Day at the Dais“). But also on the agenda is Item 3, which would remove extra city requirements for businesses applying for state liquor licenses. As the item was postponed from the last meeting by Laura Morrison, we wouldn’t be surprised if the cleanup language inspires some discussion. Also on tap are Items 32 and 33, first reads on renewing the Austin Cab and Yellow Cab franchises for two years. With Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the recently formed Taxi Drivers Association of Austin raising questions about cabbies’ long hours and low wages, the items will certainly draw speakers. And Item 20 lets council choose a name for a .219 acre “park” south of City Hall – the tiny triangle between Guada­lupe and Lavaca. Nominations include Margret Hofmann and Jackie Goodman (former council members both), late Hyde Park-based poet Albert Huffstickler, the Molly Ivins First Amendment Grove, Willie’s Woods, and the Hustle’s favorites: Grackle Oaks and Grackle Hilton. It just might ruffle some feathers, too.

Quicker than carrier pigeon: www.twitter.com/CityHallHustle.

This article appears in April 23 • 2010.