An open and shut case
Spec's on Washington closes: bad news for K-6 winos
Ok, maybe we just love the proliferation of gourmet wine and liquor retailers (you would too if you'd lived in Harlem and had to frequent the shady places that operate behind bulletproof glass and prison bars), but in a battle between Spec's Liquor and the byzantine city government, we'll take Spec's, hands down.
But as the Chronicle reports, you can't fight city hall, and when stuck in a dispute over the validity of its liquor permits, owner John Rydman has decided to shutter his Washington Ave. store a year after opening.
The crux of the issue is that the store sits a mere 665 ft. from Memorial Elementary School (less than the required 1000 ft.), though several blocks and a busy traffic roundabout divide them. Rydman says this issue was noted on permit applications and he thought he'd been issued a waiver, but now the city government says the permit issue was a clerical error.
Rydman says he spent $400,000 go build out the space and an additional $2 million on a 5-year lease, and he has a lawsuit against the city and county still pending.
