PARKING WARS, PT. 2: TELL RAMAN GUYS COVID SIGNS NO LONGER VALID

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

If we are to believe City of Brownville Manager Helen Ramirez, all of the temporary COVID-19 curbside pickup signs are a thing of the past and are being replaced with 15-minute parking spaces on each downtown street corner.

That makes the signs that were used during the COVID pandemic obsolete and no longer authorized by the city.

That's why other businesses along the 1200 block of Adams Street wonder why one of the discarded signs appeared in front of the Kuyashii Ramen eatery on 1237 E Adams. 

The Ramen, as it is called, is partially owned by the partners who run Terras "Urban Mexican Kitchen," who were some of  the first beneficiaries of the signs and of the mobile "mini patio," which was supposed to be lent and rotated to the businesses in the downtown area to assist them do business through the pandemic.

Ricardo's Restaurant found it to be an inconvenience because customers would have to eat in the oppressive summer heat outside, which also drew flies attracted by the food, so he returned it to the city.

When it was Terras' turn, it's owners virtually took ownership of the mini patio and kept it "temporarily" for three years. Not content with taking up the one parking space, the owners added to it and expanded it to take three spots. One of those owners was Christian Nevarez, who apparently was disappointed that the mini patios were recalled by the city to comply with the new parking ordinances passed by the city commission..

Once the city starting scaling back the COCID-era downtown parking, the mini patios and BTX temporary curbside pickup signs were invalidated, much, apparently, to the displeasure of Nevarez and his six other fellow Terras associate owners.

   

In a FB post, Nevarez wrote his friend commissioner Pedro Cardenas rather wistfully that "our" mini patio only took one space, but that he was sure that downtown was better after the city took possession of it and stopped its use.

From the get-go, the mini patios and the temporary curbside pick-up sings and parking spaces they occupied have always been owned by the taxpayers, not the business owners who apparently developed a type of ownership of the mobile mini patio.

In his response, Cardenas, whose wife is now also a  downtown coffee shop owner, consoled Nevarez for his loss and encouraged him and his Terras partners to keep on keeping on despite the removal of  "their" mini patio.

Is it only a coincidence that Nevarez is also part owner of the Ramen, whose now invalid BTX Cares curbside pickup sign is also to be removed? Ah, the casualties of war!