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North End restaurants appeal judge's ruling that the mayor doesn't hate them
By adamg on Tue, 01/14/2025 - 12:10pm
A group of North End restaurant owners and the North End Chamber of Commerce today asked a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling by a judge that the city had the right to treat the neighborhood differently and impose fees for putting patios on public sidewalks and roads - or even just to bar them altogether.
In that ruing, US District Court Judge Leo Sorokin concluded the restaurant owners had made the city's case that the small, densely packed neighborhood is unique and that the Wu administration had every right to craft outdoor dining policies there differently than in the rest of the city and that the owners failed to prove that Wu hates Italians.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
 Appeal notice, lists all the restaurants | 114.41 KB |
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Comments
I'm a touch confused
Don't they have to state some cause for appeal? I didn't think you just got to say "we appeal!" and then the appeals court does what? Is there some checklist they go through to see if you had anything incorrect occur? I thought you had to tell them exactly what you think went wrong with your case and they could judge the merits of that argument.
Nope.
The first orders of business in appealing a decision is filing a Notice of Appeal in the right place, to the right people, by the right time.
It's just a Notice, its not making any arguments. That comes later.
How about negotiate a solution?
Perhaps these pests have burned too many bridges, but in an ideal world would be great to sit down with the city and hammer out a deal that allows outdoor dining on say weekends only? Or as the barriers have to be quite sturdy, have specific locations for the dining of which nearby restaurants rotate use of?
It is clear the restaurant density is too high for 7 day a week outdoor dining on every frontage.
I took the list in the appeal and reformatted for easier reading in case you want to avoid these places. Perhaps the restaurants not on this list can negotiate something reasonable?
Ristorante Euno
Antico Forno
Aqua Pazza
Assaggio
Dolce
Mare Oyster Bar
Quattro Ristorante
Trattoria Il Panino
Nico Ristorante
Monica’s Trattoria
Monica’s Restaurant
Vinoteca di Monica
Strega
Carmelina’s
Rina’s
Terramia Ristorante
Trattoria Il Panino
Tresca
Umbria
Bricco Ristorante & Enoteca
Ristorante Villa Francesca
Patrick Mendoza should testify...
For Monica's... the calamity of it all!
Entitled, greedy people!
So, let's review: These restaurants, because of a worldwide pandemic crisis, were granted special permits for outdoor dining, and now that all the vehicles (and probably more), and people are back and moving about freely, they're behaving as if the permits were their God-given right all along? So, they tried to malign our mayor, calling her a hater, and sued her and the city. When the judge disagreed and threw out their suit, they have decided to appeal? Who are the real haters here? And, business must be pretty good if they can pay lawyers for all of this litigious nonsense. The North End streets are like cow paths, and to clog them up with seats that these restaurants never needed pre-pandemic, is stupid. And all of this smacks of greed, misogyny, and racism. I doubt even the late mayor and fellow Italian-American, Tom Menino, would support the idea of unnecessarily creating impassable streets in a densely populated part of the city, often teeming with tourists. I also highly doubt the restaurateurs would have responded to him with the same accusations and vitriol. They enjoyed steady business before the pandemic, and they need to stop whining, and get back to work!
Lawsuit Lotto
This appeal is similar to the C19 ones where a loser employees claim they got fired unjustly.
It's cheap to appeal and file lawsuits. If the restaurants win, they get a big payday. If they lose, they are out almost nothing. The legal fees are cheap when split 20 ways and the lawyers might even be working for free or cheap in exchange for a bigger cut of the settlement.
The whole system is rotten.