Update On My 30-Day Challenge

In my last two postings, I did not include my progress on my freelance writing business, so here it is:

Wednesday: wrote article for TODO Austin newspaper
Thursday (today): will write copy for marketing client, and will write copy for web business client

Save The Best Wurst

THE ISSUES

In 2008, Shawn Cirkiel opened the Parkside at 301 East 6th Street in the building purchased by his parents, Pamela and Martin Cirkiel. In 2010, Parkside applied for a permit to build a balcony, when there was already an existing permit for The Best Wurst to operate on that portion of the sidewalk, which is city property. Parkside failed to make their case to appeal The Best Wurst's Right-of-Way permit on the legal grounds provided. Instead, they turned to dirty politics and leveraged a long list of unsubstantiated and exaggerated complaints and violations to ensure their agenda of building a balcony, and ultimately a sidewalk cafe.

The Best Wurst's permit expired on June 16, 2010, and the issue has yet to be solved. Fortunately, the City of Austin has willingly allowed The Best Wurst to continue operating on week-to-week permits while they try to resolve the matter. But time is not on our side. The Cirkiels have been generating the false impression that The Best Wurst can simply move “across the street.” Right-of-Way permits for mobile food vending are site specific and have defined space requirements and limitations – a mobile food vendor cannot simply “roll down the street,” and locations are very difficult to acquire. Currently, there are no other available, licensable spots on East 6th Street. Even if there were, we must keep in mind that other locations may not prove to be viable for the success, or even the survival, of The Best Wurst.

Austin has historically fostered a climate for successful small businesses – including street vendors – that support each other. It is unethical to ask The Best Wurst to move their location because a brick-and-mortar business does not like it there due to unfounded allegations. For the past 17 years, The Best Wurst has had its permit to operate on 6th and San Jacinto. It has been supportive of the Parkside’s desire to build an upstairs balcony to expand their business (which would not legally interfere with the presence of The Best Wurst upon completion of construction). Now, The Best Wurst is in danger of being pushed out. The Parkside even has plans to build a sidewalk café. It is evident that the Parkside is taking one small step at a time to have sidewalk – which is City and public property – just the way they want it, even if it means sacrificing another business and its employees.


THE SPIRIT OF AUSTIN

The Best Wurst is openly supported by businesses that could have been – or can currently be considered – true competitors: Frank in the neighboring Warehouse District (sells sausage sandwiches as their main menu item), Dan McKlusky’s (shared the corner with them for 13 years), El Sol y La Luna (who currently shares a corner with their second cart on 6th & Red River), Big Top Dogs and many other cart vendors and trailers along East 6th Street (all targeting the same bar crowds). This type of co-existence among diverse businesses and eateries is what has contributed to the fantastic spirit of Austin as a unique, creative and friendly city!

When we forget this ideal and don’t work together preserve such street vendors full of character and charm in our landscape, we will be silent contributors to erasing the tradition of diversity in Austin, which will ultimately destroy our small businesses and food establishments, and locally-based economy as a whole. Moving is not an option for The Best Wurst, which has become a definitive Austin icon! They have paid nearly two decades worth of fees and taxes at their current location on 6th & San Jacinto. Furthermore, that corner has become part of their brand and has become crucial not only to their success, but to their ability to survive as a small business and keep musicians and artists generously employed. Although they have a second cart, their cart in front of Parkside accounts for 85-90% of their business.


JON NOTARTHOMAS – A COMMUNITY LEADER

Jon Notarthomas, owner of The Best Wurst, has gone above and beyond the call of duty as a small business owner by being a leader in his community: by helping other small business owners get their start, survive, and ultimately be successful in a challenging market, by being a generous friend and employer to many people, by giving to local charities, and by being a responsible tax payer and contributor to the local economy. The Best Wurst has been fully compliant with City of Austin regulations, to the degree that the Austin/Travis County Health Department has referred people seeking to start similar businesses to The Best Wurst for advice. The Best Wurst has an impeccable health record and offers their inspection records to the public.

Contrary to the "bad boy" image that owners of the Parkside claim, The Best Wurst is proud of being a conscientious watch dog on the sometimes rowdy strip, and can even take credit for exposing two cases of counterfeiting which led to arrests. Notarthomas and employees of The Best Wurst have prevented fights on East 6th Street, called the police in dangerous situations, and kept streets safe by putting inebriated individuals in cabs, sometimes paying out of their own pocket.

The Best Wurst has been credited as paving the way for Austin’s mobile food vendor explosion. Not only has it recently been voted Austin Chronicle’s “Best Street Food”, but it has afforded immeasurable positive promotion for the City of Austin and is recognized nationally after appearances on the Food Network, MTV, and The Tonight Show. It has become a staple in downtown Austin, for locals and visitors (particularly during SxSW) and has contributed to the festive environment on East 6th Street that so many people seek and enjoy today.

Letter to the City and the Media regarding The Best Wurst

Dear Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Austin City Council, and City of Austin Managers:

Currently, the City of Austin finds that The Best Wurst is in full compliance with codes, and that the charges leveled against The Best Wurst by Parkside are unsubstantiated. Parkside has not made its case to appeal The Best Wurt’s permit, as laid out by the City’s guidelines. I am asking the City of Austin to issue The Best Wurst their permit to vend at 305 E. 6th Street, as there should be no reason for further delay or deny, given that:

• Permits are site-specific and no other locations available on East 6th Street.
• The Best Wurst food does not compete with Parkside; Parkside’s happy hour is between 5-7 PM and The Best Wurst begins operating after 7 PM.
• Parkside has not made its case in its appeals to the City to have The Best Wurst’s permit revoked.
• The Best Wurst provides a much needed late night, inexpensive food service to 6th Street goers.
• In its 17 years of operation, The Best Wurst has maintained impeccable vending and health records with the City of Austin.

Jon Notarthomas deserves the respect and support of our current community and civic leaders to help The Best Wurst stay where it has stood for the past 17 years. I urge you to review the false and unsubstantiated allegations being made by the Parkside’s owners against The Best Wurst.

I, along with thousands of others in this town, call on the City of Austin to renew The Best Wurst’s license to operate on the corner of 6th and San Jacinto, which will allow Jon Notarthomas to sustain his business and employees, as well as continue paying his loans for the infrastructure (kitchen, warehouse, and vehicles) he has acquired to run his food service. I hope that you will be able to use your leadership to influence Parkside to adopt a spirit of sharing and collaboration – in the way that McKlusky’s and The Best Wurst maintained a very fruitful and mutually beneficial relationship for over a decade.

My community and the members thereof are important to me. While I commend the City of Austin Transportation Department for ensuring that my downtown public right-of-way of spaces remain free of obstructions, are safe for pedestrians, and create positive environments for the citizens and tourists of Austin, and I encourage them to continue to do so, I also recognize that small food vendors like The Best Wurst are an important asset to the vibrancy and identity of Austin. I hope that the City of Austin, in a spirit of compromise and tolerance, can find a way to help these two neighbors live together amicably on the same corner and continue their remarkable success. I hope that as my leaders, you are willing and able to facilitate such a compromise.

Many thanks to you for your service to the greater Austin community.

Sincerely,
Undercover Mexican Girl



Dear Austin Media:
If you need a skilled proofreader or a writer, please consider hiring me. If not, below are a few typos you should fix:

KXAN
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/business/fight-for-sixth-st.-sidewalk-heats-up
paragraph 4: it's -- its
paragraph 8: Cikeil -- Cirkiel
paragraph 9: permeneantly -- permanently
paragraph 12: Protest -- protest
paragraph 15: sathey -- say they
paragraph 16: Cirkeil -- Cirkiel

Fox 7
http://www.myfoxaustin.com/dpp/top_stories/Best-Wurst-Fueds-with-Parkside-Restaurant-20100714-ktbcw
title: Fueds -- Feuds

Austin American-Statesman
http://www.austin360.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/dining/entries/2010/07/09/parkside_and_best_wurst_in_a_s.html
paragraph 2: McClusky’s -- McKlusky's

Why I'd Never Get Bored

I've had a similar conversation with many friends and acquaintances in which they say they would get bored after a while without full-time job. I argue that I wouldn't.

These are the things I am compelled to do and can't seem to fit into my evenings and weekends:

• Make a film in each of the following genres: noir, documentary, spy
• Write every day
• Write a short story collection
• Write a novel
• Read every day
• Ride my bicycle every day
• Grow a garden that supplies me with all the vegetables I need on a daily basis
• Build a coop and maintain chickens as pets and for their eggs
• Practice the violin every day
• Practice the piano every day
• Play music with others around campfires, and on porches and decks
• Decoupage boxes
• Promote and manage Shand's music
• Help my friends start their non-profit projects
• Run Plum, my soon-to-launch freelance writing and editing business
• Travel the world

 Maybe I should figure out how to make all of the above part of my job.

p.s. Freelance business progress of the day: revised website template for restaurant client

Simple Office Rules to Live By

1) Unless everyone has the same musical tastes as you and wants to listen to music at the same times you do, use headphones. And if you use headphones, please keep the volume to yourself.  Also, please do not hum along to your music.  That, too, defeats the purpose of headphones.

2) If you replace the regular paper in the printer or copier with a specialty paper, please remove it after you are done.  It's easier for you to this, than for the rest of us to have to double check the tray each time, just in case.  Also, this will prevent unnecessary wasting of paper.

3) Please don't take it personally if I do not take you up on your invites to the Sunday church ladies' group or the Thursday happy hour at the hippest bar in town.  I promise I won't be offended if you decide not to join me on my Saturday morning bike ride around my neighborhood, or help me pull weeds in my herb garden.

4) If I am considerate enough to answer your question or provide you with information in a timely manner, with a pleasant attitude, I hope you will do the same.

5) Politics, religion, my lifestyle, and what I'm eating for lunch is my own business.

p.s. freelance business progress of the day: wrote copy for current online retail client.

Health! Bless You!

"Bless you" is a common English phrase said to someone when he or she sneezes.  Socially, the word "bless" has lost its religious connotations in the United States.  It's used quite casually in various sayings: "bless your heart" (old-fashioned saying to express sympathies), "blessing and a curse" (something good and bad), "blessed day" (wonderful day), and "you have our blessing" (usually granted from parents as a sign of approval). These are just a few examples.

But if you look up the word "bless" in Merriam-Webster (www.m-w.com), the formal definition is very much based on religion:
     1 : to hallow or consecrate by religious rite or word
     2 : to hallow with the sign of the cross
     3 : to invoke divine care for —used in the phrase bless you to wish good health    
         especially to one who has just sneezed
     4 a : praise, glorify b : to speak well of : approve
     5 : to confer prosperity or happiness upon
     6 archaic : protect, preserve
     7 : endow, favor

So when I sneeze, and a person says "bless you" - who is blessing me? That person? God? The ghost of Pope Gregory I who supposedly originated the tradition of this expression in the 6th century, when people believed that sneezing was an early symptom of the bubonic plague? Does my soul really momentarily exit my body, or does my heart really stop beating when I sneeze? Or as the Buddhists believe, am I clearing my consciousness while spewing out snot and dust particles?

Why must sneezing be such a complicated and mysterious act?

Why do Latin Americans, who on the whole are much more known for being religious with their traditional Catholicism, instead say "salud" when someone sneezes?  They don't go around blessing each other. Salud literally means "health," and it makes a lot more sense to wish someone good health, rather than offer some kind of vague blessing with questionable origins.

The Founders of the United States, beginning with the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .") called for the legal and political separation of church and state.  Yet, our pennies trust in God, city council meetings begin with the Our Father prayer, and apparently, our sneezes leave us at the mercy of being possessed by the devil.

I'll favor the Latin Americans on this one.

p.s. freelance business progress of the day: wrote copy for current restaurant client.

Work Places

Places of work are usually the least productive environments. I have not done extensive research, but I've read a few bits of social commentary and studies published in the news. Most importantly, I know what I need - as a human - and I would bet that my needs are not uncommon.

It's just a matter of intuition and logic.

Answer the following questionnaire:

1) Do you prefer (a) fresh air or (b) conditioned air, when the weather's nice out?  (Understandably, when it's extremely hot or cold outside, even I prefer a bit of recycled cooled or warmed air.)
2) Do you prefer (a) natural sunlight or (b) fluorescent light bulbs?
3) Do you prefer working in (a) a controlled, quiet environment, or (b) one that can erupt in chaos and noise any given moment?
4) Do you prefer working in a situation where, (a) if you can't focus, it's okay to pick up a musical instrument or ride your bike around the neighborhood? Or would you rather work under circumstances where, (b) if you can't focus, you must sit there and pretend to look busy?
5) Do you think you'd appreciate your coworkers more if you saw them (a) 5-10 hours a week or (b) 40-50 hours a week?

I think most people would answer (a) to most of the questions above.  And really, with computers and the internet, home can be a very productive place to work for most people.  If the argument against a non-office-based work environment is that people will not get their work done, well, I'd say then let natural selection weed those people out.

Imagine how much more effectively and frugally businesses could run if they allowed their employees to be happier and more productive by working in comfortable environments. I'll gladly pay my utility bill, and save you - the business - the cost of paying for my lighting, climate, parking, furniture, coffee, and birthday cake needs.

p.s. freelance business progress of the day: designed website template for current restaurant client.

Clothing Hang-Ups

Today I overheard some coworkers discussing various clothing hang-ups. They don't like to buy clothes that don't fit a certain way, for example, on the shoulders or the waist. Or perhaps they prefer a specific type or style of clothing. For some, it's even as specific as wanting to shop at a particular department store, boutique, or name brand.

I was tempted to shared my clothing hang-up, but it didn't seem parallel with the other hang-ups.

My clothing hang-up, lately, is -- does it cost more than free?

In my early 20s, I enjoyed clothes shopping and did not blink an eye at a $30 price tag on a shirt, or a $50 price tag on a nice pair of pants or skirt.  For a dress, $75-$100 was acceptable.  I wanted to look a particular way, with clothes that I believed would make me feel confident and happy.  In my late 20s, I discovered thrift stores.  My standards dropped a bit, but I would still routinely pay $5-10 per item for every article of clothing I desired.  

Many of these items of clothing that I purchased, I either out-grew, or grew to dislike.  Thousands of dollars of clothing gone to waste.  A shallow and pointless investment.  Nothing to show for it, except a few compliments here and there.  And much like getting scratches on a car, I'd be mortified when I accidentally stained them or shrunk them.  Eventually, many of these purchased clothes ended up going to Goodwill, little sister, or...the clothing swap.

The glorious clothing swap, the most ingenious way to clean out your closet of unwearable items, acquire new articles of clothing (what's old to you is new to me!), and have an excuse to indulge in a bit of feminine socializing in the comfort of a home. (I'm getting too old for dressing up and going to the bars.)  And the host of the party is generally responsible for delivering all the leftovers to a charity. 

Three clothing swaps later, I've disowned three piles of clothing, and acquired some of the fashion pieces I wear the most and actually have received the most compliments for.  Some of these items, of course, I grew tired of quickly, and they made their way to another clothing swap or given away to the needy.  But there's absolutely no shame in getting rid of a shirt, even if it's a brand name, that you never paid for.  At this time, I have 3 skirts, 9 shirts, and 2 pairs of shoes that I frequently wear from my clothing swap finds.  I also have 2 skirts, 6 shirts, 2 dresses, and 4 pairs of jeans given to me by friends cleaning out their closets.

My wardrobe is gradually being replaced entirely by recycled fashion.  True, these clothes don't necessarily make up the exact or ideal outfit I would have dreamed up to wear, but really, in the end, it's just an outfit.  I am still tempted by the charming retro-imitation fashion on websites like Modcloth.com or Daddyos.com.  But ultimately, my clothing swap outfits are free, fun and stylish in their own random way, and guiltless.  And best of all, I can wear them to Europe with all the money I saved up!

p.s. freelance business progress today: met with current restaurant client, wrote copy for current web business client.

30-Day Challenge, Money Back Guarantee

I've challenged my brother to a 30-day blog-writing challenge. So here's day 1. The idea is to apply self-discipline to daily eating, drinking, exercise, writing, and anything you need to improve upon habits.

For me, it's writing. I vow to write every day, because I'm a writer, and I don't write enough. But since my brother is improving two habits at once - staying sober and writing about it - I must choose another, to be fair.

So, I vow to also do one thing every day to contribute to my soon-to-launch freelance writing and editing business. The key word here is business. I must work on things like designing my website, marketing, and networking. I will create. But I will also sell. Too often, I've created something that has never been exposed for entertainment and/or monetary value.

Time to cash in.

How to Advertise Turtle Nests

Emerald City Press, Austin, Texas

A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I were driving southbound on Lamar, looking for a place to conveniently grab coffee before I had to get back to work. Austin Java?  No, parking lot full.  Food 4 Fitness Cafe? Wait, do they serve coffee?  Raw salads?  Clif Bars?  Oh, look - they DO serve coffee. But whoops! Too late, already passed it. 

Then, like a beacon, we see a giant sign pointing us in the direction of coffee.  COFFEE.  Despite the munchkin-sized parking lot, a space called out a welcome.  We arrived at Emerald City Press, home of caffeinated delights at the end of the yellow brick road.  My friend and I, coffee and hibiscus tea in hand respectively, sauntered to the back patio overlooking Shoal Creek, shady and cool in the baking July Texas heat.

Shoal Creek on Lamar Blvd.

We saw a dog pull his owner on a leash down the banks of the creek, and the dog rolled around in the dirt.  And just the way the Good Witch of the North magically appears out of a ball of light, an employee from Emerald City Press suddenly appeared on the edge of the bank, frantically calling to the man and his dog to watch out for the baby turtle nests.  The man explained that the dog had been stung by a wasp, which gave him the urge to roll around in the dirt. The employee suspected the dog had perhaps smelled the scent of the turtle eggs, and of course, dogs find it necessary to cover themselves in unpleasant odors.

My friend and I were simply surprised there were turtle nests down there at all - we would never have known if the dog hadn't decided to relieve its sting pain, or freshen up in stink, whichever of the two.  So my friend suggested to the employee that she place orange cones as cautionary markers.  She thought it was a brilliant idea!  And me, a lover of words and always curious about what orange cones might mean, suggested she put a sign on the cone.  She thought it was an even more brilliant idea!

I don't know if they ever put up the orange cones with signs.  But the baby turtles hatched.  (Photos courtesy of Emerald City Press.)