You are hereReminder: Help Save East Side Pedal Pusher - TONIGHT!

Reminder: Help Save East Side Pedal Pusher - TONIGHT!


By Jason - Posted on 13 October 2008

By Jason - Posted on 13 October 2008

I mentioned this a week or two back, but our favorite race organizer Brian Davies sent this out a few days ago and I wanted to re-post it as a reminder of what's happening tonight at the City Council Chambers:

Hey everyone.

Quick breakdown - strange things are afoot on the east side of Austin TX and Lee needs help. Some hippies are trying to remove him from his shop to put in *another* coffee shop on the east side. You all ride bikes, so you know we need more shops in town than we need more coffee shops. Don't get me wrong - I love some coffee, but there are already 3, that I know of, within a mile or so. And Progress it HUGE!

Anyway - if you like Lee, or bike shops, or fighting the power, here's the stats:

City Council Chambers
301 W. 2nd.
5:30 pm on Monday the 13th

Show up, ride your bike (of course), and try to look *real* mean.

Thanks for your support.

And yes - the Giro will happen. I will start plotting it when I get back into town on the 19th.

L,
BrianDaviesIsAJerk

If you're in the downtown area or can get down there around 5:30pm, stop by and make an appearance. I figure the bigger show of the bike community rallying behind Lee and the rest of the East Side Pedal Pusher crew, the better. Not discounting the other quality shops in the area but ESPP really is my favorite of the east-side shops. The guys there do quality work and are truly excellent people beyond being great mechanics. They also sell affordable used bikes and will work on anything without turning their nose up at you. This is our kinda bike shop. Keep them in business, y'all!

I would like to set the record straight here since, as you have admitted in most of your blogs about me and my family, you "dont know the legistics" of all this. I was brought to this space, 1100 east 6th St, because it was and is FOR RENT. From what I have understood from Lee, my realtor, and the landlord of this property, both present tenants Julia's Wedding Shop and ESPP have been on month to month for a while and were offered to sign a new lease at a higher rent and they both turned it down. Meanwhile the landlord has tried to show Lee other properties that he has turned down and continues to do so for Julia. The landlord spoke to both tenants letting them know that he will be looking for new tenants and showing the space.
This is where I enter the story. From the hate mail I've recieved from you people, let me make one thing clear. I am a sixth generation Texan, that's right! 6! So dont call me and my family fucking Yankees. I am an East Austin Resident, I work out of East Austin, I am an artist that represents East Austin, I AM EAST AUSTIN!
Lee was at his store when I was shown the space back in August. My realtor who happens to be a mutual friend of Lee's and I, asked him if he did indeed know that the building was for rent and he said YES and even later ask her to help him find a new space. I dont think it would be surprising to you that Lee was extremely kind in an akward situation for both of us and he even let me take measurements.
I had little time to decide if we (my mother, sister, and I) could indeed use this space since there was already a letter of intent for this building. And just for your information, the group trying to get this space before us is the kind of corporate development you seem to confuse us for. I dont have one investor involved, not one bank loan, I am an artist that waits tables on the side, my sister is a bilingual school teacher and my mother works for a lame temp agency. Hardly the "trumps" as you have mentioned. I have been saving for this for at least 5 years, I've been building work for this for at least 4 years, and my only partners is my mother and sister. We have every right to rent a building that is FOR RENT and try to accomplish our dream and we will continue to do so no matter how much hate mail, hasseling and boycott threats you people give us.
I feel very sorry for both ESPP and Julia's for having to move. I can relate for I have been "booted" from many of my rentals because my lease was up and I simply couldn't afford the higher rent, but I have certaintly NEVER thought to villanize the new tenants. Chances are we will not be able to use this space, so we will be back to looking for spaces just like them. I wish both present tenants all the luck and I only hope that the new places they find dont have current renters like them to make what I know all to well a difficult process to accomplish the dream of a small buisness owner.
PS. If you want to continue to write hate mail to my website, have the desantcy to leave a valid email address to hear my side. But I ask that you just leave us alone. Also, we do appreciate the appology from Julia's Wedding shop via the land lord yesterday. Thank You.



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