Comments on: Bastianich: I’m through with NYC due to wage/hour suits

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:13:48 +0000

@wfjag If I had been a neighbor living in FiDi, I would’ve sued Brookfield for public nuisance a week ago, but apparently the only role for public nuisance in the New York area is to sue handgun and electricity vendors.

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 11:12:15 +0000

@Hugo If the local economy would support the same number of restaurant jobs with higher prices, we’d already see the higher prices. If restaurants have to raise their prices to afford the lawyers, fewer consumers can afford restaurants, and there will be fewer restaurants and fewer restaurant jobs.

By: John Fembup

John Fembup — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 20:21:47 +0000

Frank, John, are you familiar with NYC? Eataly is not “a restaurant”. It’s nearly a city-block-full of multiple restaurants, markets, wine stores, cheese shops, and other Italy-themed foodie places. It’s not hard at all to conceive of the entire enterprise employing several hundred people given its size, scope, and operating hours. Eataly is really a neat place. I recommend you visit if you can. Beyond it’s obvious attraction as a place to eat – it has become the 3rd or 4th most popular tourist destination in the city.

That said, Bastianich’s remarks underscore the lie behind almost every politician who bleats that the City of New York is “pro-business”.

Who am I? Just a customer and a taxpayer – nothing more.

By: Smart Dude

Smart Dude — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 04:49:01 +0000

“Someone in Albany needs to understand the agenda…”

Someone in Albany clearly understands the agenda. His name is Sheldon Silver, Majority Leader in the Assembly for a thousand years. He is a partner in the biggest slip and fall law firm, and he makes a fortune keeping all lawsuit reform from ever seeing the legislative light of day.

By: Shtetl G

Shtetl G — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:06:32 +0000

Restaurant business is fungible. Mr. Bastianich’s absence will be filled by some other entrepreneur less bothered by frivolous lawsuits, more willing to shrug them off as another “cost of doing business” and mark up his prices accordingly.

Well there you go. Higher prices for consumers. Sounds like a win for everyone. The Lawyers get their pay. The waiters may get their tips and I get to go out to dinner less (saving me money!).

By: wfjag

wfjag — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:04:08 +0000

Silly greasy-spoon owner. Doesn’t he realize that the way you get sharks to go away is to offer them another (the bigger the better) victim on which to feed? Look at the following from an article in today’s NY Post:

“Protesters march on Wall St. after park cleanup postponed, get into scuffle with cops,” By FRANK ROSARIO and DANNY GOLD (Oct. 14, 2011) :

***
Brookfield [Properties] , a publicly traded real estate firm, had planned to power-wash the plaza section by section over 12 hours and allow the protesters back — but without much of the equipment they needed to sleep and camp there. The company called the conditions at the park unsanitary and unsafe.

The company’s rules, which haven’t been enforced, have been this all along: No tarps, no sleeping bags, no storing personal property on the ground. The park is privately owned but is required to be open to the public 24 hours per day.

***

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/zuccotti_park_cleanup_postponed_7FyMGft7IABwkMxaEW1sYP

So, who do you think is a more interesting target? A publicly traded real estate firm and the City of NY, for allowing the unsafe and unsanitary conditions which expose all sorts of people to all sorts of harm and emotional distress (those in the Park and those trying to get to their homes on Park Ave.), or going after a restaurant on behalf of a waiter who makes min. wage? Brookfield admits to assuming a duty to keep the Park safe and sanitary, which duty it obviously has breached. And, in front of a Manhatten jury, who needs to actually have proof of damages?

I suggest an Overlawyered Pool to see who gets the closest to the exact date and time that the first suit is filed against Brookfield Properties. I believe that it will be 11:03 AM, Eastern Daylight Savings Time, Monday, Oct. 17, 2011. (That also leaves time for the press conference on the courthouse steps, and you can still get to your table for lunch).

By: Hugo S. Cunningham

Hugo S. Cunningham — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:53:00 +0000

I recall a similar article a few months back about a disgusted restaurateur in California, but the last I heard California still had restaturants.

By: Dwight Brown

Dwight Brown — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:09:55 +0000

From what I could tell on Google, Eatly is a pretty large facility (50,000 square feet) that’s part restaurant, part “artisan market” for Italian goods. 700 jobs may not be out of line.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:33:28 +0000

I’m slightly skeptical about the “frivolity” all all these lawsuits. I would have liked it if the article had explained what, exactly, the restaurants were being sued for and what law that violated. It would seem to be fairly easy to prove if tips were being split or not, etc.

By: John Burgess

John Burgess — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 17:33:02 +0000

@Frank: I’m sure he’s counting up- and downstream employment, like food suppliers and garbage men (or is that ‘sanitation engineers’?).