The Club Is Open

The mayoralty permit saga comes to a close for the Circle Bar, at least.  Read the whole wacky story here. I'd be more inclined to take the "Big misunderstanding!" aspect of this at face value if this were the only venue suddenly shut down in this manner.

The anxiety and drama is understandable, According to the Mayor's Director of Communications Ryan Berni, the truth is more mundane. "In the course of doing an enforcement sweep, we find that a lot of businesses don't have the proper permits," he says. "What we do is issue an administrative subpoena, but all it basically says is, 'Please come in and apply for the proper permit.' Sometimes that means fill out the paperwork and pay a fee, and if it's not zoned for that type of use, then there's a conditional use process that goes before the City Planning Commission and the City Council."

Except they didn't drop off a friendly subpoena.  They shut them down until they paid a fee they didn't even know existed.