Disparate Enforcement

So Tunney is facing two fines - one for up to $10,000 and another for up to $500. Note: "up to," meaning he could be fined considerably less....and probably will be because he's an aldercreature, he's connected, and this is Chicago.

Is everyone reading familiar with the Palace Grill on Madison Street? Anyone who has worked the west side, visited OEMC or attended a United Center event has probably stopped there for a bite. It's been there far longer than we've been alive....and we're old.

A health inspector visited there in early November after receiving an anonymous complaint that people were eating inside. We'll let our e-mailer pick up the story there:

• When she was there, there were no customers inside the restaurant. With that, she began looking around, asking for licenses, walking around outside, etc. She ended up writing him 5 tickets (each $10,000.00 fines). She wrote him tickets for the following: No permit for his outdoor tent (which is required for outside dining and in his parking lot), liquor license violation, a neon sign (which he says has been there for 82 years), flower pots (24 years), and awnings (24 years).

$50,000 in potential fines, all while:

• no one is in the restaurant....and no evidence anyone was;
• a tent in his lot to comply with outdoor requirements;
• a sign that's been up eighty-two years;
• flower pots and awnings that have been there decades.

We can't opine on the liquor license violation, but $40,000 of the "fines" are absolute bullshit, and probably more than enough to put the restaurant out of business. You think this is political? Someone wants the land the Palace Grill sits on?

Tunney kept Ann Sather open for weeks. He admitted it, even while lying that it was "regulars." You think the inspectors pulled the register tapes and fined him for every day he was open? Of course not - he's an aldercreature. 

But this unconnected (less connected?) joint might very well be bankrupted while trying to play a rigged game.