The Tampa City Council on Thursday voted 4-3 to approve granting a permanent license for the tasting room at Cigar City Brewery, the internationally acclaimed brewery that the local neighborhood group wanted to shut down. This was the first reading of the vote. A second reading will take place on December 16 at 9:30 a.m.
The vote came a month after the Council had deadlocked 3-3 when initially deciding on the issue, with Council members Thomas Scott, Gwen Miller and Curtis Stokes siding with representatives from the Lincoln Gardens/Carver City neighborhood who said the room has created crime and increased traffic off of Spruce Street, and Mary Mulhern, Yolie Capin and Joseph Caetano supporting the establishment, run by Joey Redner and leased from his his father, adult club entrepreneur Joe Redner.
So all eyes and ears were on the 7th member of the council, Charlie Miranda, who happens to represent the neighborhood which resides in his District 6 seat.
Speaking after an overwhelming number of people (including competitors to the craft brewing company) spoke out strongly in favor of keeping the tasting room open, Miranda said he'd received calls from as far as away as Seattle and Connecticut from supporters of the brewery, which in its short two years plus in existence has become a national and even international favorite amongst craft beer enthusiasts.
Trying to make sure of his vote, Miranda asked City Attorney Rebecca Kert for a legal opinion, but was told by council attorney Marty Shelby that she couldn't help him. Miranda then said that he knew the vote might be unpopular, but he would support allowing the tasting room to continue to operate.
Before the vote, the owner of the land where Cigar City operates, Joe Redner, and his adopted son Joey, who runs the successful brewery, spoke before the Council. Redner Sr. said that the neighborhood could not provide any substantial evidence that there has been increased crime in the neighborhood. "You can't use evidence that isn't there," he said, before adding that he believed Commission Chair Thomas Scott had based his earlier "no" vote on made up evidence. "I have to question the motive," Redner said. "I demand to know what those crimes are?" (A few weeks ago Redner Sr. said he was considering suing the neighborhood association for making reckless claims).
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2010.