Del Rio Postmortem
The Observer commemorates the New Year’s closing of the Del Rio with a piece that features only interviews with management. Despite the management/employee dispute that precipitated the shutdown, not a single worker is quoted in the story, which details manager Karen Piehutkoski’s experiences with what appeared to be scrawled threats in the bar’s restrooms.
“You can’t do away with leaders,” owner Ernie Harburg is quoted as saying, presumably of the bar’s formerly cooperative style of management. “It was a case of the inmates running the asylum.”
This is interesting, and I will look for a copy of the O to read the whole story (still no link to the column online, huh Laura?). I’ve never before lived anywhere with such an enthusiasm for cooperatively owned businesses, and I’m curious to learn about how they actually work (or don’t work).
posted by Nick on February 10th, 2004 at 6:37 pmI don’t know their success/failure rates relative to single-owner or publically traded companies, but cooperatives definitely work in some cases and don’t in others, just like any other business model. I’d actually guess they have a higher survival rate than single-owner companies, since it’s so difficult to get a co-op going; you kind of have to be certain it’s going to work if you’re going to go through the pain of setting it up.
Check out the National Cooperative Business Association’s “about coops” pages (http://www.ncba.org/abcoop.cfm); they include sections on why coops succeed/fail.
Also check out Mondragon (http://www.mondragon.mcc.es/esp/index.asp); they’re a group of co-ops that started about 50 years ago and are now something like the fourth largest business (by employees/revenues) in Spain; they also run their own bank, day care centers, vocational training institutes, and university.
posted by Murph on February 10th, 2004 at 10:39 pmYou’re right Nick–no links to editorial online, just in the print edition. The short Feb. article to which AAIO refers summarized the owners’ take on the closing and plans they might have for the space; that’s the focus of the section in which the article appeared, the “Marketplace Changes” section. It’s a follow-up to the original long Jan. article, which considered all sides, quoted workers and owners, detailed the Rio’s history, and highlighted especially the colorful inventor of the “Detburger.” I personally wish they could have found some way to hammer things out–seems to me that there was a communications breakdown between management & workers & also that the workers were perhaps a mite more testy than necessary.
posted by Laura on February 11th, 2004 at 12:00 amI guess I was delinquent in not reading the original article. However, I still think they should have at least tried to contact a worker for this follow-up, if only to give the workers a chance to deny (or confirm) any involvement with the threatening bathroom vandalism. The way it read, it sounded like it was implying that the workers may have had something to do with it.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on February 11th, 2004 at 12:16 amMention of the graffiti was part of a larger description of how the overall mood at the Del Rio seemed to be dipping. It’s not the function of the Marketplace Changes section to do the kind of investigation you propose, and I doubt you’d get much of a story out of tracking down, or trying to, who wrote which piece of graffiti on a bathroom wall at the Del. The Marketplace C. section focuses on business changes, store closings/openings, &c., around town, hence the Feb. story quizzed the owners on what’s up & what’s next for the Del Rio space.
posted by Laura on February 11th, 2004 at 1:40 amI understand that the section it was in wasn’t the one for investigative features, but this wasn’t your typical local business closing. The managers quoted in the article raised some very sensitive topics. So I think the story should have at least acknowledged that there was another side. I’m not talking about doing detective work to investigate who left the graffiti, but something like “The head of the Del Rio workers’ union disavows any connection to the threats,” so the workers aren’t unfairly tarred by association.
And, so no one thinks I’m Observer-bashing in general, I thought the Cowherd thing was great and the Sweetwaters thing was a fun read.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on February 11th, 2004 at 2:07 amPersonally I hate Hollywood. But if Sweetwater’s *is* Ann Arbor’s version of it, you’d think there would be more electrical sockets. Maybe they just meant the prices are Hollywood…
posted by Alex on February 13th, 2004 at 12:49 pmFrankly, I haven’t bothered going to the Del in over 10 years. I never felt welcome since I didn’t have dreads, piercings, tats, etc. Like 90% of the restaurants & bars in AA, I found the servers just too rude to put up with. If I want to enjoy myself I go to TCs, Taproom or Sidetracks. If I have to go to AA, Old Town is it. If only Mr. Floods was still around… sigh
posted by whynotypsi on February 18th, 2004 at 7:22 am