<http://blog.creativedestruction.com/2009/02/10/save-thai-brunch/> + Creative Destruction CREATIVE DESTRUCTION CrossFit, Finance, Economics, Aviation, Space, and Brooklyn + Fran Save Thai Brunch! Every Sunday for nearly two decades, Berkeleys Thai Buddhist temple, Wat Mongkolratanaram, has dished up one of the most popular brunches in town. Starting at 10 a.m., hundreds line up outside the suburban temple, carrying away plates of curry and mango with sticky rice to eat at picnic tables or on the nearby lawn of the citys tool-lending library. via Brunch at Berkeleys Thai Buddhist Temple Angers Neighbors - WSJ.com. The busybodies in Berkeley now want to shut down a local instutition, Thai brunch at the Wat. What sort of person would want to shut this down, not just a place to get Thai food on Sunday, not just a place where the Buddhist monks can earn merit, but a place that is a Berkeley institution, that has been around since the dawn of time, where people have met, developed friendships, lost friendships, developed feuds, interviewed potential hires, and more. What is this that now, after so many years, the neighbors claim that the place isnt zoned to be a restaurant? I suppose this doesnt apply to zoning, technically, but it should: in a trademark, you have to use it or lose it. In terms of property, if you put up a fence on your property that is inside your property line, let your neighbor use that land that is technically yours for years, without specifically saying I am letting you use this but not giving it to you, eventually, they own that piece of land. Similarly, with zoning. You operate a business for decades, technically in violation of the zoning laws, and it becomes an institution, worth more than the zoning laws that were never enforced for those many years. And these neighbors who are complaining? Who has been there longer? The Wat or the neighbors? Save Thai Brunch! This entry was posted on February 10, 2009 at 1:30 pm and is filed under Misc . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Leave a Reply