CITY OF SUPERIOR SAFETY REPORT Part 1

So, they had to figure out an angle. What reason were they going to use to shut us down? After all, you just can’t do it because you want to can you? Well maybe in some countries like Cuba, Venezuela and China you can but not in the US right? Don’t be so sure. So the two schemers came up with the “Safety Angle”. After all residents want to feel safe don’t they? Of course they do. 

So how did they do it? Well there are three courts in this country: criminal court, civil court and the court of public opinion. In a situation like ours the court of public opinion is where you start. You try and convince the public that we, the owners are the absolute worst people on earth and our business is the most unsafe and unruly business that ever existed. The Mayor and now retired Chief Alexander have unlimited access to the local media like The Superior Telerag, the Duluth “Fake” News Tribune and the local TV channels. And of course if you or me called them I’m pretty sure we would all still be waiting for that return call. And so they used that power and off they went. If you Google all of these news outlets from May 18, 2022 till early July 2,2022 and then again in December 2022 it was just non-stop articles about how evil and bad we and the Palace were, courtesy of the mostly “fake” information provided to them from the Mayor, Melissa Hyatt and the Chief. I am pretty sure the Palace story was the most reported story for 2022. I guess we sold a lot of papers for them.

Sometimes you have to give evil credit where evil credit is due. Safety is the most important thing to most people. So when the Mayor and Chief were almost tripping over each other to tell all of you how bad we and the Palace were with the help of a complicit and lazy press corps, you start believing all of it. The Mayor and Chief wouldn’t be lying about it would they? Or would they?

423. But in a rare, very rare moment of part clarity, not total clarity the Mayor sent a letter to Councilor Tyler Elm on March 18, 2022 at 10:25 AM. That is only 8 Hours after the ONLY shooting at the Palace. Yes the one where one bullet was shot high up on the wall, towards the ceiling. Yes the one where nobody was hurt or injured. Yes the only time a firearm was discharged in the five and a half years that I owned the Palace. He also sent a copy to the Chief and Officer Jago. I posted this letter on Blog 9,July 24, 2023 starting at Point 130. I am going to reprint it below as well as a couple of responses from the Chief and Councilor Tyler Elm. And because we have more information now than we did on July 24, 2023, I am also going to update my comments to reflect that. Also keep in mind that Officer Jago was texting with Hyatt back in Jan, 2021. See Blog 19 for their texts. He also was the one that sent out that infamous press release on May 26, 2022 where he stated that an incident occurred early that morning behind the Palace. Here is part of that release: 

“An adult male is in custody following an overnight incident in which he discharged a firearm several times behind The Palace Bar in the 1100 block alley of Tower Ave.”

He goes on to mention the Palace four times in his release. The only problem is it didn’t happen behind the Palace. I refer to this incident many times on the Blogs as the “NON-SHOOTING-SHOOTING”. You can read all about his press release and more on Blog 18. 

Good morning Tylor,

I’ve also spoken to Ms. Hyatt this morning. Here’s the background and next steps. I’ll allow the PD to add anything I’ve missed.

The Palace was a source of frequent frustration for Ms. Hyatt and her employees last year. Several police officers, the Chief, and I spoke with her and the police followed up with the Palace. The general impression we got was of a somewhat rough, ugly, and late night, heavy drinking bar. While I wouldn’t recommend the place to anyone, we didn’t find anything that merited significant action, such as a review of their license or triggering the nuisance ordinance. Most of the actual problems involved drinking in the back alley, some minor property damage, and fighting. The criminal activity wasn’t significant or common enough to merit much response beyond increased patrols and some communication with the owner of the Palace.

However, I should make clear that Ms. Hyatt, who runs an early morning business, was enduring a very frustrating and often frightening situation. The loud music and chaotic atmosphere, while within the allowable limits of their license, made life at A Dozen Excuses very hard. After communicating with her and the Palace, we reached the end of our ability to intervene and I didn’t hear anything from her until this morning.

She is correct, there was a rather extreme shooting last night. I don’t believe there was any loss of life but injury appears likely and I am optimistic the police will make an arrest soon. 

I’ve communicated our next steps to Ms. Hyatt and I’ll follow up with her and you again next week after the team has met and especially if and when we decide to take further action.

Have a good weekend,

Jim

As I have stated many times on the Blogs, I have not been able to obtain any documentation between Paine and Hyatt prior to March 18, 2022 which is the day that Paine wrote the above letter to Elm. The Mayor’s office is telling me there was no communication between them them prior to March 18, 2022.

So let’s break this email down. Here is the first part of it:

“Good morning Tylor,

I’ve also spoken to Ms. Hyatt this morning. Here’s the background and next steps. I’ll allow the PD to add anything I’ve missed.

The Palace was a source of frequent frustration for Ms. Hyatt and her employees last year. Several police officers, the Chief, and I spoke with her and the police followed up with the Palace. The general impression we got was of a somewhat rough, ugly, and late night, heavy drinking bar.”

So the Mayor is telling Elm that he has already talked to Hyatt. He talked to her a 7:00 AM. His letter to Elm was at 10:25 AM. But ask yourself this. Have you or someone you know ever been a victim of crime and received this kind of record time response from the Mayor or other city officials? I doubt it. 

And then he babbles on about how “The Palace was a source of frequent frustration for Ms. Hyatt and her employees last year.” Well he never told me and how could it affect her employees when she is only open from 6:00AM till noon, 5 days a week.

The only time our businesses are open at the same time is from 10:00am till noon for 5 days a week for a grand total of 10 hours weekly.

Then there is this gem. Paine goes on to say the following:

“The loud music and chaotic atmosphere, while within the allowable limits of 

their license, made life at A Dozen Excuses very hard.”

He is right for a change. The volume of the music is within the allowable limits.

We are in commercial zone, not a residential one. And by the way we don’t have some kind of supercharged speakers or anything like that. We have the ones supplied to us by our jukebox supplier, the same one almost all the bars use in town.

As far as “made life at A Dozen Excuses very hard”. How? During the hours she is open we only overlap for a total of 10 hours a week. We open at 10:00AM and she closes at noon and she’s open 5 days a week. And during those 10 hours when we are both open we don’t usually have the music on or if it is on it’s at a low level because we have an older daytime clientele. So how can that make her business very hard?

Here is the real reason. She chose to live on top of her business which is in between two bars. She is the only person that lives on the entire block. She made a mistake. She has been told that she made a bad choice to live in a business district and that she should move to a residential one. But no, she doubled down on stupid and decided to stay put and make everybody else’s life miserable and then found an ally as stupid as her in “Sour Note” Paine and the rest is history. 

And now some final words from the Wizard of Weirdness himself.

Normally when I think of Tylor Elm one word comes to mind and that word is “Useless”. Now I am going to have to add a few more words. “Speed Reader” and “Speed Writer.” How the hell did he read and respond to Paine’s email in only one minute. Pretty impressive. Anyway, the reason I said “Useless is because we have had a couple of issues with the city where his help was sought and he was “Useless”, in fact “Very Useless”. I will report on those when I do a Blog exclusively on the City Council in the future. I am also very disappointed with him because I have always been a strong advocate of having business people in city government but unfortunately it didn’t work out with Mr. Elm. 

I have been a customer of his computer store from the day he opened until the time I left Superior. I have bought several computers and had many repaired there. I only have good things to say about the service and knowledge of his staff. So in the end, Mr. Elm runs a great business but for me he is not a good politician.