City poised to settle lawsuit involving former Cadillac site on El Camino Real

This outcome is thoroughly awful. There are no good guys here. The named plaintiff and the anti-competitive unions behind him, the city for doing their dirty work, the courts for not having thrown this case out, and the developers for folding. Who knows what type or what size businesses belong in that project site? What we do know is that once again, we've sacrificed property rights, due process, and the interests of the citizens in a fair hearing to the machinations of unholy trinity of the organized labor, capital, and the self interested politicians.

No doubt the union was motivated by the anticompetitive Draeger and Beltramo clans
Retail Clerks union bringing a CEQA based lawsuit?
What a great cover for the Brahmins

I haven't bought anything from Draegers or Beltramos since they organized their fake grass roots campaign a few years ago against allowing Bevmo to come to Menlo Park. Shame on the other merchants who assisted. This time they were clever enough to hide their hands behind the union that represents the Draegers workers. Lets hope that the union extracts a high price next time they negotiate with the Draegers.

This would be an interesting story to dig into- who was really behind the lawsuit and why? Of course, if you think the Almanac is going to investigate its biggest advertisers (look at the Draeger's insert or Beltramo's ads sometime), you're pretty naive.

A side issue is the absurdity of CEQA lawsuits- how did something allegedly about saving the environment become about limiting competition? Get ready for more fun with that and the downtown plan- the Downtown Old-Timers Anti-Change Club will suddenly act like 'ecowarriors' when that EIR is out.

Do you remember CEQA was used against the Allied Arts Guild renovation? The guild won in council and in court but the decision was appealed and the panel upheld the appeal. Unbelieveable! the gall of a judge going beyond the law and local control to legislate from the bench.

As for the draegers, it's not hard to imagine them quietly making a phone call to the union and suggesting the mischief. they would get plausible deniability and yet keep a competitor out.

Would a pool hall with a beer and wine license be out of the question?
It would keep kids off the street and a fun way for them to bond with their fathers.......divorced or widowed.

As an MP resident, I still shop at Whole Foods.

"... which allows private citizens acting as public-interest representatives to sue government entities."

Ah, the rich irony of the above quote! As a citizen, I revel in my good fortune that the union and unnamed plaintiffs acted on my behalf.

Oh yes...let's allow private entities to stifle competition in Menlo Park, thereby driving up prices for all of us. I will never shop at Beltramos or Draeger's again. And I will continue to patronize one of the nearby Whole Foods. By the way..when I travel to Los Altos or Palo Alto or Redwood City to shop at Whole Foods, I also tend to run other errands, so the sales tax that MP could derive from those purchases will go to other cities.

It's appalling that our city could not stand up to these bully tactics.