Chris Woods and Miguel Flores can finally concentrate on lattes instead of licenses, on pastries instead of permits and on bagels instead of bureaucrats.

Their business, Neighborhood Coffee House & Espresso, opens this morning on Tacoma’s McKinley Hill. Neither had any idea how difficult getting to this point would be.

“It was just one thing after another after another after another,” Flores said. “I’m not so sure I would’ve done this if I had known about all the red tape it involved.”

That’s because the two started renovating the building – a former drug house on the corner of East 34th and McKinley Avenue – in August 2007. They hoped to spend $40,000 and open several months later.

Instead, they’ve plowed $70,000 into the business before it served its first customer. And both believe they wouldn’t have received their 90-day provisional license if it weren’t for the intervention of a city councilman.

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I was set to talk with City Councilman Mike Lonergan today about his push to get a temporary permit for Neighborhood Coffee House & Espresso. Instead, I turned on my computer this morning to find this narrative in my inbox. (Now that's city government workin' for ya.) As you can read, he really did help these guys out:

I met with the City Manager Tuesday morning about the urgency of getting Chris and Miguel's business open. He immediately contacted Public Works Director Mike Slevin, who in turn reviewed this with his Building & Land Use staff. By 3 pm Tuesday, Slevin met with me to report his findings.

Mike Slevin informed me that an inspector and an administrator would visit the Coffee Shop on Wednesday and make every effort to reach a conditional permit so that the business could open and generate some revenue within a few days, perhaps even before completing every item on the checklist.

There are always two sides to these stories--and the land use staff felt they had been trying hard to help Mr. Woods and Mr. Flores to meet the requirements of converting a house into a commercial space. They did not believe they had been holding things up or giving conflicting information. However, when the building inspectors go on site, they do often see items needing attention.

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I had already finished my breakfast -- at the FeedTacoma Feed at Puget Sound Pizza -- at this time yesterday. This morning, though, I spent a great deal more time staring at the back of my eyelids.

So today I'll crank out the story about the McKinley Hill coffee shop and put the final touches on the Zina Linnik park story.