Six years ago, co-owner Matt Mergener opened Two Birds, a bar and seasonal ice cream shop, on Kercheval Avenue between Baldwin and Seminole streets in Detroit’s West Village. Other businesses followed.
Normally, in a city that hungers for new businesses, that would be a good thing.
But Mergener says that freshman Detroit City Council member Renata Miller is trying to undermine his business and others on the block. He says she has asked Detroit’s Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department (BSEED) to examine “the concentration of bars and alcohol-serving establishments” in proximity to homes, schools, recreation centers and historic districts to make sure they comply with zoning, licensing and variances. She’s also asked the Law Department and the city’s Legislative Policy Division to get involved…