Because this struck such a nerve, I didn't want to leave you hanging about the outcome of this situation. I was at the City Council meeting last week, and I will likely attend all future City Council meetings until the end of the line.
The fact is that we're still kind of hanging in terms of the outcome of the situation. I have no real news or updates. I'm hoping no gnus is good gnus in this case.
The good news is that the City Planner seems optimistic about working with us on this zoning issue, many of our neighbors have spoken up on our behalf (and more continue to offer to speak up), and we continue to "fight the good fight." As I said in my last newsletter, we didn't stay in business for five years because of luck... I know we have the tenacity to whether this storm.
The bad news is that a couple of our neighbors aren't as delighted to have us in town. They don't like how our soaps smell (because they do smell... everything about our production and existence smells like soap). And the city is kind of in the awkward position of tiebreaker between "this scent is acceptable" and "this scent is offensive," which is a highly subjective judgement. I'm oversimplifying the situation by a lot, but that's the gist of it.
So... it's likely that we're going to have to move our production -- but hopefully not our entire business -- to a different (nearby) town, and then cross our fingers that resolves the issues with our neighbors.
But what can you do?
A few noble individuals wrote asking what could be done to help.First, OMG I am beyond grateful for this thought. I can't tell you how much that makes me want to get up and fight another day.
But second, right now, nothin'. Or, rather, just keep doin' what you're doin', which is using and buying our products, and sharing them with your friends.
Again, thank you!
I know I say it pretty much every blog post, but your support and enthusiasm, especially through this brouhaha* has been more literally awesome than you can know. This business means the world to us (as you know), and to hear the encouragement and support of strangers who just found our tiny skiff in this wild ocean of the Internets is... truly awesome.Side note: speaking of awesome, did you get a load of that eclipse? Whoa.
So, anyways. Thank you.
* I struggled for quite some time to come up with the most accurate word for this, and I believe "brouhaha" is exactly the right word.
