Controversial SF Giants principal owner losing battle with clam shack
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San Francisco Giants owner Charles B. Johnson is a man with strong beliefs. He believes that Herschel Walker should be a United States Senator. He believes in stopping the steal. And he believes that Nantucket is no place for a crab shack.
Johnson is engaged in a legal battle with Straight Wharf Fish Market, a seafood restaurant, market and ice cream shop located next to the Old North Wharf on the island of Nantucket. It's a clam shack, and it's next to his $6.5 million cottage (one of at least four properties the billionaire owns on the island).
For months, Johnson has been fighting the shack. And so far, the shack won.
Attorney Danielle deBenedictis represents Johnson and some other property owners in the Old North Wharf, which honestly feels like a tongue twister. On behalf of her clients, deBenedictis has gone to various regulatory agencies to stop the shock.
The Conservation Commission denied their cease-and-desist request. The Nantucket Select Board didn't acquiesce to a letter warning that the seafood restaurant and ice cream shop would turn Nantucket into "a mecca for multiple rowdy bars and restaurants."
deBenedictis claimed in that letter that she also represented billionaire and Old North Wharf homeowner Charles Schwab, who later denied that she was his attorney, nor did he oppose the crab shack.
Johnson and deBenedictis even flew in from out of state to protest to the Select Board. deBenedictis prefaced her statement with, "We flew here from Florida, in spite of the storm, to make our utmost opposition known to you on a personal level." They also claimed that the family-friendly restaurant that closes at 9 PM was a "nightclub."
Now they've filed a lawsuit asking local and state authorities to revoke the crab shack's alcohol license, which those same authorities already approved.
Johnson's not alone in his unholy panic about the "lively crowds on the Straight Wharf" invading the sanctity of Old North Wharf. ONW resident Peter Holmes (not the one from "Crashing", probably) told reporters (OK, at most one reporter) that the presence of pedestrians on a public wharf meant it "became necessary for the residents of Old North Wharf to retain the services of private security personnel."
Yes, Charles Johnson and all his billionaire friends are hiring private security to protect them from people eating lobster rolls. And ice cream.
Johnson is 90 years old. From the tenor of his numerous complaints about the crab shack ruining the sanctity of his neighborhood, you'd assume he'd lived in that cottage for a long time. Nope. Johnson bought the property in 2017, when he was either 84 or 85 years old. Neighbors say he's "rarely, if ever, around."
It doesn't look like the Giants owner has a case. But he has something better than a case. Johnson has over six billion dollars. And that means he can keep suing this crab shack as long as he wants.
After all, every dollar Johnson spends on his frivolous anti-clam crusade is a dollar he can't donate to Lauren Boebert.
