Neighbors/Small Businesses Win Another Victory Against STARBUCKS in the Richmond District - SF

Strike up another victory against the invasion of BIG BOX and Chain Stores in SF neighborhoods!
After a month and a half of organizing and advocacy, Richmond District residents have scored another victory against STARBUCKS which had again been trying to sneak into our inner Richmond neighborhood, this time with a proposed cofee kiosk in the newly rebuilt SAFEWAY Grocery Store on 7th Avenue at Cabrillo Street.
This afternoon we learned that Safeway, after hearing concerns from neighbors and small businesses in the area has backed down and will not seek a CONDITIONAL USE PERMIT from the SF Planning Department as required by our formula retail policy in the City [Prop H].

Earlier this month Bryan McKeon, David Tornheim, Jesse Fink and others had begun gathering signatures of support [again] for our small businesses and preserving the unique and diverse character of our Richmond District. We were successful over the summer in a similar campaign to keep STARBUCKS out of the Inner Richmond at a proposed site on Geary at 5th Avenue.
Safeway will be issuing a letter stating that they will not be seeking the conditional use permit for the STARBUCKS, but they will be using the kiosk that was set up for STARBUCKS for Safeway's own coffee.

BIG Thanks again to our Richmond small independent businesses -
Velo Rouge Cafe [Arguello @ Fulton],
Toyboat [Clement @5th],
Blue Danube [Clement @4th],
Javaholics [Balboa @6th] and
Cafe Muse [8th Ave @ Fulton]
for standing up for the unique character of our community! Thanks also to our allies Steve Williams, Lisa Feldstein, Dean Preston, Katherine Roberts, Christina Olague and others also for standing with the Richmond Residents Against STARBUCKS.

VICTORY! - united community defeats STARBUCKS in the Richmond District

Thank you so much to everyone who wrote, called, rallied and spoke out at the 9/11 Board of Supervisors meeting to stop the Starbucks in the Inner Richmond District.

The SF Examiner and SF Chronicle coverage didn't adequately acknowlege the tremendous groundswell of support we built from our Richmond District community and other neighboring communities to stop the STARBUCKS:

Starbucks' effort to flood San Francisco with coffee shops ground to a halt Tuesday when the Board of Supervisors blocked a new outlet in the Richmond District under chain store regulations passed by voters last fall.
The board voted 9-1 to overturn the Planning Commission's June approval of a Starbucks at the corner of Geary Boulevard and Fifth Avenue, killing the proposal.
Jesse Fink, who has owned a nearby cafe for 25 years, filed the appeal on behalf of the Clement Street Merchants Association, which represents approximately 30 merchants in the area.
"I don't want San Francisco to lose its character and become a city of strip malls. ... That's what Starbucks is all about," Fink said in a hearing before the board.

Kudos especially to organizer extraodinaire Bryan McKeon, Toy Boat's Jesse Fink and his family, and Meg Lynch of Velo Rogue Cafe and the many richmond district small business folks that supported and built this campaign from 2 people to over 4700 united voices in a few weeks. Thanks also to David Tornheim, Dean Preston - Local-Imact.org, Eric Brooks - Our-city.org, Kathryn Roberts, and planning commissioner Christina Olague and others that provided key strategic advice. And Sue Hestor and Steve Williams for their legal advice as well.

Most of us were worried going into the 9/11 hearing, but by the time the Supervisors were deliberating we knew we had won. My 7 year old daughter Jade joined in the celebration last night too, not only because she thought there might be free ice cream from Toy Boat. I told her 'this is what democracy looks like' - and it's better than ice cream.

URGENT! Help Stop Starbucks in the Richmond! - letters needed now!

Help stop Starbucks in the Richmond -
click here to send an email letter to the SF Board of Supervisors now!
And tell your friends and neighbors - pack SF City Hall Tuesday 9/11 at 4:30pm for the hearing to decide on the issue. Or contact us is there are other ways you can help! [Thanks to www.local-impact.org for their support]

Chinese People Kick STARBUCKS Out of the Forbidden City/The Richmond District Can Do It Too! But we need your help!

Photograph: Stephen Shaver/EPA
Last month, 500,000 people in China successfully kicked STARBUCKS out of the Forbidden City in Beijing. But STARBUCKS still operates some 200 outlets in China.
In the summer of 2003, the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association also successfully kept STARBUCKs from moving into their community. The following year the late Tess Manalo-Ventresca and Sunset Neighbors in Action organized a successful grassroots campaign to keep STARBUCKS out of their neighborhood as well. Later that year, SF's Japantown activists successfully blocked a Starbucks they say would have harmed many of their small businesses as well.
We can do it too in the Richmond District - support our small businesses and protect the character of our neighborhood and keep Starbucks out. But we need your support.
Please go to http://local-impact.org/ to send emails and faxes to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors by September 11th. If the No Starbucks in the Richmond Action Alert is not posted on the site yet, it will soon be. So keep checking back.

Second Winds

This entry is from Bryan McKeon, one of the original organizers of the movement to stop Starbucks from moving into the Inner Richmond. [in photo far left]

I write now "movement" and "original" oganizers because since the filing date of July 11th (of the appeal to the planning commissions decision to allow a Starbucks into our neighborhood) it has turned into just that a movement. And the organizers are now a team instead of just Jesse Fink and myself.
The outpouring of concerned residents (and residents of other neighborhoods too) has been overwhelming. At yesterdays meeting in City Hall even more people came up to us, letting us know that if there was anything they could do to help please ask. In fact, I have heard this much since we first printed petitions and now I have to take help cause things have grown so much. Instead of riding around the 'hood placing and collecting petitions, I delegate tasks to the team. Awesome. We are now gearing up with press releases, more petitions, and a much improved notification network. Indeed this blog space was created by a concered neighbor who spotted a poster at Javaholics on 6th and Balboa just a week before our meeting with the supervisors.

[Photo: Jesse Fink, center, and other Richmond District residents challenge Toyota Service Center and Starbucks reps on the steps of SF City Hall]

Yesterday's continuance while seeming like a non-event was actually quite a victory. We came face to face with the board, Toyota, Starbucks supporters for Starbucks and those against. We all were only allowed a minute to speak. We spoke volumes. I handed over to the supervisors just shy of 3,000 signatures from San Francisco residents opposing the Starbucks as well as 12 copies of the San Francisco Retail Diversity Study which demonstrates how much more economically beneficial local retailers are than their chain competitors. One speaker at the meeting (who I had no idea was coming) actually quoted stats from this report. I was glad the supes all had copies to hand out as they were thumbing through it as she spoke.

Of the signatures gathered so far, at least 36 percent were from the immediate neighborhood (2nd to 12th avenues and from Balboa to Clement). An additional 30 percent were from the Richmond neighborhood.

While it was disappointing to have so many people ready to take on the planning commission decisions at City Hall yesterday and not have an actual vote, I agree with Jake McGoldrick that a continuance is a good idea. The heart and soul of legislation created by Matt Gonzales (for the very purpose for which we are using it now) is at stake here.
Time is on our side here. Letting people know what is going on is the most important thing. Starbucks (and Toyota too for that matter) with all its expertize and power in getting their brand name into peoples heads, did almost nothing to let their (proposed) neighbors know what their intentions were. In Starbucks defense (since they are not from the neighborhood and could not really know this) they did talk to both the Geary Merchants Boulevard Association as well as the Richmond District Planning Association (both which were in favor, both present at the Planning Meeting, and I think both absent at yesterdays meeting). Starbucks maybe just didnt know that these 2 organizations don't really represent the neighbohood very well. The Clement Street Organization was not notified. The bulk of the neighborhood notification came from this grassroots effort as well as some good (incidental) media coverage.

Victory at 8/7 SF Board of Supervisors Meeting & Testimony from longtime activist David Tornheim

Dozens of Inner Richmond District residents and small business owners testified today to urge the SF Board of Supervisors to vote against the granting of the conditional use permit to STARBUCKS. Bryan McKeon presented some 2976 signed petitions against the STARBUCKS to the Supervisors.
And, we won our first victory when D1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick's motion for a continuance of the vote was approved by the Board. Starbucks supporters were against the continuance but the Board voted unanimously in support of delaying the vote until 9/11.
Mark Your Calendars for the Tues, September 11th meeting [4:30 pm or after] where the Board will vote on our appeal of the Starbucks permit. We need to turn out even more community folks for that meeting. More details later.
To view the testimony from today - go to SF Board Meeting Televised0 and click on Item 51 in the Agenda for 8/7/07 - 02:30-02:59.
---------------------------
Here's the testimony from one of our allies from District 5 David Tornheim -

Subject: No Starbucks on 4th and Geary
I OPPOSE the proposed Starbucks. I urge this matter will be continued. I will likely not be available to speak today and would like an opportunity to.

As for the merits of the appeal, I believe the study submitted by Appellants provides facts that support the kinds of concerns that residents like me have for opposing chain-stores like Starbucks:
* Money does not stay local
* Bad for Small independent businesses
* removes diversity from businesses
* Chain-stores are carnivorous--they try to eat the entire market share and drive out ALL other competition--e.g. Pharmacies and Gas Stations (independents are almost completely non-existent). In Washington, D.C., I believe there are far more Starbucks than ALL of the independent coffee houses combined. That's unacceptable.
* bland uniformity [chains make S.F. like every other town]
* employees are forced to act more like machines than humans, reciting well-rehearsed scripts (e.g. Safeway's "smiling policy") [See also Matt Smith's SF Weekly article about how Starbucks is more concerned with employees having burn victims fill out paperwork rather than attending to their injuries.]
* chain-stores add transportation costs and environmental impacts because they buy and distribute in bulk (from distant manufacturers) rather than purchases from smaller local producers.
David Tornheim
1890 Grove St #5
SF, CA

Richmond coffee fight brews in S.F. - San Francisco Examiner

Coffee Fight Brews in SF - Richmond Districtl

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Aug 6, 2007 3:00 AM (15 hrs ago) by Alexandria Rocha, The Examiner

Starbucks is planning to open a 750-square-foot store at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and Geary Boulevard.
SAN FRANCISCO - Members of an Inner Richmond neighborhood group are fighting the opening of a new Starbucks, saying a nearby Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King are already turning the area into a strip mall.
Jesse Fink, who heads the Clement Street Merchants Association, which represents about 30 businesses in the Richmond district, has appealed a June 14 decision by the San Francisco Planning Commission to allow Starbucks to open a second shop in the Richmond district on Geary Boulevard at Fifth Avenue. The Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on the matter at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

MORE on coffee fight

Thousands of Richmond District Residents Oppose Another StarBucks in our Neighborhood

[Photo: Portland Independent Media]
Petition to block Starbucks Corporation from moving into the Inner Richmond District of San Francisco

Let's keep "formula retail" (chain) stores out of our neighborhood.

Both Hayes and Cole Valley, North Beach and a section of Divisadero have in the past few years been protected by legislation (sponsored by Matt Gonzales, Aaron Peskin, and Ross Mirkarimi respectively) from formula retail establishments. All of these in an effort to preserve the uniqueness, character and personality of these neighborhoods. To protect their "San Francisconess".

Why shouldn't we do the same for our Neighborhood.

The Inner Richmond in addition to Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and a slew of other international chains is now host to "Quickly" at Clement and 5th another "formula retail" store. Now Starbucks is planning to move into the new Toyota repair shop on Geary between 4th and 5th Avenues in order to "preserve and enhance the cultural and economic diversity of the neighborhood...". As of June, 6, 2007, there are already 80 Starbucks locations in San Francisco "preserving" and "enhancing" the neighborhoods of San Francisco.

Small independently owned businesses have historically recirculated 60% of revenues into the neighborhoods they reside in. Formula retail stores (like Starbucks) recirculate only 20% of revenues from the neighborhoods they reside in. As we plan our neighborhood of tomorrow, which type of business would you rather see?

Please help to conserve the uniqueness of your neighborhood and keep Starbucks out.

This is YOUR PETITION for us to be heard by the BOARD OF SUPERVISORS. Please help send a message to chain stores that we the residents of San Francisco do not want them in our neighborhoods.

It's YOUR City!!

This Petition endorsed by the Clement Street Merchants Association and thousands of Richmond District residents.

Petition contact: Bryan Mckeon 415-379-9135

Email: Topbolt@aol.com