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.

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.

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.
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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

URGENT - Call SF Supervisors & Moblize for Aug 7 - 4:30 Hearing

Richmond District residents and businesses are mobilizing to oppose another Starbucks in our Neighborhood for the Tuesday August 7 SF Board of Supervisors meeting at City Hall where they will discuss and vote on an appeal of the SF Planning Commission's granting of a conditional use permit to Starbucks for Geary and 4th Avenue.

Author of the 'Block Starbucks' petition Brian Mckeon says that speakers should try to arrive before 4:30 and encourages anyone to speak out at the meeting as well. Thousands of signed petitions will be presented to the Supervisors at the meeting.

The Appeal was brought by longtime Richmond District small business owner Jesse Fink, owner of Toy Boat Dessert Cafe on Clement @ 5th Avenue. Fink is a leader of the Clement Street Merchants Association.

Please join us on Tuesday August 7th for the hearing. We need everyone that can make it to show up in force.

More info: Contact Bryan Mckeon 415-379-9135 or email him at topbolt@aol.com

SPECIAL ORDER 4:30 P.M.
51. 071031
[Public Hearing - Conditional Use Appeal for 4041 Geary Boulevard]
Hearing of persons interested in or objecting to the decision of the Planning Commission by its Motion No. 17448 dated June 14, 2007, approving Conditional Use Application No. 2007.0286C, subject to certain conditions, to allow the establishment of a Formula Retail Use (dba Starbucks, retail coffee store), with approximately 750 square feet in floor area in a vacant commercial space located in a recently approved auto service and repair shop (dba"Service Center for San Francisco Toyota"), a one-story commercial building. The project site is located in an NC-3 (Moderate Scale) Neighborhood Commercial District and a 40-X Height and Bulk District on property located at 4041 Geary Boulevard, Lot 050 on Assessor's Block 1540. (Appellant: Jesse Fink, Clement Street Merchant Association.)
(Filed 7/11/07; companion meaure to Files 071032, 071033, 071034; District 1.)
Action:___________________________

Pursuant to Government Code Section 65009, the following notice is hereby given: if you challenge, in court, the conditional use application decision described above, you may be limited to raising only those issues you or someone else raised at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written correspondence delivered to the Board of Supervisors at, or prior to, the public hearing.

Legislative Chamber - Second FloorCity Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett PlaceSan Francisco, CA 94102-4689

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WRITE AND CALL the SF Supervisors!

You can also email and call San Francisco Supervisors to tell them that we don't want STARBUCKS or any another corporate chain stores in the Richmond because of the harm to our local businesses and neighborhood.

Supervisor District Phone Fax Email
Alioto-Pier, Michela 2 554-7752 554-7843 Michela.Alioto-Pier@sfgov.org
Ammiano, Tom 9 554-5144 554-6255 Tom.Ammiano@sfgov.org
Daly, Chris 6 554-7970 554-7974 Chris.Daly@sfgov.org
Dufty, Bevan 8 554-6968 554-6908 Bevan.Dufty@sfgov.org
Elsbernd, Sean 7 554-6516 554-6546 Sean.Elsbernd@sfgov.org
Jew, Ed 4 554-7460 554-7460 Ed.Jew@sfgov.org
Maxwell, Sophie 10 554-7670 554-7674 Sophie.Maxwell@sfgov.org
McGoldrick, Jake 1 554-7410 554-7415 Jake.McGoldrick@sfgov.org
Mirkarimi, Ross 5 554-7630 554-7634 Ross.Mirkarimi@sfgov.org
Peskin, Aaron 3 554-7450 554-7454 Aaron.Peskin@sfgov.org
Sandoval, Gerardo 11 554-6975 554-6979 Gerardo.Sandoval@sfgov.org

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