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Tomorrow's the big day. The planning commission meeting is this Thursday, starting at 1:30. The hearing goes down in room 400 at City Hall. Oh, and Stephen Elliot at Stop American Apparel mentions the following advice that made us do a 180 on the local scribe: "Something to remember is that the planning commissioners are serving without pay. This is a volunteer, civil service position, so please be very respectful of them. Appreciate that they’re doing all of us a service." Hear, hear! Well said. We wish more people understood this.
Also, it's not like this issue is at the same level or as complicated as that of Oscar Grant's murder or proposition 8's passing, so showing up with an affected anarchist attitude might hurt the cause rather than help it. Yes, really. Besides, it looks like the store just won't go up. Everybody from Bevan Dufty to your mother doesn't want it American Apparel to drop spore on Valencia Street. Anyway, good luck tomorrow, anti-AAers.
In other Mission progress news, the New Mission Theater condos --which will go up at the now-defunct Giant Value and New Mission Theater, developed by the owner of Medjool -- will get to stand a 20 extra feet taller due to a clerical error and a "'mayor who has gained politically from the property owner.'"
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When you win, anti American Apparelers, please congratulate yourselves profusely on your efforts to stand up to the most critically important issue facing your fine, fine neighborhood, San Francisco, and perhaps the whole nation. Think of the problems you will have solved.
Ugh!
Even though I could care less that American Apparel wants to open up a store on Valencia street (three in this city is already enough, actually), I hate the thought of it getting rejected and those smug little assholes at the Stop AA campaign thinking that it was all because of them. Talk about setting a dangerous precedent.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
You'd get the smugness either way, I think.
smug or not, it IS their neighborhood. i don't live there, so i personally don't care one way or another. but, right or wrong, i do like the idea of residents maintaining aesthetic control of their neighborhoods.
I don't like that idea at all. I think that neighborhoods should be allowed to be progressive. They need to grow and evolve as it's residents grow and evolve. It's only a matter of time before Valencia Street turns into Haight Street and another fledgling neighborhood in the city starts to see young hip people with a certain aesthetic perspective move in and make it a cool & desirable place to live and shop. It's the way it works.
The business owners and residents of Valencia need to understand that they are the very reason why American Apparel wants to move in in the first place. They fit American Apparels target demographic to a T (shirt)!
The problem with that, of course, is that over time everything gets gentrified to hell. Isn't that what already happened to New York?
Yeah, renting an apartment in the Mission for four years before you move to Pleasenton and take an tech job at Wells Fargo does not give you the right to twat about on the internets claiming it's your birthright.
Following this logic, there'd be no Castro district as we currently know it.
If the previous occupants were able to control what stores, etc. moved in, I seriously doubt there'd ever have been the number of shops that opened there attracting the current residents.
The issue for me is whether or not this small, vocal group represents the neighborhood. Having grown up in the Mission, you'd have to convince me that the Valencia St store owners and other recent transplants do that.
That's my only issue in the whole stupid fight
It is my neighborhood and while I don't completely agree with the Anti-AA crowd, I definitely think that I should have some say as to what goes into my neighborhood.
I volunteer in my neighborhood, I also help clean up the parks and the sidewalks, because I have to live here. I shouldn't have to live in what Cole Valley (or wherever)thinks my neighborhood should be like.
I also think its great that people protest whatever it is they don't like - even when I'm on the opposite side, that's democracy, a discussion.
And on another note, the good thing about this recurring discussion is all the sleazy awesome AA ads that get posted.
The fallacy in this position is that the Mission is not "your neighborhood." It is not "my neighborhood." It doesn't belong to anybody. Sure, little chunks of it belong to some people. But merely living in the Mission hardly gives you the moral right to say who is or is not welcome.
This is also NOT about people just protesting something they don't like. It is about an attempt to use government coercion to determine who is or is not welcome. I would have no complaints if people protested the American Apparel. Leaflet, make speeches, march, whatever. Speech never hurt anybody. But what they are actually doing is attempting to enlist the coercive force of the government to exclude others. Protesting and coercion are not the same thing.
We use the coercive force of the government all the time. We do it to change the speed limit on streets, make the lights on the basketball stay open longer. And like it or not the people who currently live there are the caretakers. Should they have final say : no. But should they have a necessary voice yes.
Is regulating whether or not a head shop or AA can open in your neighborhood a reasonable use of the citizens voice to influence their own surroundings, I think yes. We can disagree, but we can't act like its unusual or a rare and special case.
The higher the unemployment rate goes, the more stupid this protest looks. Perhaps these trust-fund hipsters won't mind compensating those who won't get a job they need to buy food and pay rent?
"Trust-fund hipsters" and "get a job they need to buy food and pay rent" don't belong in the same sentence. First, that's what the trust fund is for, and second, a job would sooo cut into their protest time.
I think you miss-read my comment. I was implying the trust-fund kids who are protesting could perhaps compensate real people who need real jobs to pay their rent. My point was that I'm astonished people would be against new jobs in this economic environment in the name of "neighborhood preservation". Hope this helps.
the four or fourteen jobs created by American Apparel are mere fingers in the dyke of this economy. As the unemployment rises the case is actually made for a different solution, liek changing the laws to allow formula retail.
Anything less is the equivalent of marching against bad spelling or whatever. Pointless.
I've never met a hipster with an actual trust fund. I'm starting to think it's an urban legend.
Me too! Maybe we're just hanging out with the wrong (right?) crowds.
Also, I have trouble blaming people for their parents' success. Alright, I've had to work a little harder than some (and much much less than many others), but I also hope to provide security for my kids someday, especially if they have to go through an economic downturn like this one.
The people in this city do an excellent job of ignoring economic reality. Chain stores are a major component of our economy and have been for decades. While the notion that we can preserve San Francisco as some kind of mom and pop boutique zone is admirable in intent (if thoroughly annoying in realization), it is completely unrealistic. Rents in this city are too high and there are not enough people earning the amount of money necessary to support businesses that sell the kind of overpriced tschokes and other crap necessary to earn the cash these stores need to remain viable. If this is all we want here, we should expect a plethora of empty store fronts and all the other issues associated with dead stretches of commercial corridor.
The other option is to wake up and deal with reality on our terms. We CAN pick and choose the kind of chain stores we want to integrate into our economy and this will help everyone by providing jobs, encouraging increased street traffic, and raising sales. So long as we hold onto this ridiculous, doctrinaire attitude towards urban planning, the worse off we will be. San Francisco is already on a steady slide towards irrelevance. This sort of non-constructive backlash just solidifies it.
One other thing - Ritual Roasters already has three Bay Area locations and now they're demanding that we basically subsidize and protect their growth into yet another chain by limiting competition. I find this totally and completely offensive and though I'm no hard core capitalist, fundamentally opposed to the way we're supposed to do things in Amurrica. I resent this tremendously and I will never buy another cup of coffee from that shitty cafe ever again! To hell with them and to hell with all the other nascent chain stores on Valencia who are whining about this.
I love it. I call Formula Retail on their overpriced, attitude-intensive asses:
http://www.coffeeratings.com/chain-view.php?chainId=119
When Ritual tries to move to the Haight or Marina, I hope they get the same treatment.
i don't drink coffee and i don't like ritual very much, but if you can't see the difference between a homegrown success story with a couple bay area locations and an international chain with 200+ locations, you're being intentionally dense.
Because like every chain out there was never a "homegrown success story." No, Starbucks, with it's cruddy little shop at Pike Place Market, it just sprung forth from the head of Zeus a fully formed, multinational chain. Same thing with Williams-Sonoma, The Gap, AND American Apparel, among the many others. Not a single one of these businesses started out with just one shop someplace. Right.
because starbucks was once not a chain, that makes ritual a chain?
No. More than one location makes a chain a chain. Ritual has three locations. Accordingly, it's a chain.
I'm just calling them out as hypocrites. If they don't like chain stores, they shouldn't become one.
I haven't been in one for ages (because of t'internets) but have you noticed that all porno shops seem to run by the same company? It's the signage and shelving that give it away. And the same bloke seems to work in all of them (or is he just a type?).
when you say "non-constructive backlash," are you referring to your last paragraph?
As opposed to your obtuse, short sighted observations on retail evolution in the United States? I feel sorry for the knuckle draggers who don't own businesses on Valencia who support this ridiculous, hysterical protest against American Apparel. Y'all are being duped. Sorry for you.
i try and not call people dirty words, but this kneejerk boycott thing is very bill o'reilly.
Thanks for really nailing it in putting your entire outlook in stark perspective.
TAYM - "San Francisco is already on a steady slide towards irrelevance."
It hit the bottom of that slide a while ago. I can assure you that NOBODY gives a flying fuck about SF besides you lovely San Franciscans.
It might make a comeback, but it's gonna be a few decades... Sit tight.
we're west of I-5 and in the state of california, darling. everyone gives a fuck about us.
I admire your faithful optimism...
Ironically enough, most of the folks that are anti-anti-American Apparel are just as self-righteous, smug and loathsome and their accused. Fitting.
Now let's wait and see how many of the blowhards actually care enough to go to the meeting. Didn't think so.
Oh Travin,
You so much better than all the rest of us.
Making too many assumptions again in the rush to respond? I've never suggested I'm exempt from my own judgment.
Actually, I don't think this is true. There certainly is self-righteousness on both sides. But self-righteousness suggests intolerance of others. The anti-anti crew at least opposed to restrictions on who can or cannot be a part of the neighborhood. That is tolerance. It is the anti-AA crew that are trying to get a government agency to exclude others.
Yeah, I hear ya, good points. Though I don't think there's any excusing intolerance from either side. Having a strong opinion about what you believe and voicing it is one thing. But debasing, mocking, ridiculing and dehumanizing our neighbors and communities, for the sake of a silly argument is quite another kettle of fish.
I don't see the anti-AA crowd doing that so much. I do, however, see the anti-anti crowd wallowing in it. Many comments on this and other local blog are prime examples.
It's during the business day. No can do.
Ever notice how SF government meetings are perfect for those who are free during business hours, yet impossible for those who are not?
Well yah. They neither want a riot on their hands nor a never-ending meeting. I don't know if it's been pointed out here, but the commissioners are all volunteer. So I think they deserve to be cut some slack. But not too much, ya know?
How ironic, you sound like the Pro Prop 8 crowd who say that allowing same sex couples to get married is being intolerant of those who think the government shouldn't allow them to.
And the Circle is Unbroken...
Thanks for putting up your leftist rant about wanting to live in a commercial area of boarded up acid etched windows without a comments section. Real big of you to spout your hypocrisy without listening to the thoughts of others. I can tell you are really secure with your position.
Hey, they typed up their letters on manual typewriters. How twee.
Not only that, I'm sure it bumped up the "Recommendations" because it's right where you click to comment. I just want to point out that my "recommendation" is for you to move back to Walnut Creek.
> Hey, they typed up their letters on manual typewriters. How twee.
In a chain store.
Someone page the webmaster for "Things White People Like", we've got a f'n Blue Light Special on Valencia Street.
Too bad no one gets out the rickety typewriters and protests anything other than what assaults their perception of their hipper-than-yours-is neighborhood.
Anyone ever see the South Park where the parents drive Prius cars & enjoy the smells of their own farts? Just sayin'...starting to smell a little funky in the Valencia Corridor.
SF - Where a Mayor 'solves' the City's massive problems through gimmicks and the soulful artisans spend their time protesting....places that sell panties.
the comments were accidentally turned off. they're on now. deep breaths.
well now that the world is saved from the tyranny of a Los Angeles based clothing store that is actually creating jobs for people, we'll have to do something with that empty space on valencia street - maybe another porn production company can rent it? or a piercing studio? or a belgian style cafe? or muddy waters #57? or a taqueria #235? no one seemed to mind when those chains moved in.....i'm just saying - this whole mishigass is reminding me of the time when those mission anti displacement coalition people prevented every single mixed use and affordable housing idea from going forward at the armory ("gentrification" they screamed) and then what did they end up with? no new housing. that's not progressive, that's short sighted. and so is all this fachachta 'activism' against AA.
the folks who live on or near valencia street have every right not to want a chain store in their hood. i'm not sure why people are so upset by this. what's the real reason?
I'm incredibly apatehtic about this, although I find the reasoning behind it specious and a luxury.
> what's the real reason?
Lets see...that the people of the hallowed Valencia Corridor finally stand up and protest something, and THIS is the scope of their outrage?
I've got more props for the anti-Scientology protesters, at least in their worldview they are fighting against an evil they see threatening the rest of the world.
Joel couldn't have said it better: LUXURY.
I could give a Stevenson Alley shit about American Apparel on Valencia. I wouldn't even care if a "Vintage Typewriter Outlet" moves in there.
It is the artisans of the Valencia Corridor right to protest what ills them...maybe we're just jealous the worst thing to come along in these tragic times is the *possibility* of an American Apparel.
Its 2009 in San Francisco - many of us are just too fucked to care.
it seems like you care a whole lot. more than i do, certainly.
i think the anti-AA is organized by an ex of the AA guy.
that's just my guess!
It's all a blame game. People seem to really get off on that nowadays. Any excuse to devalue someone else and point a finger is considered fair game and acceptable. (See Bad Girls, reality TV).
that's the big question here.
hey wait a minute Brock - isn't Sfist part of a national chain?!? well well well
too che
The domain stopist.com is available if anyone wants to take up the fight to get Gothamist/SFist out of San Francisco.
As a chain, the obviously offer nothing good for San Francisco and threaten our locally owned news sites. Wouldn't everyone agree we'd be better off without Gothamist attacking local San Francisco culture and everyone instead read and commented on SFGate?
I still don't see what the problem is with American Apparel.
heh. well played.
That I'm aware of, there's nothing wrong with AA. Their clothes are already being sold in the neighborhood. The discussion really has nothing to do with the company. That's what makes all the frothing of the blog, amusing.
has AA pulled their SFist ads yet?
It's my understanding that the city not wanting AA in the Mission has everything to do with modern architecture and little to nothing to do with its being a corporation.
hot ads help take the pain away
i've been reading this whole thread and now that i get to the bottom all i can think of is, what's so wrong about driving an A3? I worked hard for that shit.
AND you love american apparel. you get irritated that they charge you so much, but you love that place. hipster me this, why use such a label to describe someone negatively-you sound really come off as envious. maybe you weren't so popular in college huh?
ritual coffee beans are like half an AA hoodie. $$$
big business is like natural selection...wait for it.
Yay! Unanimous 7-0 vote from the commission, underlining that AA failed to work *with* the neighborhood.
SUCK IT, BATCH!