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What with Bush leaving office and local ire having no direct target, layoffs continuing to abound, and the recession devolving into something worse, American Apparel setting up shop on Valencia Street created the perfect storm for a surprising amount of anger on both sides of the argument.
Check out some scene from yesterday's Planning Commission meeting at City Hall. It brought out quite the crowd. Commissioner Mike Antonini said he'd never seen such a crowd or such a response to a freaking Planning item. And SFist commenter/photog Manny Ortez tells us that never before has City Hall played "host to so many skinny jeans, staches, and American Apparel-wearers," going on to say, "Don't know if the irony was lost on them or not, but apparently you can be opposed to formula retail and still dig hideous leotards."
Oh, and American Apparel will NOT go up in the Mission. Ta-da. Now let's fix actual problems in the Mission like gang warfare, crime, and fixing the railroad track-ish one block barrier in the Mission that divides the lily white from the Latino community.
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Seriously people, get a life.
These are mission natives? All I see are a bunch of white kids.
Are you referring all the way back to when California was part of Mexico or even farther back when it was Ohlone territory?
they look like AA models.
Seriously Brock - the number of slutty female models pix are way out of proportion to the slutty skinny guys in speedo underwear pix that you use with these stories. Please rectify.
Man, this is even worse than I could have possibly imagined.
"Mission Natives?"
How about "Keep the Mission Chain Free, except for the chains we like that and that reinforce our sense of cultural identity without having to think too much about the fact that that identity is based on consumption and brand identification in the first place?"
The commission's president said American Apparel didn't do enough to woo us, the community. I'm not sure what they could have done, personally, but not knowing shit about us is a pretty bad start.
The young man representing AA said this location would be the only AA location in the city accessible by public transit. Luckily one woman corrected him, saying everything is accessible by public transit in SF, but even if the douche was talking about Bart, Union Square is considerably closer to a station than 21st and Valencia.
All in all, save a few nut jobs ("If American Apparel moves in, I will move! I will!" and the guy who thought it was a good time to complain to the commission about the coffee shop he lives above), the anti- crowd was much more vocal and eloquent than the American Apparel employees paid to be there and speak for the company.
"...didn't do enough to woo us, the community"—you wrote that dude, you really wrote that.
And the commission's president said it, he really said it. Jesus, reasoning with you people is like trying to debate children.
...retarded autistic children on captain crunch berries.
The reasons why your reasoning is not working:
Most of us think this clown parade is thoroughly entertaining.
It doesn't appear that any of you have a shred of irony.
We don't care about maintaining the sanctity a silly little community that exists solely in your minds.
We have the sophistication to see the word in shades of gray rather than your reactionary fantasy of good vs evil.
Finally, and most importantly, the "hipster" look stopped being fashionable about four years ago. You all look like teenagers from a Colorado mall. A mall full of chain stores selling the clothing and lifestyle that you have made popular but now threatens you. That son, is fucking priceless.
Don't be harshing on Colorado. Minnesota or Ohio would be more appropriate metaphors.
And yet your whole argument, essentially "I'm right and you're wrong so nana nana boo boo" totally drops off your radar.
Well of course I'm fucking right: I'm not you.
Expressed like a true hipster.
I'm 73
And...?
Jesus, reasoning with you people is like trying to debate children.
Oh, if only we would see things your way, right?
Nope, dantsea, just reasoned arguments based on logic and not assumptions (like yours), stereotypes, and fallacies. I can see in all shades of gray and every color of the rainbow and I see no reason AA should be on Valencia Street, especially when local small business owners are clamoring for those storefronts. I do see a lot of cynicism, though, and it makes me sad.
@zstone: you clearly live in a fantasy land if you believe that small local businesses are clamoring for these storefronts. There are dozens of empty storefronts on Valencia St. and that particular storefront has been vacant for years. The idea somehow AA would have squeezed out a single business is just absurd.
Did you watch the meeting? Half a dozen small business owners stated they had inquired about vacant storefronts to be turned away by greedy landlords (including some, as I have said previously, who specifically mentioned that property). Not to make rash assumptions, but a pretty safe one is that if half a dozen spoke up about it yesterday, they are not the only ones who've inquired and been turned away. Also, how could you say that storefront has been vacant for years? I would tell you it is you who lives in the fantasy land, but you are simply ill-informed. Ignorance be gone!
Do these business owners have goood credit and the wherewithal to pay prevailing market rent? If so that's pretty greedy of the owners, not to rent them, when they could be making some cash. Of course if they are asking for very cheap rent, they're not likely to get it.
It's not like SF has commercial rent control. (The Rent Board says so: http://www.sfgov.org/site/rentboard_index.asp) An owner can refuse to renew a commercial lease after it expires.
Your point is valid, and it is indeed the landlord's prerogative to rent to whomever they choose. You may disagree with me (as most on this board have), but if formula retail chains are the only ones able to afford the rent, we have a major problem. Call me an idealist, but I believe local small business owners whose businesses are thriving should have the opportunity to expand (and I really hate sounding like John McCain), and the way the shop owners framed it made it seem that many landlords are being unfair in their renting practices, which I would believe even had I not heard it from them directly.
Oh, and until I pay off my crippling student loan debt I think my goal of owning one of those buildings and renting its storefront to a local business owner is still, unfortunately, a long-term one.
Where the fuck do you think you are, the hugbox snugglenets? Thanks for confirming my original statement.
Chains in the Mission:
El Tonayense
Muddy Waters
Therapy
Verizon
Payless Shoe Source
Salvation Army
Osha Thai
Sunflower (hey, there's two of them!)
Feel free to add your own...
You really don't see the difference between a local store with a few local branches versus an international one with hundreds?
Walgreen's?
Shit, I'm trying not to get involved in this.
I know, it's hard not to, though. I was speaking of the ones on Valencia, because the pro-formula retail people seem to miss the point that the issue was American Apparel on Valencia Street, not Mission.
skechers? oh, wait, that's on mission street. that's not really the mission.
"I know, it's hard not to, though. I was speaking of the ones on Valencia, because the pro-formula retail people seem to miss the point that the issue was American Apparel on Valencia Street, not Mission."
you're kidding. please say you're kidding. is your argument that one block makes all the difference? fine, then put the AA on mission. will you shut up at that point? i'm thinking no, you won't.
Are you by any chance "the" Winston Smith, of collage art fame? Or is that an Orwell reference?
Good Vibrations is a chain and has locations elsewhere in the bay area as well as a shop in Massachusetts.
826 Valencia is part of a chain. There is an 826 New York City, 826 LA, 826 Seattle, 826 Chicago, and 826 Michigan.
Good Vibrations is no longer locally owned:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/28/BUA3SFNI7.DTL
If a Cleveland owned adult toy shop isn't a chain store, I don't know what is. And it's on most-holy Valencia Street, not that icky chainy street one long block east.
Whatever. Enjoy the win, guys. Glad you don't live in my hood as I for one enjoy the convenient walking distance shopping.
Other chains in the mission: Walgreens, McDonalds, Popeyes, Skechers, several banks, every cell phone company etc.
Some of these are fairly appaling and I wouldn't want to see on Valencia St., but the Mission is hardly chain free.
Thanks for the list. And now we've come full circle to our original discussion on this topic where I mentioned that the latino community isn't as good at organizing and vocalizing like this group that bounced AA. Thank you for agreeing.
And now we've come full circle to where this discussion is all about you. Right? Good job Travin.
See! I knew you'd eventually see it my way.
is it possible that the "latino community" doesn't mind buying skechers?
> is it possible that the "latino community" doesn't mind buying skechers?
Uh...YES?
Or perhaps prevailing economic conditions don't allow them the luxury of dropping everything and stamping their feet about neighborhood aesthetics.
Congratulations Missionites! You've prevented people from becoming employed during the worst recession since the 1930's. Brilliant!!!!
As was proved at the meeting, the people most at fault for preventing employment are the landlords who choose not to rent their vacant storefronts to small business owners, including several who want to open up at that very spot.
YES!
This is the thing that ticked me off the most about this meeting. Everyone piled on to American Apparel because they represented the big bad evil corporation (as if!). They should be going after the big bad greedy land lord for not letting another Cool Kid open up a cool store that all of their cool friends can hang out at.
Thank you zstone for being one of the very few voices of rational thought in these discussions.
And you think the anti chain store Valencia Street shop owners are being rational in their belief that American Apparel moving onto Valencia Street means that the whole neighborhood will go to hell???
These idiots spent a lot of either their trust funds or their parent's money (or just maybe they actually put themselves in debt with a for reals small business loan, yeah right!) to start a business and they need to wake up and take things a little more seriously. Change and competition are all part of doing business. Valencia Street is not some magical fairy land where nothing ever changes and rent is always cheap and everyone can just "hangout" with their buds and drink PBRs and pretend they are on permanent vacation. Change happens. Rents will keep going up with or without American Apparel moving in. Valencia street was different 10 years ago before these people set up shop and it will be different 10 years from now when other people want to move in and do their own thing. If the shop owners feel threatened by chain stores moving in because they will take away business from them, then they need to re-evaluate their business and adapt to keep customers coming in. 826 Valencia understands that. They were afraid that the products they were selling in their pirate store were being cheapened by the whole Disney-fied pirate craze that was happening because of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise so they hired a branding consultant (who also does work for big formula brands like Nike, Levis, and Coca-cola) to focus their brand message and be more appealing to their target market. If the other business owners don't want to make an effort to keep their business successful and keep hiring people and giving them decent wages and benefits, then they need to seriously think about why they went into business in the first place. I think it's extremely arrogant of the shop owners of valencia street to think that they are so special and that their stores are so unique. There are plenty of other independent coffee roasters and over priced chatchkey shops in the world. Valencia street is not some secret precious hidden gem anymore. PSFK, a trend and cool-hunting consultancy, recently did a report about the mission and how "trendy" it is so that marketing A-holes who are interested in making their brand be more appealing to people who aspire to be like people in the mission can buy it and use it to do so. The "floodgates" have been open for some time now. San Francisco IS a city after all and not some quaint little beach town like some people like to think it is. More and more people are going to move her and things are going to continue to grow and change. The Valencia Street shop owners need to stop being so in love with themselves and be reminded that they are, at the end of the day, just businesses. They are not as unique as they think they are. They can become just as stale and irrelevant as any other business.
"They are not as unique as they think they are."
This is the whole jist of that long rant I have no intention of reading. But I gather that subliminally your mind's eyes perceived your faint reflection in your computer screen and you were just really writing a daily affirmation to yourself.
[The Valencia Street shop owners need to stop being so in love with themselves and be reminded that they are, at the end of the day, just businesses.]
If they need help loving themselves, they can always get an assist from something purchased at Good Vibrations.
Perhaps a would be landlord would like to purchase such a building and rent it out? Putting one's money where one's mouth is?
I'm sure some of these properties are either for sale now, or could be for the right price. Particularly in these recessionary times.
Zstone, you're surely trolling. The magical lollipop money trees and all that.
Nail hit head.
If I was the building owner, who would I want to rent to? A small chain with capital behind it or a local store that is probably running on someone's severance package. My fear is we'll just end up with another $150+ designer jean store ...
Fritz has locations in Fisherman's Wharf, Hayes Valley (right on Hayes Street), and Valencia Street that I know about. So much for no chains on Valencia.
Did it escape you that this is a locally owned business?
I love pic 16. Dude is earnestly speaking. The subtitles on the screen to the right say "...and the people." And the woman in the front row looks on dreamily.
I think she could be staring because his shirt(s) don't fit him in the slightest.
I want to mock, I really do, because no one deserves it more than these wasters. However, I've got a lot of stuff to do at work, with the only comforting thought being that everything I do today will eventually make their lives a tiny bit let precious.
My experience with the lefty Bohemian Chic crowd in this city is about the same as my experiences with right-wing Rushuplicans elsewhere - their lips move, but nothing comes out that can withstand even elementary logic. It would be humorous if it didn't result in real-world consequences - here, we had a vacant storefront that was going to be filled with a store that would generate economic activity in the midst of Great Depression Mark II: The Revenge of the Hooverites, while also boosting foot traffic (which has a positive spillover effect for neighboring merchants.)
Course, if Blue Bottle Coffee or Your Friendly Neighborhood $200 Pair of Jeans store had proposed to open up, they'd be out with their welcome to the 'hood cupcakes and balloons.
That said, if those pix of the AA flaks in sunglasses and hipster douche-wear are of who AA sent to represent AA before the Planning Comission, then Dov Charney is more of a moron that I had already assumed. Its the freaking SF Planning Commission - show some respect - like with a pressed shirt maybe, pair of slacks, take off the sunglasses, get a damn normal haircut... I mean, shit, you don't have to show up in a three-piece suit, but still. It reaks of a sense of disdain and entitlement.
I go before planning commissions regularly in my business - the basic image you want to project is look like you are competent and know what you are talking about, make sure ALL your facts are straight, try not to stick out (i.e. look square), and be prepared to be humble and eat a lot of crow.
Its politics ya morons, not a fashion show.
Yeah, I officially could give a fuck on behalf of AA after seeing that. They look like tools, but then again, it's pretty ridiculous for the Valencia store owner to crack on their sunglasses when she's got Juan Valdez-by-way-of-Walnut Creek next to her. That photo pretty much sealed the absurdity of the whole thing: white transplant gentrifiers eating their own.
Maybe they thought they were going to speak to the ATA Board of Directors and wanted to play the part.
I will do whatever the chick in pic #10 wants me to do.
Wow, a record number of citizens turns out to a planning commission meeting to oppose a chain store's bid on precious retail space. They win, and they're met with blase snark from the peanut gallery.
Developers have long sought to turn the Mission District into an extension of downtown. That's why BART runs through the neighborhood in the first place. It has only been grassroots activism that has prevented this from happening. Let's hope all this energy can be harnessed by the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition and Dolores Street Services to push back against similar trends.
And please spare us this talk about the economy. American Apparel would have brought, at best, a handful of low-paying retail jobs. Meanwhile, they just laid off hundreds of workers companywide. Oh yeah, they're also being investigated by the SEC and are probably going bankrupt. Good for the local economy? Nope.
http://againstamericanapparel.wordpress.com/
"That's why BART runs through the neighborhood in the first place."
How misinformed are you? If you want to debate this issue, at least put forth information that is factual.
BART runs through the Mission because it's more of direct route south, to SFO. The notion of connecting SFO to the city via BART was always part of the planning process. Should they run the line out west of the Mission (when MUNI already exists there) just for shits? Maybe they should have run it east of Potrero, where no one lived in the 70s. At least have a vague idea of what you're talking about before you post.
Winstonsmith,
That city developers wanted to turn the Mission into an extension of downtown and that BART's route through the neighborhood was chosen for this reason is established historical fact. I learned about it in a local government class in college. But hell, don't take my word for it, check out this article:
www.processedworld.com/Issues/issue2001/pw2001_49-57_Space_Wars.pdf
Incidentally, developers also wanted to turn the Panhandle into one long strip of high rises with Fell & Oak streets creating an unbroken path for 101 through the City and to the Golden Gate Bridge. As in the Mission, the community organized to prevent this. You could look all this up for yourself, of course, if you were actually curious.
did you just cite something from 'processed world?' that's what you're using to back up your argument? your ridiculousness grows by leaps and bounds.
and you learned it in college? really?! did they also teach you that 'historical fact' is a misnomer? but hell, everything they teach you in college is right, right? you robot. in graduate school, 'they' tought me to question. apparently you haven't had that class yet.
Developers have long sought to turn the Mission District into an extension of downtown.
They'll get their way in the next economic boom cycle. Sorry we harshed on your feel-good event of the season, though.
a note to people arguing over "chains": there was a public hearing about this because AA is "formula retail". it has nothing to do with local ownership. also, two or ten stores don't make you formula retail as defined by san francisco codes...
The city's ordinance defines a formula retailer as one of at least a dozen outlets in the U.S. that share common features such as a standardized array of merchandise, trademark, architecture, or décor.
I'm suffering from hipster-fatigue. Define it however you like.
I realized it's Chronic Hipster Fatigue Syndrome. Time to take some Lyrica.
Hipster-fatigue - 1. pants so tight toes turn purple due to lack of circulation.
2. unable to make witty, ironic comments due to increasing emphysema thanks to one too many cartons of Parliaments.
3. experiencing daytime total blindness due to over consumption of PBRs with peeps night previous and loss of ironic aviator sunglasses.
h_q_l-- I love your comments.
"railroad track-ish one block barrier in the Mission that divides the lily white from the Latino community"
I know you're being pithy, and jokey-jokey...
But this is not actually a fair statement, for a number of reasons, it homogenizes Latinos and doesn't respect their intra-group divisions Such as age/class/ country of origin and sexuality. Also the new development at 2200 mission has a huge chinese grocery store in the bottom. Then we have the gays.
the mission is remarkably diverse even on guerrero (where I live, and on Folsom or bryant, or Mariposa or wherever). Compare this to the neighborhoods of the people throwing stones....
My family has owned a business in the Mission for more than 50 years (yep, I'm that rare form of San Franciscan - a native).
Do any of you know if all those businesses on Valencia St that you support match the employee wages and benefits that American Apparel offers? 2x min wage, subsidized medical insurance, profit sharing? Are the products they sell made in the United States? By workers making more than min wage and getting benefits? Do the owners fight for and support worker's rights? Or do they pay min. wage and offer no benefits? We're on the edge of a economic depression and here comes a company that could have offered some salvation for a few dozen San Franciscans - not to mention the tax revenue. How exactly is this a bad thing?
You know, I liked the Mission better when it was packed with low riders on Friday nights. Sure, it was a nusiance to get around but at least they weren't badly dressed, pretentious, spoiled little brats. 10 years from now, you'll all be in rehab and Valencia Street with be full of boarded up storefronts - thanks.
Winstonsmith:
As someone who was "tought" critical thinking in graduate school, I'm sure you recognize your own remark as a simple ad hominem attack.
But OK, you don't like Processedworld as a source. And you don't take my Urban Geography course at SF State as a legitimate source. So, I'll ask you, what's the basis for your claim that BART was routed along Mission Street because it was "more of a direct route south" to SFO?
Are you really going to claim that developers didn't want to turn that entire corridor into high rises and that BART wasn't a part of that vision? Because it ain't just me and Processed World that says so.
Wow there is an absurd amount of hipster hate going on in these comments, which is odd since "hipsters" as a group don't really stand for anything in particular. What did they do to you, besides dress in a way that you don't approve of?
What's the real reason for all this hysteria?
Yeah, people, have some heart. Now you've hurt a hipster's feelings.
Who said *my* feelings were hurt? You don't know me. I'm just asking why a legitimate debate about a particular storefront has to immediately degenerate into an avalanche of ad hominem garbage.
Congratulations to all who passionately participated in the positive outcome of this most important of pressing issues facing the Mission.
Will there be a celebration now that the Evil Empire of American fuckin' Apparel has been slain? Like, instead of Ewoks banging out a jam on some Stormtrooper masks, will Animal Collective play a special set at Ritual? A special exhibition of films made by white recent graduates of Evergreen State and Oberlin and Hampshire of their peers wearing colorful masks in a BART station while noise rock drones in the background?
What is it now? On to taking down the many exisiting (and much more massive) chains already in the Mission? Because that's what it's about, right? Making sure the Mission neighborhood is chain-free? Not about making sure the right stretch of the neighborhood is safe from the wrong type of "hipster," right?
Hip Hip Hurrah!
I love the logic of "it's not the single most important or pressing issue of our time, therefore people were silly to express an opinion on it."
"silly"
My sentiments exactly.
"luxuriously silly", in fact!
I'm all for people standing up against tyranny. I mean, if some more people had stood up against Hitler, maybe we wouldn't have had the holocaust.
Annnnd we've got Godwin's Law. Thanks kainoa! Shut'er down, folks!
>Annnnd we've got Godwin's Law. Thanks kainoa! Shut'er down, folks!
/ties a big bow made out of A.A. undies around this thread...
/goes out for schnitzel