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SF Views: The Epsiode Where We Drink
Winner of Eater's coveted Douchiest Bars In San Francisco Award, controversial Mission Street bar Medjool is in danger of being closed down. The SF Planning Department wants to yank the permits for the bar's rooftop terrace -- the city's only rooftop bar. And if the rooftop bar closes, the entire place will inevitably fold. According to SF Weekly, an "e-campaign" is in the works in the form of a Facebook page called "SAVE MEDJOOL" is currently recruiting members. (An aside: If anyone wants to give it a try, a "CLOSE MEDJOOL" Facebook page would probably get the even more followers.) While most of you squee in delight at the thought of Medjool shuttering, this would also mean 60 hard-working employees will be out of a job.
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In the midst of the worst recession in the last 25 years (and what may - when it finally ends - be the worst in 80 years), you would think the moronic bureaucrats at the SF Planning Dept. would have better things to do than shut down successful businesses in the name of blind obeisance to inane zoning code regulations.
These people at City Hall really do live in a bubble entirely divorced from reality.
Medjool isn't going to get shut down. Having said that, the recession is not an excuse for laws to be broken. Either laws are enforced or get rid of them.
in fact, "laws being broken" contributes to the recession. to wit: AIGs own auditor was prevented from looking at their books due to the possibility that it would affect business.
Medjool may be douchey but how can anyone hate on a rooftop bar? Also, am I the last to find out that La Rondella closed? Walked past it last night and it looks like its been closed for years.
Health Department shut them down a while back. Health Dept. employee said (paraphrasing here) "Even I loved their Margaritas, but the violations were constant and never addressed - I don't think they knew the first thing about food preparation."
Miss those Margs, but I always found the food dodgy.
Yeah, I miss the margaritas and the mariachi band at La Rondella. However, when the Health Dept shut them down, it was apparently really bad back in the kitchen.
Just a guess, but any of the people that live in a two block radius that get tired of waking up to doochey-hoochies yelping "go girl" at all hours?
But who nonetheless chose to live within 1-2 blocks of otherwise quiet-as-a-suburban-cul-de-sac Mission Street.
Believe it or not, some people don't have very many choices and live where they can. But that doesn't mean that have to tolerate loud drunk people hours past noise ordinance.
At any rate, I was joking you dork.
I can't afford to live down by there.
But it's nice and cheap (and quiet!) out here in the sunny Sunset!
Of course, if Medjool closes, all those "douchey" people will have to start hanging out at Pop's or somewhere else. So the save Medjool's campaign might be something everybody can get behind.
Does anybody know why there would be a law against a rooftop terrace? Is it noise related?
so conflicted about this one...that roof is great and should be allowed to be used.
but man...it's hard to have sympathy for that crowd.
this calls for a douche-mob.
now THAT would be awesome. Lots of dudes in pressed shirts, khakis, and Blackberry belt holsters.
wait, AJ... so these douchey people are also Dads or Tourists?
No fighting with pillows, drinking on the roof, getting teabagged at DNA lounge, or running naked through the streets. Shit, what CAN we do?
I get the feeling that people who use the word "douche" as a pejorative, pretty much conform to the definition of the slang.
what else do you feel, magdelyn?
> what else do you feel, magdelyn?
Fresh as the driven snow, I'm guessing!
How do I convey the message that I feel magdelyn is a douche without implying that I am in fact a douche as well?
Because it truly deserves its title, Medjool is an amusing destination for people watching, provided you're in the mood for that sort of entertainment.
Medjool patrons vs the SF Planning Department -- it's like Aliens vs Predator of annoying wastes of skin. Can't we somehow get rid of both of them?
It is odd that the city would be trying to close a prospering business (however douchey its clientele) while it considers loaning an additional $1.5M to a business (Yoshi's SF) that has no chance of staying in business. Every day in SF government is backwards day...
It's not surprising at all. Just remember this when they ask you to vote for tax increases later this year.
I for one demand more empty storefronts in the Mission. Clearly, that is what the neighbors want.
A bar is only as douchey as the douchbags that hang there.
Wait!!!! isn't that Jen Seibel on the cover of Summers Eve?
I think you are the last person to realize the La Rondalla is closed; it was shut down over 2 years ago. Other news you might find interestings, it is 2009, Citibank is trading for less than $1 and we have a black guy as president.
That thing should have been closed down 15 years ago, if not more.
Dear Pro-Blight Coalition.
I hope you have a lot of fun closing one of the only successful businesses in this part of the REAL Mission. Your racist "douche-bag" name calling and your hatred of everything successful will eventually leave the Mission empty. You'll shrug when you realize everything is gone and you'll just go back to mommy wherever she is. (not here)
I wish you would just leave now and let those of us who really care stay to create and support a vibrant multicultural Mission district.
Is douche-bag a race or a protected class of the citizenry now?
Not only are there plenty of successful businesses in what you term the 'real' mission, but medjool's ownership has been given a green light to improve more of it! Did you know he is going to build market rate condos? I think its a wonderful idea but it may harm your paternalistic idea of who lives in the 'real' mission.
Secondly, one of the real issues the Planning Commission has is that by removing some rooms that were reserved as below market hotel rooms, he is actually hurting the vibrant multiculti mission you profess to save.
It doesn't seem from your comment, that you're aware of all the issues in this case. Like I said before, medjool isn't going anywhere, no matter who their clientele is (which I assume is 'real' missionites, right?)
Douche-bag is used against Medjool as a slur against an ethnic minority who frequents the place.
It's incredibly offensive.
The issues with the planning committee regarding the hostel are being worked on. It's complicated. Give the owner some time to work it out.
In the meantime, the people who frequent Elements hostel come from all over the world making this area more vibrant and 'multiculti'. I don't see it as a downside. I don't think making it yet another SRO will be so great.
The project to rebuild the New Mission Theater and put in some housing is positive. Killing every housing project that isn't 100% below market rate makes for empty lots and fewer houses, thus driving up property values. The pro-blight coalition has it all backwards. Homes house people. Empty lots, not so much.
I don't think it's right for vigilantes to chase away people that aren't like them. Reminds me too much of Harvey Milk's neighbor when he first opened the camera store.
It does always astound me how people will, on the one hand, complain about the cost of rent in San Francisco, and then, on the other hand, do everything they can to prevent an increase in the supply of housing. If the housing bubble teaches anything, it is that when you increase supply, prices will fall. And as confirmed repeatedly by history and basic economics, price controls create shortages.
I'm still dying to know, fsharp, what ethnic minority, exactly, douchebag is a slur against, because I've used it pretty exclusively against white people. And while we're on the subject, what ethnic minority frequents Medjool? NOTE: Being from the Marina does not make you an "ethnic minority."
I agree that housing is a good idea, I said as much in my response above. I also haven't heard anyone protest the plan to have that place developed nor any other of the lofts that have been recently approved, planned or built. I know there is some cabal out there that you are shadow boxing with, I just don't see any trace of them on this issue.
It also seems that your post has a lot of contradictions that I'm having a bit of a time trying to reconcile.
Expensive condos are allowed to exist in the "Real mission". A bar that caters to people from outside the "Real mission" is a good thing. keeping 8 hotel rooms available for people who fit (the presumed) the demographics of the "real mission" should be handled with kid gloves free of scrutiny?
And what are the characteristics of this 'ethnic minority that frequents medjool'?
Fsharp, we're on the edges of our seats over here: in what context is "douchebag" an ethnic slur? I've been using it for almost thirty years, and as far as I can tell, it's an equal-opportunity label.
I've never liked Medjool much but I'm getting very, very tired of the SF fun police trying to turn this place into Walnut Creek.
There's lots of fun elsewhere in SF. If the Mission doesn't want shoppers and diners, well, one can easily shop and dine in neighborhoods that do.
fsharp is a douche-bag
does that preclude him being a former mayoral spokeshack?
The best solution to this - and 99.99% of the problems creating by zoning - is to abolish zoning codes. They are essentially just inequitable tools used by homeowners and the like to engage in rent-seeking behavior to advantage their own economic or social conditions by extracting value from other property owners (or society in general) without actually paying for said extracted value. Such has been the case ever since the Village of Euclid.
Its tyranny by the busybody. When the cost of getting something of real economic value is to merely show up at a Planning Commission meeting and bitch into a microphone for two minutes, we shouldn't be surprised when every Tom Dick and Harriet gets up into our grills demanding shit for free.
A dissenting voice of reason. Too bad that San Francisco politics is dominated by the tyranny of the busybody. I have discussed this same argument with several people in this city and have always been met with a blank stare.
great advertising...