American Apparel is offering "Legalize Gay" shirts for those of you who feel the need to (gaudily) show your support for same-sex marriage on your chest. You can even get one for free with a purchase of $50 or more. Cool, huh? But, at the risk of nitpicking, we're not entirely comfortable with a company making money off of discrimination. While American Apparel's heart is in the right place, if Prop. 8 went away, their market for this item would dry up. Maybe they should donate even a scant bit of the proceeds to an equality organization? Like, for example, Act Blue, who need money to help defeat the same people who ran the yes on 8 campaign in California who moved to Maine to crush gay marriage. Or, better yet, something like this. At least then we'd know that some of our money is going towards a good cause rather than being crammed into the sweaty pockets of a tiny little pair of track shorts. more ›

What with Bush out of office, American Apparel has, unfortunately, turned into a lightening rod for San Francisco's wrath. more ›

OK. We lied. THIS will be our final American Apparel post. We know we said otherwise, but you'll thank us when you find out why we're bringing up the beleaguered retail chain one last time. See, after an Oskar Schindler-like awakening, the fine folks over at American Apparel are offering up a mea culpa in the form of a 25%-discount to any and all Mission residents at any of their SF American Apparel stores. (What, no love for LoRi residents? Pft.) Mission Mission has more details. more ›

At the risk of allowing one day to pass without an American Apparel post: the good folks over at American Apparel (maybe you've heard of them?) have made these nifty "Legalize Gay" t-shirts. While homosexuality is not illegal, gay marriage is. (Not for long, we hope.) What's more, American Apparel donates zero percent of it's overturn-prop-8 proceeds to actually overturning prop 8. And why would they want to overturn it when it's helping them turn merchandise? We're sure there's a Valencia Street joke in here somewhere. Anyway, if you must have one, they run $17 a pop. And with that, this will be your the final AA-related post. Hopefully. more ›

Even when obvious troll is obvious, readers still wring their hands and pull their hair. Take, for example, brilliant Curbed commenter "Bree" from OC. See, Bree, who is the unofficial mascot of SFist until further notice, allegedly hails from Orange County and would like to know where in SF she and her fetch friends can live on the cheap in la Mission. In a heated American Apparel post, Bree asks for Frisco's help. more ›

Seeing as how the entire American Apparel-on-Valencia brouhaha was traffic gold -- and the Gate/Chron is on no financial position to turn down traffic -- it seemed like writing about the AA store meeting at City Hall was a given for most local pubs. Today, after reading a Tweet asking if the Chronicle planned on covering yesterday's American Apparel planning commission meeting, we asked political scribe Carla Marinucci and editor Audrey Cooper the following. more ›

Seeing as how the American Apparel-on-Valencia Street nonsense has captivated many San Franciscans -- look no further than the hair-pulling going on in SFist's comments to see the popularity of this strange story -- we (along with photog Steve Rhodes) were surprised to see that the Chronicle has yet to cover the story, online or in print. Even though 'Politics Blog' scribe Carla Marinucci said of yesterday's meeting, "This may be it: the recession-era equivalent of the 'dog bites man'' story. And look for the city's planning commission meeting Thursday, where this is on tap, to be a fun one." Wonder why the Chon hasn't covered it? Us too. We'll let you know as soon as they get back to us. more ›

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. more ›

Since your editor is too busy looking for somebody with a vagina who likes other vaginas to take with him to Orson this evening, he couldn't possibly make it to City Hall. (All those Missionites? Heavens no. We just bathed.) But Mission Mission is reporting live from the scene. Allan Hough starts of by describing the scene leading up to room Room 400 at City Hall. more ›

We were happy to find a photo of ourselves -- or is it "ourself"? -- on Flickr the day after we went down to Ritual Roasters to type a letter registering our disapproval of chain stores on Valencia Street. more ›

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. more ›

After venting on one of the many American Apparel threads we have going -- one a day keeps the cold pricklies away! -- SFist commenter Angrybat had a swell idea. He suggests that everyone switch their position and argue for the other side, re American Apparel. Which will, hopefully, be fun. And thought-provoking. And remind you of high school debate class. more ›

The fine folks over at Pirate Cat Radio have organized a rally this Saturday to protest American Apparel's plan to open a clothing store on Valencia Street. (Maybe you've heard about it?) more ›

An issue first brought up by the folks over at Mission Mission, the effort to stop American Apparel from opening shop on chic Valencia Street is awkwardly taking shape. SFist posted a highly scientific poll earlier in the week to see just how San Francisco residents felts about the oozy designer spilling his seed in the Mission district. The results are: more ›

In struggle, the Stop American Apparel coalition will meet at The Makeout Room at 7 p.m. tonight to discuss their plans at stopping the clothing store from opening in the Mission. They'll have "full color posters for you to take with you as well as petitions and postcards." If you remember, a few comfortably wealthy folks in the Mission do not want an American Apparel store opening up in the neighborhood because getting old sucks, chains are allegedly ugly (never mind the fact that there is a Sketchers and McDonald's just one block down on the more Latino-laced Mission Street), and they would prefer to keep the area "a corridor of outstanding independent businesses." Judging by our poll, most of you don't care whether or not an American Apparel opens shop on posh Valencia Street. But for those of you who do, you can check out tonight's meeting. Bonus points go out to those of you who snap shots of yourselves wearing American Apparel at the meeting. Tee hee.
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Good God, it was cold out last night. On our trek up to the Greek Theater in Berkeley to see Arcade Fire in the first of their two gigs in the area, we ended up having to stop by the American Apparel store on Bancroft and Telegraph to buy a scarf. Who knew they even sold scarves at the daringly-bare no-sweatshop emporium? more ›

, is a handbook for the thinking working folk. Listen to their track Couple Dozen People and imagine any given day in the Financial District. more ›

, a weepy high-strung feelingsy comics anthology. (We're told it features the work of at least one local artist. We don't know who, and honestly, who cares.) In this volume, thematically held together around the general idea of "youth," a typical comic goes like this: two kids are riding bikes; they decide to go home; one of them purposely runs into a wall; "that's not how you stop," says one; "but that's the only way I know how to," the other replies. Aaaaaand scene. more ›