I'm sorry to have to say this because I hate starbucks and all they stand for, are, sell and even the way the stores look. But.... What the fuck kind of sorry ass, controling, desperate, grasping, graceless and demeaning substitute for education and consumer enlightnement is simply depriving people of choice? Does taxing ciggerette smokers make them smarter? Make them think about their health? Should there be a law against being stupid and watching bad shows on TV? Why are people spazzing out so much about starbucks? Is it traffic concerns? Ha! Bullshit! People are afraid that if starbucks opens up that some people are actually going to go there and give them money. Well? Why would someone want to go to starbucks? Who cares? The real question I've got is why the fuck would you want to tell someone they couldn't? Trying to force people into doing the right thing(get coffee at red and black rather than starbucks) is retarded. It's stupid, childish and will _not_ ever work. Please try to put starbucks out of business by stealing from them. Put tampons in their toliets. Pour acid in the sinks. Try to organize their workers. Tie up the regester lines durning the rushes with outrageous drink oders then walk out without paying. Epoxy their locks at night. But the idea that you can bitch and whine them away from opening up at all is absurd. The only reason that worked on hawthorne was because it was a drive through. If I wanted to open an anarchist info shop in lake O, I guess, if I followed the rules that I probebly could. You see, the thing is that people generally don't like being told what to do by a bunch of dogmatic freaks. In this situation the anti starbucks crowd could very well end up looking like a bunch of pushy dogmatic freaks to a lot of people. You know.. the no porn at the quicky mart in my neighborhood type of people. That just doesn't work. When you try to push people around and tell them what they should and shouldn't do(where they can by coffee and from whom).... People can get kind of irritated. And honestly I don't blame them. You can educate people. You can try to convence people to make better choices but you are in a small realively powerless minority. Trying to force people to do what you think is right is folly. It will not work, it's alienating, illconcived and it's tacky. We don't have anyone like Stalin around to inforce our idiologies, so the best and only thing we can do is try to be persuasive. You have no stick. Must use the carrot. Or alternately convince everyone that you're a hapless reactionary wingnut. There is of course also sabotage. While sabotage may not work either, at least it's fun and it's hard to chareterize it as being pitiful and whiney.
I don't think people should be told they can't go to starbuck's. If they want to, they should be able to go to starbucks. They should be able to have it in their neighborhoods if they want it there. I just have a very uneasy feeling that the majority of people have been conditioned to believe that this starbucks thing, kind of like a gigantic synthetic tsunami, ready to sweep over every fragile little neigborhood with a little remaining local personality, is a good thing. I am not convinced they are aware of the dimensions of that they are unwittingly welcoming. If they really want it in their neighborhood, fine. I just think they should be fully aware of the nature of the beast before they decide. Read Naomi Klein.
Most people who live in that neighborhood do NOT want a Starbucks there. It would be the only corporate storefront around there and, once again, a direct competitor with a local (co-operative) business not two blocks away. The real issue is the city ignoring the wishes of the locals and installing corporate seedlings wherever the companies ask, running roughshod over the neighborhood's facade and bringing in cars in a previously-quiet area. You want Starbucks? Cross the bridge or head up to Broadway and you'll have a dozen stores already to choose from! There's only one Red and Black!
