last night and today at Starbucks

why should they speak to you? it's already been amply demonstrated that this site is not really "independent" at all. there have been many pro and anti Starbucks posts here, but what posts are highlighted? which position is stressed?

independent media? please. entertaining at this point.

on comments:

it's called the open publishing newswire.

YOU can publish your own article consisting of anything you want (perhaps a 'pro-Starbucks' piece?) on this newswire.

DO IT YOURSELF! it will appear as the next article at the top of the newswire (and like other articles on the newswire, be open for comments).

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the website

Like all IMCs, portland indymedia hosts a website with an open publishing newswire to which anyone can post text, images, audio and video using the online publish form, anonymously if desired. Unlike a newspaper or other form of media, content uploaded to the website using this form is published directly to the newswire without being approved or edited. This feature empowers anyone to become the media for the purpose of sharing information and views that are blocked out or misrepresented by the corporate media; that is, to stand with the oppressed against the oppressors.


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It's sad that sbucks is there, but what can you expect?...the hoford abernethy neighborhood has no solidarity....ladd's folks are all goo goo gah gah about the chain, 7 corner folks despise it, neither had a common vision that they could work on together, so there the chain sits, and the neighborhood is possibly on its irrevocable upward decline. Unless people finally wake up and request that the city allow them to implent a no chain policy on future, similar businesses, such as S.F. has done.

The Division Vision Coalition, Neighborhood Ass, Business Ass, and our Asses needs to put our energy into keeping the chains out of our neighborhoods. We can do this too! Go to the neighborhood meetings and say I will work on creating a City Ordinance to keep the chains out of our neighborhoods!

My ass will be there with you. And all my friends' asses too.

I found it interesting that the KATU "news" website had advertizing links to Starbucks after their "story" on the issue. They are not even pretending to be impartial anymore.

ps thanks much to those that had the balls to break those windows. I hope there is more to come.

Just wondering what a half dozen bagels or a roll of toilet paper would do to StarFuck's plumbing. Surely, they do not have surveillance cameras inside their restrooms. Anyway, thats all, I was just thinking out loud.

This site very obviously does not promote independence of ideas. Rather it has been observed from the article above that violence and conformity are the virtues of this group.
Encouraging people to commit violent acts for any reason is wrong. It has nothing to do with what side you support. If Starbucks can manage to stay in business then that community must obviously support it. who else do you think is consuming their products? People are not driving in from Lake Oswego to 20th and Division in order to get a cup of coffee.

Destroying things and making fools of yourselves will get you no where. As proud as Indy Media Woman is about Starbuck's security costs are higher, she fails to realize that it doesn't hurt the company.. they are absorbed in the price of each cup of coffee sold.

I am curious to know how many of these vandals really live in the area? Or are you all just a bunch of pissed off hoodlums looking for any excuse to break shit?

Chillout:You so don't get it. Where do you live?

Hey "Chill out"--


"If Starbucks can manage to stay in business then that community must obviously support it. who else do you think is consuming their products? People are not driving in from Lake Oswego to 20th and Division in order to get a cup of coffee. "

---> They are not coming from Lake Oswego but from Gresham! This has been an ongoing issue for folks who live and work on Division for years! Do you consider people who drive through your neighborhood members of your neighborhood? Their is a Starbucks at the other end of Ladd's Addition. This one is positioned to take advantage of those drive thru commuters from Gresham.


"I am curious to know how many of these vandals really live in the area? Or are you all just a bunch of pissed off hoodlums looking for any excuse to break shit? "

---> I don't know where they live. But before you get all high and mighty, where do YOU live whereby you seem to think you understand the pulse of the community so well?


Peace out and chill out for real!

Starbucks gives the word ubiquitous new meaning. I personally am sick of seeing the starbucks logo replicated ad nauseum all over Portland, San Francisco and beyond, especially when they push out local coffee house business. Also their coffee is lousy and overpriced. However, I agree with the above poster in that I do not condone property damage, as it doesn't change anything, and even though I don't call it violence, it gives acitivists a bad image in the media and like it or not, that is what people see and use to judge by. But a positive solution might be to keep flyering and on the flyer give info about where else to get coffee in the area. There are so many in and around that area. Stumptown or Red and Black are just two that come to mind. If we want to really influence people to support local business, I think it's important to use only peaceful non destructive tactics. Otherwise, we only further enforce previously held sterotypes about activists. Also I like the SF idea of keeping out chains in the city. Has anyone started a similar movement here?

Starbucks has wreaked havoc in driving out local established coffee houses.
I am with the person who posted about working on ordinances to keep out chains.

Breaking windows is ridiculous. It will change nothing except glass replacement. Plugging toilets etc is just another way to say, we want to force you to do what we want. Why weren't you fighting harder before it all happened? Are you saying you are powerless?

The United States bullied its way into Iraq. I'm not equating Starbucks to the merciless invasion our country is involved in. I am saying that bullying tactics bring no cure, no positive change.

So it gets photographed and written up briefly, like a fast flying cloud moving overhead. Is anyone in the activist community concerned Red & Black will go out of business because of Starbucks?

Are you going to spend 24/7 trying to run them out of business? There are more serious issues to face both locally and globally. If you can't think of anything, contact a non-profit and donate your time and energy.

I am a lot Higher and a light Mightier then the punks that commit juvenile crimes to try and shut Starbucks out.
I mean really, what good is gonna come from it?

I understand the pulse of this community more so then those of you that think violence is going to change a damn thing in the area. I'm a business owner. A small time, local business owner.. and I would never open shop in this area because of the ethics and so called pulse of this community.

What are you gonna do next.. go fire bomb Gresham? Did you even think for a moment that the people from Gresham or anywhere else are spending money at your local shops.. and the very reason they might even have ever noticed that particular shop was ever there was because they stopped one morning at the Starbucks? Seriously go around and ask the local businesses on Division if fire bombing Starbucks has helped their business.