Comments on: Blue Bottle Pulls Out of Dolores Park Behind Threatening Blog Comments

By: cr

cr — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:08:18 +0000

Kevin made an error in his post and never corrected it. It’s 1K/mo + 10% of revenue. Blue Bottle was estimating $2500/mo minimum. I have no idea whether that’s a fair price, but Blue Bottle’s claim was that they try to keep rent below 6% of revenue at other locations.

By: Mich

Mich — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 04:22:35 +0000

Well…actually they are against commercialization in the park and support small carts. Why make it so complicated. Cheers to Stephen and Chicken J for braving a team of Blue B. publicists that own the most biased media on the planet and pooooor James Freeman for having to place 4 new employees in his 20 million dollar empire and what a shame he dropped out forgo’ing the $1000 a month he would have had to pay for the most prime space in Dolores Park. I want the real reason they dropped out….che

By: manymachines

manymachines — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 01:47:54 +0000

I agree that applying the logic only to blue bottle doesn’t make sense.

By: redbearded

redbearded — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 21:41:52 +0000

But Kevin doesn’t make a good argument either. He’s just as aimless with his opposition as Stephen Idiot and Chickenshit John are. First, they’re against the “commercialization” of Dolores park. Then, when they realize that that doesn’t hold any water since there is already precedent for granting permits for commercial vendors to operate in public spaces, they single out Blue Bottle for somehow not being local enough. Then there is something about Dolores park being a “national treasure”… ?!? Then they say it’s all the parks and recs peeps fault for not notifying them personally about the deal and not employing the same flawed permitting process used by the planning department. And, as you point out, they then are FOR the commercialization of Dolores park but that RPD should be charging MORE money for the privilege of setting up shop in their precious national treasure. All the while, La Cocina is still on track for opening a truck in the park and that, for some reason, is OK.
Total lunacy.

By: manymachines

manymachines — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 20:56:28 +0000

I sort of came around on this one after reading KevMo’s take over at the Almanac. (KevMo: secretly persuasive when he’s not so angry!) The economics in question bothered me — the city was renting out a prime location for far too little (~$1k/mo?) compared to what stores nearby pay, and it didn’t make that much sense to do this with so many vacant storefronts on Valencia.

(The Stephen Elliot / Chicken John arguments don’t make much sense to me. It’d be nice to see a Blue Bottle in the Mission, since I never manage to get up to the other locations.)

By: bighemp

bighemp — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:31:49 +0000

Damnit there goes my sustainable bicycle-powered single-origin coffee truck tire-repair service. Actually that might night be a bad idea…

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 15:26:01 +0000

Did you notice John took out that sentence “And now, after blog comments about spitting and vague word of tire-slashing, Blue Bottle owner James Freeman said that he has decided not to drive his trailer into the park at all.” in the blog post? Very interesting… Of course that’s the part that got all the play in the media.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:11:32 +0000

You really go to Dolores Park to get away from “commercialism and urban sprawl”?

Absurdity.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:10:28 +0000

Ridiculous.

By: meave

meave — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:36:01 +0000

You see what happens when you give any credence to Stephen Elliott and his Serious Opinions on Commerce in the Mission? Trouble and strife, nothing but trouble and strife.

By: Marcy

Marcy — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:48:23 +0000

Like MissionMission said, nice people, nice comments on this blog! I for one am happy that Dolores Park won’t have generators and trailers around children and those that enjoy getting from commercialism and urban sprawl will be able to continue. Blue Bottle will do just fine on their 10- 20 million in annual revenues, we can still go to The Summit and enjoy their coffee as I am going as I write this. Guess Im just a good ole fashion NIMBY

By: Eon

Eon — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:37:44 +0000

Intimidation. It’s Progressive!

By: Doctor Memory

Doctor Memory — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:17:15 +0000

Ah, another victory for the ‘Keep Jobs Out Of The Mission Alliance.’ Remember: only constant vigilance can keep us unemployed.

By: MrEricSir

MrEricSir — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 23:14:09 +0000

In other news, I’m going to start selling Big Macs in Dolores Park just to piss off Chicken John.