[SF Gate]
Starbucks’ effort to flood San Francisco with coffee shops ground to a halt Tuesday when the Board of Supervisors blocked a new outlet in the Richmond District under chain store regulations passed by voters last fall.
The board voted 9-1 to overturn the Planning Commission’s June approval of a Starbucks at the corner of Geary Boulevard and Fifth Avenue, killing the proposal.
Jesse Fink, who has owned a nearby cafe for 25 years, filed the appeal on behalf of the Clement Street Merchants Association, which represents approximately 30 merchants in the area.
“I don’t want San Francisco to lose its character and become a city of strip malls. … That’s what Starbucks is all about,” Fink said in a hearing before the board.
Read about it here.
[From me]
Say what? What is the world coming to? My dream of a Starbucks on every corner is being dashed. I guess I’ll never move to SF. 
Filed under: starbucks
yeeessss! score one for the little guys. looks like [death star]bucks can be defeated after all!
For once, and possibly the only time ever, I gotta go with San Francisco. Sorry Kevin. In my opinion StarYucks has the worst coffee of any coffee shop I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to quite a few. Their coffee is bitter and they are trying to take over the world. I much prefer the local shops.
I prefer local shops as well, so I’m going to have to side with San Francisco, too. At any rate, you’re in no danger of not being within 10 minutes’ drive of a Starbucks wherever you are in the developed world.
I don’t know what to think about this. I suppose that there’s no good reason that cities like SF should have to allow certain businesses to come to their community. I can’t help but think, however that the more such restrictive laws they pass the more they’ll regret in the future. Maybe it’s a good thing for the little guys here, but ultimately people will vote with their wallets. If the people (not just this one business owner) want starbucks, they’ll go somewhere else and get it.
I’ve never had good experiences @ local shops. I did enjoy yhe java that Adam sent me. But for relationship building Starbucks has worked best for me.
I will pray for all of you.
Back to “Plan B” .. opening a Starbuck’s in the Restrooms of all the other Starbucks’.
As I sit in our small local coffee shop I raise my large white mocha with whip in the air with a hearty here here. Here I get free wireless internet and cheaper better tasting coffee.
Josh is right – the free wifi alone makes our local coffee shops far superior.
Maybe it depends on the place, too. Austin is a very independent, free-spirit kind of town. We never go to chains for dinner, either. If I lived in a place without good local, fair-trade coffee shops, I’d probably break down and go to Starbucks, too.
I will lift all of you in prayer about this.
I get free wi-fi at 3 of the Starbucks I hang out with. There are many un-churched people and unbelievers at the main Starbucks I go to. I get many opportunities to share my faith. The local coffee shop was owned by believers and it made it more difficult to hang out with unbelievers because they played Christian music.
Shutting off Starbucks’ expansion is a direct attack on America’s economic engine ya bunch of communists! I too enjoy my local coffee shop better but San FranFrico seems to have better things to do than stop a business that is getting it bright. To the walls Patriots! Off with there heads!
Cool. I have never lost it on a blog before. That was fun! Where’s my coffee?
Trust me, even with this restriction, San Francisco has plenty of Starbucks. It’s got some outstanding local coffee shops, too.
I pass seven of them between my house and the church office, about a 16 mile drive across the west side of Houston. A new one opened up just three blocks from the church, our single young adult class meets there for Sunday School each week.
There is 14 acres for sale a 1/2 mile from the church here and I would love for them to buy it and build there
I am looking at the grammar of my last post
LOL I really should not post this late at night! I need a Starbucks coffee now!
San Francisco, you’ve just given me another reason to love you as my favourite American city!
Kevin, what is the difference between “unchurched” and “unbelievers”?
Starbucks “coffee”- proof that there ain’t no God who cares about our well-being. A discerning deity would surely have zapped Starbucks as he allegedly nuked Sodom and Gomorrah. When that happens, I promise to go to church and mend my wicked ways.