Truly We truly live in the city of Art and Innovation You enjoy the benefits daily Hourly Actually, if you require any sort of tolerance or any kind of acceptance to “the way you are”, however that may be, from your preference of partnership, your calibration to a political ideology or just to champion the idea of a city of innovative artists you enjoy the benefits on a moment by moment basis

From time to time, you must defend this privilege from aggressors

We have come to one of those times

How would you feel if I told you that Valencia Street could no longer have stores on it No Ritual, no Scarlet Sage hippy potions, no ATA, no bike shops, no restaurants and no little shops What if I told you that, in like 2 or 3 years… Valencia Street would be just houses No business’ That would suck, right? Valencia Street is where we go to buy stuff, to rent movies, to have a drink at the Latin American Club, Amnesia 826 Valencia, Paxton Gate and Burger Joint All gone Gone gone gone All gone

“Replaced by what?”, you might ask… Good question

What if I told you that they were all replaced by stores that sold a specific kind of furniture polish Or consulting firms that dealt with foreign banking Or industrial lubricant manufacturers Or replaced by nothing Replaced by empty storefronts of greedy, short-sighted landlords

What if I told you that if the Valencia Corridor was to be vacant (case A), filled with businesses that were useless (case B) or filled with FORMULA RETAIL (case C)

What if I told you that it was all the same? Case A, B, and C all are exactly the same If the stores are gone, the culture is gone No matter what replaces them Or if nothing replaces them The ecology that currently exists is super fragile And to you: empty, useless or Burger King is all the same You won’t go Use Like Done Move

American Apparel has secured a lease for the storefront next to ATA on 20th and Valencia If they succeed, the precedent that they will set will GAURENTEE that Starbucks is next Urban Outfitters McDonalds Burger King Cinnibun Sunglass hut Pizza Hut K-Mart Target Wall Mart Payless Shoe Source The Gap Baby Gap Papa Johns Planet Hollywood

Just imagine biking down Valencia Steet and passing by the signage Would you still wanna live here? I wouldn’t Won’t See ya SF will be less one Chicken John if I don’t have a Mission District to drive my pickup truck in and route through dumpsters in my insomniac late night go to the Silver Crest Donut shop get wacked out on sugar and look for treasures and old cars to admire It’s kinda crucial

Think I’m over-reacting like a sissy? Think it can’t happen It can Does Will One of these stores getting approval from the Planning Commission will set a precedent that other stores CAN SUE over if the Planning Commission denies them So it’s done

“What can I do?”

Take 5 gallons of gasoline… just kidding

You can vote You don’t even need an election If you are on my mailing list or even reading this, you are probably a like-minded individual to myself and other people to whom SF is a beacon of tolerance and wonderment; just like it said in Gavin’s synopsis in the voter guide last year

ACTIVATE

Go Do Call Talk Push Loud Fast Sign Mail Click Forward Repeat Repeat REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT

Here is the website:

http://stopamericanapparel wordpress com/

Here is a some press:

http://therumpus net/2009/01/kron-covers-the-stop-american-apparel-campaign/

Here is where you (and everyone you know) write letters

Pilar LaValley San Francisco Planning Department Pilar Lavalley@sfgov org

Bevan Dufty District 8 Supervisor Bevan Dufty@sfgov org

David Campos District 9 Supervisor David Campos@sfgov org

Christina Olague President of the SF Planning Commission c_olague@yahoo com

Lawrence B Badiner Zoning Administrator San Francisco Planning Department Larry Badiner@sfgov org

Gavin Newsom Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom@sfgov org

Also cc linda avery@sfgov org She is the commission clerk and will ensure feedback gets to commissioners

Finally, you can go to the hearing:

planning commission hearing February 5 at 2:30 in City Hall

Or you can do nothing And enjoy this magical playground while it lasts I’m to understand that this sort of thing takes as little as 2 years to justate Formula Retail will pay up to ten times what Lost Weekend Video will (can) pay, offset by other stores and whatnot Landlords will want “prevailing rate” rents Leases come up and won’t get re-newed Landlords will trick tenants into breaking leases, then evict them People will go out of business, be forced out of SF The new stores will hire people from the suburbs to work in them, as no SF person will work in that environment or for so little The city will enjoy higher taxes, right? Wrong Dead wrong And even if we did get more tax revenue, what difference would it make? With a mis-managed 6 Billion dollar budget, it’s a drop in the ocean All the people you voted for are so fucking stupid that they can’t see that you JUST DON’T PUT MCDONALDS ON VALENCIA STREET TELL THEM YOU WON’T BE VOTING FOR THEM AGAIN TELL THEM YOU WILL VOTE FOR THE GUY WHO WILL NOT LET THEM COME TELL THEM THAT YOU WILL SUPPORT RECALLING THEM IF THEY LET THIS HAPPEN TELL THEM THAT YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO LET THE IDEA OF THE MISSION DIE BECAUSE THE LAWYERS FROM AMERICAN APPAREL ARE SMARTER THAN OUR LEGISLATORS

Tell them Tell them again, like someone who talks too much and won’t shut up Tell your friends Neighbors Tell people with mailing lists Tell people that we need to consider the impact Tell everyone that you like American Apparel, and you like to shop at their stores and online But that it’s an inappropriate venue for them And you will never shop there again if they open this store

If they open this store… Well… basicly, we are all moving Really In a nutshell, that’s what’s happening

We can stop them from opening the store There are 5,200 people on my mailing list If half of you wrote a letter, the store won’t open Done

Do it

chicken