Capitalism

We Be Underpaying Our Employees

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

The Examiner published a doozy the other day about San Francisco businesses exploiting deportation fears to dramatically underpay their workers:

Over the past seven years, [San Francisco Office of Labor Standards and Enforcement] records show that some of San Francisco’s best-known employers, including Safeway, McDonald’s, Big Lots, Subway, Martha & Bros. Coffee Shop and We Be Sushi, have short-changed workers by as much as $4.1 million.

That money has been reimbursed to more than 2,500 employees — many of them undocumented.

Workers included janitors, baristas, maids, delivery van drivers and home care providers. They wash uniforms, turn down beds, operate whirring meat dicers and tend bubbling vats of oil — often for just $5 an hour. Some worked overtime for months without receiving a single paycheck.

There are 308 business total that have broken minimum wage laws, including Mission Street's Mi Tierra Market that “was paying workers $250 to $400 a week to work 12-hour days, six days a week.”

[Examiner | photo by Orpheum Photography]

Coming Soon: Coffee Bar & Boutique Electronics

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

I've been biking past this sign on Folsom and 5th for the past few weeks and scratching my head at what it possibly could mean.  Well, according to LiveSOMA, Potrero Hill's Elite Audio Systems is abandoning their appointment-only studio in favor of a formal retail space in SOMA.  Think of the new space as you would every other coffee shop in SF, except instead of nerds working on their next failed startup and writers working on their next failed Uptown Almanac post, it'll be full of people with real sources of income buying elite strereo equipment and elite coffee.  That said, don't think I'm hating on the business, considering I don't know where one can buy 'elite audio' equipment that isn't Best Buy or 16th or Mission, it doesn't seem like a bad thing this shop is moving to the area.  I just don't understand why every business San Francisco feels they need to serve coffee in order to be successful.

[LiveSOMA]

Valencia Gets a New Vintage Store: "Stuff"

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Lots of stuff.

Apparently a new collective vintage/antique shop just opened on Valencia at Market called “Stuff.”  I'm calling “Bullshit.” As Generic pointed out 7 months back, this trend of naming a business literally after what it sells is both boring and not as clever as people must convince themselves it is.  Chow, Grub, and now Stuff?  If this trend continues, soon some brilliant San Franciscan will open a restaurant and call it “Meal.”  Or a diner and call it “Breakfast.”  Or a bar and call it “Mistake.”

(pic via Atomic Fantasy)

Thrift Town Madness

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

There I was thinking I could run into Thrift Town, cop me a chipped Sonic the Hedgehog coffee mug and a broken printer and get right out the door when I was met with this monster of a line.  Don't get me wrong, I'm no stranger to waiting in line to buy $1 shirts, but this was a beast previously unseen by my eyes.  The cause?  Turns out they're having a 50% off sale all week and they didn't even put it on Groupon.

Incontrovertible Proof that Barack Obama was at Zeitgeist

— By Alan Fineberg |

I heard Barry was eating at flour & water, then got the tip and stopped by Zeitgeist where I was barely able to snap this photo (Secret Service dudes are no joke!). Bartenders were dicks and make a crack about showing his birth certificate. Twitter has the latest on his sensational SF exploits. 

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Things San Franciscans Despise: Sidewalk Advertising

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Unfortunately Ramona of “Things San Franciscans Like” fame has packed up her bags for NYC and opted to not pick a successor to her Appeal column.  Well, MrEricSir seized the opportunity and rolled out “Things San Franciscans Despise,” which is probably going to be like Ramona's column, only focused on things like people who haven't lived in SF for at least 10 years, Golden Gate Park-goers discovering Dolores Park, and large bodies of water.

For his inaugural piece, Eric takes on the abomination that is sidewalk advertising:

Why are San Franciscans against sidewalk advertising? Well, first of all, public space is for the people, not for corporations. A coffee stand at the park? NO! A taco truck on the street outside Best Buy? NO! Oh wait a sec, those tacos are delicious. You know what? Never mind. We’ll discuss this later… OM NOM NOM.

Second, corporate advertising on public property offends our artistic sensibilities. Public art is fine with San Franciscans, and even though we can’t agree on whether or not graffiti is art, we can agree that corporate graffiti is NOT art. Art isn’t supposed to be an expression of greed unless you’re really ironic about it, like Andy Warhol or the guy who makes OBEY merchandise.

(Read Up)

Cold Beer, Huge Profits

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

On Saturday I was fortunate enough to run into Dolores Park hero and San Francisco's best dressed businessman “Cold Beer, Cold Water” at the corner of 19th and Guerreo refilling his cooler with three cases of PBR.  While there isn't anything inherently notable about spotting a crazy person holding beer and throwing trash on the sidewalk, by the time I was done fetching some food and booze from Rhea's, 20 minutes had passed he was already back resuppling. 

Now, I'm not advocating trying to solve complicated math problems while at Dolores, but considering he sells a case of beer for $30 bucks (2 cans for $5), this dude is turning a profit of $60 every 20 minutes.  Sure, sales are probably not always that great, but on weekends like we just had, he can easily rake in over $700 in a 4 hours thanks to our collective laziness.

So, a tip of the hat to you, CBCW.  You took people being too lazy to walk a block for beer and made it into a printing press.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Supervisor Wiener to Explore Getting Vendors out of Dolores Park and into the Street

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

The Sunny Vibrations vegan food truck, which can be found parked on 20th next to Dolores Park. (photo by Howvin)

It appears the controversy surrounding Rec & Park's decision to commercialize Dolores Park is not yet over.  According to Crystal Vann Wallstrom of the newly-formed Dolores Park Beauty, Leisure & Arts Collective (DPBLAC, or HOLY FUCK THIS NON-PROFIT HAS A LONG NAME), Supervisor Scott Wiener is going to “explore” a compromise between Rec & Park and park-goers that moves the new vendors out of the park to Dolores St., between 19th and 20th (a compromise that the previous supervisor and mayoral candidate Bevan Dufty declined to pursue).  The only setback to this proposal is that Scott needs to negotiate a transfer of ownership of the land the trucks will take up from DPW to R&P, so look forward to months of government bickering over the matter and probably some irate NIMBYs pissed about losing some of their precious parking spots.

Regardless, props to Scott Wiener for trying to do something.

INTERESTING SIDE NOTE: Did you know back in 1998, Rec & Park also tried to commercialize Dolores Park by permitting a supervisor's wife build a concrete cafe in the dead center of the park?  Apparently neighbors had to sue the city to get it stopped.  Great job, Rec & Park.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Snoop Dogg Hotboxes Twitter HQ

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Apparently the entire staff was forced to tweeted it out. (pic by RNO)

Getting a job at a tech company sounds like a quick way to make your life boring, but Twitter apparently held it down today.  Troy Holden reports that “The entire @twoffice smells like sticky-icky bubonic chronic. @SnoopDogg is smoking Tweets!”  He also posted a photo of Snoop Dogg smoking a blunt in their DJ booth, which he already deleted (I can't imagine why).  Another employee, @manuel, claims he was “burning a joint” and also snapped a photo of the action, although you can't see him hotboxing the place in his pic.

I'm sure this is some sort of viral recruiting campaign for Twitter since smoking weed with rappers sounds way more fun than writing Ruby.  Besides, the only other jobs in which you can hotbox your place of employment is either being self-employed or working as a bike mechanic, and neither of those pay nearly as well as being an engineer.  Well played, Twitter.

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