Capitalism

Miserable Band Dude/Cat Owner Seeks Roommate With Moderate Income

Sure, this sounds like the makings of a ~tOtAlLY zAnY~ A&E reality show reboot, but this is probably cheapest room listed in neighborhood since we gave away tax breaks to companies with animal logos. no Joke.

(Thanks Nicole!)

Oakland Now 81% More Popular Among People Who Can Afford Downpayments

Despite not existing on a zoomed-out Google Map, Oakland is a vibrant city just east of San Francisco.

With all of San Francisco's borderline callous bragging about being a “red hot real estate market” and an “economic recovery cinderella story” or whatever, it turns out Oakland is where the Bay Area's fiscally solvent trendsetters are flocking.  According to math conveniently calculated by Movoto, there were only 151 homes for sale in Oakland by the end of March, versus 797 a year ago—an 81% drop.  And when you compare Oakland to SF, Oaklands prices are increasing at a greater clip and has even less availability.

What's that mean?  Either corporate landlords are betting that Oakland fill their pockets, or Oakland Is Already Over.  Regardless, if you want to avoid rising rents and home prices in the Bay Area, you're just going to have to move to Reno.

[via SF Business Times]

As More Valet Parking Comes to Valencia, Supervisors Cool on Proposed Restaurant Moratorium

Biking along Valencia during rush hour has long been a dangerous dance of swerving around cars pulling into the bike lane for valet parking or to drop hungry frumps off in front of restaurants.  However, the messy street scene, which was typically contained to the two blocks between 16th and 18th, has crept further south in recent months.  Just two weeks ago, Abbot's Cellar—who previously promised neighbors they'd never offer valet parking—began blocking the bike lane with valet parking at 19th and Valencia.

It's hard not to see it as a harbinger of further valets along the white table-clothed Valencia.

So as I hastily dodged a Town Car last Tuesday, I couldn't help but wonder whatever came of Valencia's proposed restaurant moratorium.  If you recall, it was last November that the Valencia Corridor Merchant's Association (VCMA) endorsed a plan to put a temporary ban on new restaurants and a conditional use permit on them following that, in hopes of preserving some of the street's economic diversity.

However, in the months that followed, the neighborhood's two elected supervisors—David Campos and Scott Wiener—have remained coy on the matter.  In fact, Campos last told Mission Local, “I haven’t taken a position yet [on the moratorium],” and Wiener told the Chronicle's resident old person C.W. Nevius, “I'm pretty skeptical of a moratorium.”

Since those comments, two more restaurants and Abbot's valet parking have come to Valencia.

“The word moratorium triggers an emotional response. It sounds very permanent,” a local businessman and member of the VCMA—who requested anonymity—recently told us. “I keep hearing that other neighborhoods have enacted permanent moratoriums and it was DEVASTATING to the community. Look at Noe Valley for example. They had 6 restaurants, so they enacted a permanent moratorium. Over the years as each of those restaurants closed, they ended up with no place to eat. It was a HUGE mistake. Thank GOD they got rid of that.”

He explains what VCMA was actually proposing:

The VCMA actually recommended that Planning Department should consider the views of the community (businesses and residents) before rubber stamping another new full-service (not self-service, like Curry Up Now) restaurant opening up on Valencia (and “new” as in brand new—used-to-be-a-book-store-new, not used-to-be-another-full-service-restaurant new). This is called a Special Use Permit process.

This was to be proceed by a temporary breather - a 12 month moratorium.

However, after some negative press came in from the likes of C.W. Nevius, Wiener and Campos spiked the proposal.  Wiener himself told the Chronicle, “[Moratoriums] were enacted in Noe and the Castro in the late '80s, and the food scene in both neighborhoods suffered.”

Of course, the Mission isn't Noe Valley.  Valencia alone has 36 restaurants between 15th and 20th, and that doesn't include the dozens on sides streets immediately off of Valencia.  Even if the VCMA supported a full ban on new restaurants—which they obviously are not—it's not like the Mission would suddenly be a foodless wasteland.

“The supervisors who were once supportive of the Special Use Permit idea (it even came from one of them) don't seem to be very excited about it now,” our source confirmed. “But they seem to want to be able to do something.”

Do something?

“They are proposing a cap at a percentage by block.”

That's right, the supervisors what to restrict the number of restaurants per block to a certain percentage.

That might strike you as a good way to prevent total homogeneity along Valencia without resorting to something silly like “community imput” and “temporary breathers.”  But with 41% of all storefronts between 15th and 20th are already restaurants, it's difficult to see how that'll solve anything.

Well, anything besides the Supervisor's getting bad press from a moratorium, of course…

Statement from Adobe Books on Their Eviction

Adobe just shared this in our comments:

Dear Friends of Adobe,

Despite completing a successful fund raising campaign, our attempts to negotiate a new lease with the landlord have not reached a conclusion that allows us to stay in our 16th Street location. Unfortunately, we have received notice that by June 15th, we must leave our home of almost 25 years. The new tenant may or may not be Jack Spade - we can’t officially confirm.

San Francisco, the Mission, and 16th Street are in a constant state of flux and growth. We must deal with this financial and cultural reality as it is. Adobe though is much more than the storefront: it is a community, an experience, a gallery, a living room, a conversation, and a new friend (plus a fantastic place to buy great used books!).

When our core Adobe group began meeting almost a year ago, our ultimate goal became our long-term survival. In order to survive we must move on. Currently, we are working with a commercial broker to identify new spaces that might be a good fit for a new store. We have developed a set of criteria; once we find a place we will move forward. We are optimistic, as well as patient. The funds we raised are in the bank. They will be used to keep the life and culture of Adobe alive.

We will keep you posted as to our progress. If you see a space under 2000 square feet.. give us a shout!

Keep the faith. We love you.
Adobe Books

Hunters & Gathers, a New Paleo-Themed Bar and Grill From FSC Barber

A tipster writes in with the news:

FYI it seems the folks from FSC Barber bought the old [Groger's Western Store] building on 25th and Valencia and plan to turn it into a paleolithic bar or something. They're calling it “Hunters & Gathers.”  If you head over there quickly, you might be able to catch em. They're dropping off some reclaimed sheetrock and dusty taxidermy now.

We sprinted over and got the word.  According to the dapper and generously mustached man we spoke to, they're hoping to recreate the survivalist dinning experience, with wild plants and animals “routinely stocked” throughout the restaurant.  Patrons will be given a quick crash course on safely foraging for edibles by the door guy before being handed a machete, wicker basket, and loaner tweed sport coat and told to “go catch some dinner!”

“This is about moving past the boring, safe fusion food we've dealt with all our life and doing something rugged and masculine and real,” he added before sitting down to eat a quiche from Tartine.

They will be converting the parking lot behind the bar into a wood-fire rotisserie, gutting station, and small-batch beer garden, allowing customers to oversee their dinner's entire preperation and engage in forced, banal banter with the cooks.

FSC also plans to sell American Apparel t-shirts printed with the bar's logo for only $55.

Adobe Books Served Eviction Notice, Jack Spade Remains Silent

Following last week's report that Jack Spade is pushing for Adobe Books' eviction, we just learned that the 25-year-old bookshop has been served its final eviction notice.  A member of the Adobe Books Collective relayed the news, telling Uptown Almanac “the property owner of the Adobe space served [owner Andrew McKinley] an eviction notice for June 15.”

The eviction notice comes less than two weeks after Adobe Books raised $60,000 to cover a year's worth of rent increases.

The biggest unknown surrounds the future of the space.  As you may recall, Jack Spade—a subsidiary of the Liz Claiborne conglomerate—sought a Letter of Determination from the Planning Department regarding the brand's status as a formula retailer last summer.  But besides job ads and reportedly sizing up Idol Vintage next door, they've been completely silent about their plans. (To us, having your press person decline to confirm or deny you intentions is a de facto admission of ill intent.  Alas.)

It stands to reason that Jack Spade is sprinting to open a location in the Mission, hoping to avoid a damaging fight with residents the likes of 2009's protest that kept American Apparel from opening on Valencia Street.  As Jack Spade only operates 10 stores in the United States, they are one store shy of meeting the city's definition of formula retail, which is banned along the Valencia corridor.  Their proposed location at 3166 16th Street would be that store.

A press release from earlier this month confirms Jack Spade's aggressive growth:

Jack Spade, Kate's little brother is more than ready to step out of his sister's shadow as the brand becomes a major focal point and potential growth driver for [parent company] Fifth & Pacific. The brand is now poised for broader expansion, as Fifth & Pacific's CEO William McComb said that Jack Spade 'can be a $100 million men's business with very high margins.” The company has invested heavily in the brand as it moves closer to attaining lifestyle brand status. The investment has taken the form of store expansions as the brand grew from three units to 10 stores. Those numbers are also expected to rise as retailers set its sights on domestic and international markets, notably China, according to vice president and brand director Cuan Hanl

It seems the purveyor of $495 lemon raincoats is trying to sneak their way into the Mission District before it becomes illegal to do so, skirting the intent of the city's anti-formula retail legislation.  Adobe Books just happens to be a casualty in their pursuit.

We'll update if we hear anything else.  If you have any inside knowledge of Jack Spade's plans, drop us a line at tips@uptownalmanac.com.

Liz Claiborne Pushing for Adobe Books' Eviction

When Adobe Books' landlord raised the 25-year-old bookshop's rent from $4,500 to $6,000 last spring, the shop and the community it serves rallied for its future. Authors Stephen Elliott, Rebecca Solnit, Michelle Tea, and musicians The Dodos held in-store fundraisers that saw overflow crowds spill out into the street.  Over 600 people donated to an Indiegogo fundraising campaign to save Adobe and create a co-op to manage it.  Just last week the fundraiser successfully raised $60,000, giving the shop at least a year of rent money.

“It's obvious the community supports us,” Liz, one of Adobe's employees, told me this morning as she sorted a box of yellowing Playboys.

But their landlord was less inspired by the effort.  They responded by further raising the shop's rent to $8,000 and demanding improvements be made to the space.

“We cleaned up everything, reorganized the space, even painted behind bookcases… spots that haven't needed to be painted since forever.”

Unfortunately that hasn't been enough for the landlord—they have decided they want Adobe out.  And they're being emboldened by a fashion retailer valued at $2.3 billion and traded on the New York Stock Exchange.

According to public records, Fifth & Pacific Companies Inc.—better known by their former name, Liz Claiborne Inc.—has been eying Adobe's storefront at 3166 16th Street since at least July 30th of last year, when Melissa Xides, the self-described “co-leader” of Fifth & Pacific's upscale Jack Spade label, wrote to the San Francisco Planning Department asking if the company fell into the city's “formula retail” category.

“I am writing on behalf of the fashion retailer Jack Spade to request a Letter of Determination regarding a proposed retail store that Jack Spade is pursuing on 16th Street in the Valencia Street NC district,” the letter began. “Jack Spade designs men’s bags, accessories and apparel that blend functionality and style. Jack Spade is based in New York City and only has seven stores in the United States. We are not a Formula Retail store and are asking for confirmation of this from the Planning Department.”

“Jack Spade stores operate more like a traditional haberdashery with a focus on customer service and relationships with our clients and community… direct community outreach is very important to the Jack Spade brand team.”

While the Planning Department later agreed Jack Spade wasn't formula retail, citing their relative independence from their monied parent company, the business has been remarkably secretive about their plans.  They have held no public meetings about their move into the Mission District, the job ads for the soon-to-be-opened store do not disclose the neighborhood it will be located in, and the staff of Adobe has been kept in the dark from their landlord (Liz told us she knew “nothing” about Jack Spade's intentions).  Another source told us that representatives from Jack Spade allegedly went into neighboring retailer Idol Vintage “without warning” and “literally measured the store with a tape measurer” with future expansions in mind.

With Jack Spade's deep pockets giving Adobe's landlord unmatchable financial leverage over the small used bookstore, getting pushed out of their home since 1988 is almost certain.  “It just doesn't make sense to run a bookshop [when paying] $8,000 a month in rent,” Liz conceded, acknowledging the shop is bracing for a forced relocation.

“There's just no way.”

Representatives for Jack Spade could not be reached for comment.

Alcohol Claims Lives of 50% of Curry Up's Windows

Curry Up Now has been blinding Valencia passersby with their ample lighting for three weeks now, and they've already endured two instances of “drunk fools” making a deconstructed knuckle/glass fusion plate with their front window.  The chain restaurant seems satisfied with blaming boozed up hooligans with the destruction, but we can't help but think if they've served one to many vegetarians meat.

[Thanks for the tip, JM!]

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