At a press conference held yesterday, a diverse array of community representatives, business owners, and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi bashed the Redevelopment Agency for not coming to Japantown residents before making a deal with developers to bring a Starbucks to their home. The corporate coffee chain recently decided against opening up shop in Japantown due to a strong grassroots campaign against it. Yesterday, those responsible for keeping Starbucks out called for communities to organize to ensure that in the future, local residents control the future of their neighborhood, not the Redevelopment Agency.
About a month ago, the Redevelopment Agency revealed it made a deal with a large developer to bring a Starbucks into a shopping center in Japantown. The Agency did not contact any community members or organizations before reaching this deal or before announcing it.
The lack of public participation caused an immediate public outcry, fueled by an outraged Mirkarimi, unified community opposition, and an online petition against the Starbucks that quickly garnered thousands of signatures. Leaders of the Fillmore, Western Addition, and Japantown quickly joined ranks to present a diverse front in the fight.
This outcry ultimately led to the coffee chain killing their plan to move into the neighborhood, which was announced over the weekend. Mirkarimi, who already played an instrumental role in winning the temporary (and likely permanent) preservation of the Harding Theatre on Divisidaro, can stand alongside the Japantown community and declare a second important neighborhood victory in his short career.
Yet rather than resting on their laurels, Mirkarimi and the community representatives issued a dramatic call at yesterday’s press conference for renewed efforts to ensure the community gets a say in how redevelopment operates. The fight, they said, would begin at tonight’s Redevelopment Commission hearing, when the proposed Starbucks was going to be addressed.
“We must not rely on others to tell us what we should and shouldn’t have,” said Chris Hirano, a member of the Western Addition Community Advisory Community. “They didn’t follow the process this time, so I have to expect they will not follow it next time. I challenge all of you to turn out and challenge not Starbucks, but the Redevelopment Agency. We’re getting tired of this.”
Hirano and others pointed at that the recently won battle was not about Starbucks per se – instead, it involved redevelopment’s history of cutting deals with developers without community involvement. Many at yesterday’s event expressed hope that the victory would mark the beginning rather than the end of renewed pressure against the Agency to truly represent the neighborhoods where they control all future development.
“The issue is process and how Redevelopment is going to operate for its citizens,” said Reverend Arnold Townsend, a prominent member of the Western Addition community. “We all got to band together.the fight is to make redevelopment more responsive to the people. The fight is not over.”
Townsend emphasized the unity between the Fillmore, Western Addition and Japantown neighborhoods as being instrumental to defeating Starbucks. “The Fillmore and Japantown are one,” said Townsend. Linda Jofuku, a Japantown community organizer who played a major role in the victory, agreed.
“The Western Addition and Fillmore were involved in helping us make sure our voices were heard,” said Jofuku. “It was a bout making sure our communities have a voice and are listened to about our destinies and futures.”
Mirkarimi, along with others, also connected the recent Japantown fight with battles springing up across the city over Redevelopment. With the consideration of new Redevelopment Areas in Bayview/Hunters Point, South of Market and Mid-Market, those at the event issued a plea that communities affected by redevelopment throughout the city unite to demand a voice in the future of their cities.
“This issue today is not just about Starbucks in Japantown,” said Mirkarimi. “This issue really needs to hit home with the Redevelopment Agency and the City and County of San Francisco. Redevelopment cannot move forward with dismissing concerns of communities.”
A panel of speakers discusses the recent success of Japantown asking Starbucks to not open a store in the neighborhood. Photo by: Kristina Barker
