guest post by Chicken John
American Apparel is a cool company. Hailing from East LA, they make shirts that actually fit, tube socks that feel good to wear and their hiring practices are sterling. Their advertisements are amusing, sexy and are the rococo of our time. Super hip. When comparing them to the Gap, or to the Levis Strauss company; there seems to be little in common. Better products. In touch with what is going on. Turning fashion on it’s head. They tend to put their stores in urban locations, staying away from malls. They have over 260 current stores in 20 countries, with plans to open another 20 this year.
The Starling. Do you know the story of the English Starling? In 1890 a helpless romantic named Eugene Schieffelin released song birds that had some connection to Shakespeare. He thought that having the birds singing would be beautiful. Without realizing it, he introduced an invasive species entering a healthy but fragile eco system. The Starling became an infestation by the 1930’s. The word ‘meddling’ comes to mind.
American Apparel rented a storefront on Valencia Street at 20th in the Mission District of San Francisco. As many of you know, San Francisco is the city of Art and Innovation. The Mission district is a unique little niche of local independent business’. For the most part. But Valencia Street is devoid of any chain stores, except one: T-Mobile. Valencia Street is to SF like Bourbon Street is to New Orleans.
I’m wearing an American Apparel shirt as I type this. It’s all so confusing. Because although I want to believe that American Apparel is a progressive company with my values and stuff… I gotta wonder if I’m not just projecting that onto a blank canvas that they are providing for me? I think of the Starling. What began as a romantic gesture turned into an infestation. The Valencia Corridor is a fragile eco-system. No place like it exists anymore. Anywhere. It is not uncommon or rare. It’s a singularity. Weird little shops. Neat night life. Holistic healing potions. Bike lane. Cafes. Books. Wicken shops. A friggin pirate store. And an American Apparel?
I don’t see it. Not the store, I can totally see American Apparel on Valencia Street. And Starbucks. Abercrumbe and Fitch. Urban Outfitters. I don’t wanna see it, but I do. The thing that I don’t see is why? Why do they want to be the Starling of Valencia Street that displaces and starves the indigenous species? Why do they want to be the company that sets the prescient? Can’t they see what I see? Don’t they know that once one store get in, the fight becomes harder and harder? American Apparel is saying that the T-mobile store hasn’t set a precedent. Which is defeating their own argument. With 2 (!) formula retail chains on Valencia, it will be nearly impossible to defend the next formula retail store.
American Apparel in my opinion is unwittingly assaulting the very thing that made the company relevant. And as far as it opening the store, I think of it as the leading edge of a wedge, with the other end being Wal-Mart. The next thing that gets tolerated. Like the experiment with the frog and the boiling water. We have to JUMP right now!!! Or the next store will be slightly more obnoxious.
And I think that this is possibly a larger trend. We find ourselves calibrating to products. Brands. Unwittingly, and sometimes even knowingly. But maybe American Apparel doesn’t realize they have become a HUGE company? Maybe that’s what happens. Whatever it is, it’s kinda amazing. This is it, right here. Where culture and commodity collide in confluence of confusion. You have a few different arguments to chose from… but at the end of the day you find that you’re arguing on which path to take.
Because we all wanna end up in the same place.
So I report this story from this perspective. If you are interested in following this story further, or if you would like to come to SF’s City Hall on Thursday at 2:30 to participate in the Planning Commissioners to either approve or deny the permit application, you can find the latest about this issue on the Stop American Apparel 988 Valencia blog.
And if you are interested in keeping up with me, Chicken John, you can join my mailing list.
More Coverage:
- SFist
- San Francisco Chronicle (C.W. Nevius)
- San Francisco Chronicle (Caille Millner)
UPDATE 1: On February 5th by unanimous vote The San Francisco Planning Department denied American Apparel a conditional use permit to open a store on Valencia Street. [update by Scott]
UPDATE 2: American Apparel has posted a peace offering on the window of 988 Valencia. [update by Scott]
photo by hexodus
Here Are A Few Related Posts You Might Enjoy:
- 14 American Apparel Models Freed In Daring Midnight Raid
- Teach The Controversy T-Shirts by Amorphia Apparel
- American Artifact, a Documentary on the Rise of American Rock Poster Art
- Amorphia Apparel, T-Shirts Designed by Jeremy Kalgreen
- Wi-Fi Available Soon on American Airlines & Virgin America
{ 64 comments… read them below or add one }
BullS**t – you even said it yourself – you are wearing a AA tee, so why do you not want the store on V st? I bet you drink at Sbucks too… When was the last time you shopped on Valencia
Oh and when I say you I mean 95% of people that spout this kinda speil, not you in particular
Go get ‘em, tiger!
if people in this city cared as much about real problems, as much as they do about putting an AA on valencia….
i live right across the street and have no problem with it. many people are acting as if the mission is some virgin to this type of retailer and business.
Well having lived in the Mission for most of the 95 – 05 period until I could not afford to buy a place there as SF house prices shot up, we still tried to support local stores etc, but there are so many people who just say they want to support local shops yet are the first to buy starbucks etc
it already happened on Guadalupe / “the drag” in Austin. what was once a stretch of local + independent bookstores / clothes shops / food + coffee places / weirdness has been slowly and progressively decimated by chains. the place has no soul anymore, and everything closes up at 9pm. i think it started with Urban Outfitters.
The gutted Sound Exchange and put in a Baja Fresh. There was a big fight to save the Daniel Johnston mural: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Johnston#Art_career
I’m riding Chicken’s bus on this one. AA is a great company from whom I’ve purchased thousands of shirts (literally) and I’d love to see them open a huge store on 22nd and Mission next to the Sketchers store. Just leave the wonderful bubble of 14th-24th Valencia Street alone.
Small correction — the commission meeting is officially scheduled for 1:30, not 2:30. Sure, the Stop American Apparel blog says it *probably* won’t start till 2:30, but why chance it?
With their brighly lit store the city can gut back on street lighting. Then all you need
is an Apple store on the next block, etc.
Is there any youngins left in $an franfrisco to buy thay crap anyway? I thought
everyone here was over 40.
This happened to Harvard Square, where their “ecosystem” by this definition was effectively turned over by a concerted effort to bring in chain stores and lock/block out a whole host of other unwanted aspects, like street vendors and performers. They pushed out a 100 year old eating establishment called the Tasty, and a lot of independent book stores closed. (In fact, now a couple more “chain” stores closed in there.) Now it’s essentially an outdoor mall, and and the chains that went away now have the whole place looking like a huge empty outdoor mall.
I don’t know how much activism would have stopped it, though.
I think you’re overstating by saying that Valencia street is ‘unique’ — most major cities and some not so major cities have streets like Valencia. That said, it’s a cool street and it’d be a shame to see it taken over by large chains, but I’m not sure if that isn’t the unavoidable end of gentrification. My experience with this happening in other cities is that the innovators just move to a new, cheaper, part of town and the process repeats.
I feel like I just wasted 3 minutes of my life reading that same old song about, “I loved them when they were only for me.” It’s always the same whether it’s fashion, music, art, even restaurants, or any combination thereof. There’s always a group of early adopter that like to consider themselves unique and innovative, we tell our friends about how cool whatever we’re into at the moment is, and eventually they believe us! Thus the beginning of the end. The bands move to bigger venues, the artists move to more mainstream galleries and of course our favorite little brands open bigger stores and more of them.
This wasn’t a poorly written piece, it’s just a played out theme.
Played out?
This isn’t a ‘founder syndrome’ thing. This is just keeping big box stores out of the last strip of independent shops in SF. Or the world, apparently.
The theme you are saying is played out, is. Without a doubt. But I never thought that this was that theme. This is just straight-forward organizing against the man. Or whatever.
I mean… if American Apparel is the man… then I guess I see your point.
But it’s true that things don’t scale well.
Please put a bullet in my brain if I ever become one of those “It was better when we did it 20 years ago” guys. I hate those guys. We didn’t have guys like that 20 years ago. Nope.
Things were better then, when we did’nt have guys talking about when things we better. I miss those days…
Somehow I feel like this whole American Apparel backlash is less about being a “chain store” that will lead the way for future big-box corruption, and more about identity politics.
Simply put :
People in the Mission don’t want an American Apparel to open there because it crystallizes and makes real what is otherwise an ineffable and unspoken illlusionary code of “cool” that those people try to live by. It’s the forced admittance that they are indeed an extremely marketable demographic, one that they created themselves out of the need to be different, that now has come full circle to be fed back to them. It’s like staring your evil Doppelganger in the face and realizing that the two of you are and never were any different.
The fact that they don’t mind it in Union Square or the Haight sort of speaks to this as well. It’s OK as long as it’s not in *our* neighborhood. But by golly, I’m happy there’s one just a MUNI ride away, where I can go shop ironically amongst the tourists, mockingly buy a Starbucks, and then come home to my Mission flat and feel special again.
Chicken’s bus will be crowded. Count me aboard. Do they know (AA) the ugliness that went on in the basement of the store they are renting? They were killing livestock downstairs. It was a voodoo place of sorts with chickens (no offense Chicken)and goats being sacraficed. a metaphor of what is now happening.
I wonder how long the muralists in the area will survive, eventually have to move out. Of course the new businesses will paint out existing murals for their ads. And these big businesses wonder why grafitti keeps happening. Hopefully I will see you at the rally.Spray.sssss.ssssssssss.ssssss
SFGate travel guide to SF: “Not so long ago, Valencia Street was a funky mix of Latino-owned car-repair shops, seedy dives and women-owned stores and bars. Though a number of these businesses still thrive, this area has become quickly gentrified.”
Valencia is indeed a fragile ecosystem where one can observe the, rarely seen in the whole sections of the country, tattooed nerds who are dead serious about being cool once and for all even if it means they have to pose, or even actually live, as f’ups. And being an f-up means you don’t have a car and other carbon-consuming machines and so you are by default green and therefore morally righteous. Blue-collar fashioned Apple fetishists with sangria recipes tucked into their tool belts : it all comes across as such authentic living – people who really understand what life is all about : cool bars and restaurants, hip living, sexual folk, vintage and new mixed, but smart too with a dash of diversity, especially if it is sexy. American Apparel is Valencia Street.
American Apparel : T-shirts for tattooed nerds. What a better place than Valencia Street for it.
The new thing is always just around the corner and the older we get, the harder it is to see (everything gets harder to see!) I came to Frisco in 1976. I was so excited to be here, even though EVERYONE I spoke with that had been here for more than a year or two told me: “kid, you missed the party, it’s OVER.” They meant the “60’s (which the historians agree ended on the day Nixon resigned in 1975.) Well, I ignored them. Good thing I did. I haven’t had a boring moment here since. I have a great past – visit once & a while, but I don’t live there. Chicken, don’t worry so much about Valencia Street. Two thirds of the national/international retailers will be out of business by next year. Within ten years we’ll be hunting rabbits in Delores Park and breaking up furniture to cook them on. It’ll be an adventure! Even you will probably (secretly) miss Starbucks by then.
I have one question and one comment
Did AA displace a small business that was already there or was the retail space just another empty store front (urinal)?
If we don’t really want them there please vote with your dollars, it’s the easiest way to get them to leave.
A lot of longtime Mission residents would consider Spork as one of your Starlings, or Therapy or Fritz, etc. etc. It’s kind of snotty to say you love a particular product, but want the retail spot in someone else’s neighborhood. But the point I really want to make is that this issue just isn’t that important. Put your effort into getting a decent grocery store in the Bayview or doing something about the dilapidated public housing in Sunnyvale. But making a big stink about AA on Valencia is just way too precious.
I have an idea: why don’t we keep *all* stores out of the Mission and just put up a big sign “trust fund required for entry.” Those that aren’t hipster enough can be tasered if they try to enter.
Get over yourself, this is stupid.
American Apparel? Overpriced products, continuously annoyed staff & ads that reflect the owners own particular sexual leanings towards the underage & oversexed.
As for Valencia being like Bourbon St….hardly. How many times have you run into a roving hoard of bachelor party denziens from Iowa sporting their togos & beads? it’s a tourist trap & hasn’t been a local pocket of characters since the early ’80’s.
don’t care if AA shows up on Valencia. can’t afford most of the shops down there anymore any ole ways.
i would love to start a blog that will stop that meth dealer getting his skull hammered in front of my apartment again. not sure what he was wearing., but i am definitely against his starling like infestation.
Valencia Street is more like Magazine Street in New Orleans, Bourbon Street is more like Haight Street in S.F
I visited my hometown in Western Massachusetts this summer. The same thing is happening there. However, instead of small independent businesses (the big boxes killed them years ago) it’s trees & animals. Developers started in on my town like it was something out of the Lorax.
Untouched mountain areas clear cut for spacious home developments that all look the same. They are advertising that these enclaves are conveniently close to the shopping…(They don’t renovate the schools or town services, but the Wallgreens, Costco, Ruby Tuesdays,Chevy’s, and Target are in great shape)
You see,it isn’t one thing. Its a system…a process. Once you have the business set up, then you have to match the population to the planned neighborhood. There are a lot of people that will be displaced.
John,
You said, “…This isn’t a ‘founder syndrome’ thing. This is just keeping big box stores out of the last strip of independent shops in SF….” LOL, apparently you haven’t been to Clement Street…
I do understand and appreciate your concern, but don’t forget that there is life outside of the Mission…
John W.
I really came out against AA when the company used a perjorative against the transgender community in its “open letter to San Francisco”, posted on the Mission Mission blog,
http://missionmission.wordpress.com/2009/01/26/american-apparel-speaks/
AA’s letter contained this infuriating gem: ” Our first store was in Echo Park, a small artsy district of Los Angeles, which is a lot like the Mission… Our store is a permanent fixture in the community now, just as much as Burrito King and the infamous tranny hairdressers are.”
I’m sorry, but “tranny”, just like the “n-word” is a slur when used by anyone except members of the community it refers to. The corporation’s pathetic attempt to be “hip” has alienated an intrensic segment of the San Francisco community – about 1 in 500 residents are transgender.
AA, why don’t you read GLAAD’s (the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) media guide before you issue another offensive and poorly-written press release!
will you subsidize my income so i can live in your neighborhood?
I love urinal-smelling Valencia just as much as the next guy. But, maybe if AA moved in, it might, just might, be a little safer and more well-lit then the vacant, dead space it is now. Maybe the anti-AA (short yellow) bus crew should put their efforts into something more productive like an anti-crime effort, or a clean-up-the-trash-and-piss effort, rather then waging another NIMBY lost cause. Maybe? Just a thought.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 4 decades living in SF, it’s that the hip neighborhoods keep shifting. Every time, something is lost. The things to keep our eyes on are (1) the creeping homogenization of the city, neighborhoods becoming indistinguishable, and (2) the gradual pushing out of _all_ the interesting neighborhoods to surrounding towns. I’ll shed a tear and move on from the Valencia St corridor, just so long as some other neighborhood (or two or three) rises to be something simlar.
(Also, my petty shot: I know it’s just a blog post, and written in haste, but some copy-editing wouldn’t be a bad idea.)
The opposition to AA on Valencia is not NIMBY.
Usually, the term NIMBY is used to refer to opposition to social services like halfway houses, not to opposition to corporate retail outlets, which typically drive up rents, and acquire neighboring retail spaces. If there is any doubt about this, one can look at what happened in Echo Park, on the block where AA opened its flagship store. I wonder if it were Walmart looking to move in, if all these folks supporting AA would feel the same way.
American Apparel inexplicably maintains a decent reputation in some leftist circles despite an organizational culture of routine sexual harassment and a well-documented history of union-busting. Are we all afraid of being called “anti-sex” or “feminist fuddy duddies” or something? Both canards are definitely in the AA playbook.
But the main question, is it a chain? You bet it is. Dov Charney is a student of the uber-capitalist fad “48 Laws of Power” and calls Robert Greene his personal savior. And then there’s Dov’s own quote comparing AA to Starbucks, which I’ve handily pasted to this ad spoof…
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/americanapparel/aa_sb_anim.gif
Oh, and I disagree with Chicken about AA’s ads. I think they’re pandering– both politically and otherwise. And the early ones were pretty much sexual trophies of Dov’s conquests with the company logo at the bottom. Let’s keep those cheesy billboards off Valencia.
Cheers,
Matt
AA Owner Dov Charney is a pervy misogynist. AA are treated as sacrosanct and cool because he likes to use pseudo child porn in his ads. He’s an asshole as has been pointed out by numerous employees. There are plenty of other sweatshop-free, Made-In-USA alternatives. As for you hipsters lamenting the gentrification of your favorite place to slum it – fuck off.
As a San Francisco native, I find this especially compelling, considering that the Mission remains one of the most transplant-friendly parts of SF. I’m not trying to be elitist, I’m just stating a citywide recognition.
As far as AA on Valencia goes, I just don’t get what the big deal is all about. While I applaud Chicken John for a compelling read and an eloquently stated argument, I think a lot of what’s at stake here is poseur pride. The self-appointed cultural cognoscenti in the Mission are afraid of tourists coming in, trying to copy the fashions that they see by purchasing stuff at a recognized storefront like AA, causing their look to suddenly be trendy.
Here’s my suggestion: just don’t shop there. If you go to Community Thrift, Clothes Contact, or any other vintage boutique, you’re not going to forget they exist because AA has a bright storefront. If you’re that up-in-arms about it, wouldn’t you be happier if they tried to get a store off the ground and failed miserably?
Oh wait – isn’t that the store owned by the Canadian guy who’s had lawsuits against him for alleged sexual harassment? Sounds like a class act:
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jan/17/local/me-charney17
I can’t wait till the AA moves into the Pagoda theater.
So, if you’re a great, progressive company (of which AA may be neither) what are you supposed to do when you want to reach your audience? Where do you go? One street over? A mile away?
And what about if you’re lucky enough to succeed and want to expand to multiple stores?
Also, how atomic does this distinction go? Are you prepared to chase mainstream books and music out of micro-local sellers? Does every product sold on Valencia have to pass a cred-test?
Just asking.
In my opinion AA is perfect for Valencia St., The genie that was the Valencia St. described so nostalgically has been out of the bottle for years. I don’t see AA’s move as a ’starling’, but more as inevitable change coming to a dynamic neighborhood. Aren’t there more important windmills to charge at, like unemployment, lack of decent housing, universal health care? I’d rather spend my time and volunteerism working for change than keeping out a t-shirt store.
OK – I would LOVE a $500 Five and Diamond ANYTHING and a $17 Eggplant Parm. at Spork (yes that is an actual menu price)..
But at least these aren’t nationwide chains that would set a precedent in the ‘hood. I’ve seen Boston, NYC, Philly all succumb to this… and its real and its serious.
Valencia, the Mission, is a contradiction and yeah hipsters abound but forget about that for a second. Think of the bigger picture.
I’m on the bus with Chicekn John.
Now go get me some 5 and Diamond crap toot suite!
i don’t want to see an american apparel on valencia either. however….
…when i first moved here in 96, the big protest was about how all those awesome hip stores were gentrifying what used to be an affordable low income neighborhood. someone else already said it, but the road for AA moving in was paved by the gentrification that started over 10 years ago.
still, it sucks.
Since AA opened in Echo Park, we keep getting more chi-chi independent businesses. Hippie vegan restaurant, wine bar, Belgian beer bar, pricey knick-knack store, vintage store… We even had an independent cafe-bookstore open (Yes OPEN). Band posters wheat pasted in the piss-soaked underpass, pocket galleries popping up in storefronts that had been used for storage. We now have packs of tight-shirted hipsters rolling from cafe to bar to club, saying how walking around the area is “just like the Mission!”
Please. Make it stop.
This was a problem last year here in Austin. AA moved into an area that housed all local austin shops and food joints that also hosted a monthly street party. There was a great story in the alternative weekly but I couldn’t find it. Here’s one from a mainstream TV news site.
http://www.kvue.com/news/top/stories/012308kvueSoCochainstore-cb.4fc02523.html
Things change. The only reason rich kid businesses move into the Mission is because rich kids who want to buy their stuff have. Once day the Mission will be reminiscent of the Upper Haight. Look far enough into the future, and Bayview will have the hottest new indie joints.
This is not the end of too-cool-for-you hipster hangouts. Not even in the Mission. The age of “early adoption” in the MIssion ended long ago, and five years from now there will be a new group of smart-minded people with divorced parents in their early 20s who will go to the next dirt cheap run-down neighborhood to pursue their drug-fueled art and start the coolest coffee shop you ever indignantly compared to Starbucks.
It spreads out, and ultimately it’s a good thing, improving quality of life as it goes. The Mission was not better off before money started flowing in and it is not facing unprecedented cultural crisis. This is how economies work. My advice to you is to enjoy what you can of the MIssion and find a new spot to feel super cool in. There are lots of them. The city is not out of space for Art and Innovation just yet.
So, where were you when the New Dawn Cafe was kicked to the curb and turned into a Sushi Bar during the Dotcom?
Where were you when Epicenter records got kicked out because a pipe that was broken at a show flooded the downstairs – the locally-owned Clothes Contact that it seems is held up here as an example for a ‘good’ local business?
Where were you when most of the bars along Valencia street all lost their permits to have live music and were one by one turned from various punk clubs to places like Amnesia? Which are fine, mind you, but hey, it was pretty fun to have six or seven places (one was even just someone’s garage! try that one today) on a two-block stretch all having different bands every night o’ the week…
Oh wait, that all happened before you moved to the Mission. Sorry.
Point is, things change. We used to live in the Mission. It was fun. We moved on.
So you can try to keep the mission just the way it is now. It’s not going to work. Like others have said, why don’t you try to do something that either really does impact a community that needs the help, or at least move somewhere that needs funky people like you doing interesting things.
When we wanted to start our business, we needed cheap space. So we moved to Oakland. Been here for several years. It’s much nicer, actually. There are actual, you know, working artists and musicians and people doing lots of interesting things and lots of interesting and funky weird places to go. And everyone’s actually nice, even the hipsters on the fixies. Even if we ’strike it rich’ we’re staying. Here. Where we actually make a difference.
Well seems like it’s all over the map. Differing opinions, different level of self-delusion… we even have people arguing about how other people don’t disagree enough. And of course complaints against the guy with the 7th grade education about my penmanship, spelling a gramor.
So it sounds like what we need is a moderator. Someone to ya know, get in the middle… weight the argument. Make a descion. Maybe a panel of these people. An odd number. Say: 7. They should be voulenteers. Some of them appointed from one place, some appointed from another. To make it balanced.
Please attend the planning commission meeting tomorrow at 2:30 room 400 city hall SF, where 3 planning commisioners appointed by the mayor and 4 planning commisioners appointed by the board of supes who are indeed voulenteers will decide what to do.
I appreciate all the different sides of the argument. We are diverse, but all agree on one thing: the flag we all stand and salute is San Francisco.
Thanks for your energy.
chicken
PS, if your not buzy, you should come to the Ask Dr. Hal show tonight…
* two weeks ago I was almost sexually assaulted a block from the Beauty Bar by a Beauty Bar neighborhood patron; a very narrow escape where I forced my way into someone’s apartment and he still followed me; anything to make the Mission safer (like foot traffic) is fine by me
* the Marina takes a walk on the wild side every weekend at Foreign Cinema. this is not new
* most eateries and shops on Valencia from 16th-24th I can’t afford, even in the best of times
* as a pro-sex, BDSM-is-healthy pundit, and supporter of the significantly large and articulate kink-positive community, the image for this post really really sucks and alienates me further from any anti-AA argument. but then again, if they’re actually saying they’ll pay their employees as much as fetish models, then the local jobless are in for a major treat. otherwise it’s an awful statement and reminds me of when anti-Kink.com (anti-porn) people argued that Kink shouldn’t be in the Mission because BDSM (Kink’s business) is “the same as Abu Ghraib” (the owner of the Victoria Theater really said this)
just sayin’. I grew up in San Francisco. the writing goes on the wall, then someone tags it again, and again, and again…
Wow! What a discussion. In the near future we’ll pray for the return of the days when such things seemed important.
I now have this blog, which states my objections to American Apparel and has some of the spoof ads I made for use in LA a few years back. (The ad Violet objects to was my first.)
http://againstamericanapparel.wordpress.com/
I’d like to address Violet’s points.
The AA flagship store in Echo Park hasn’t made that neighborhood any safer, so I’m not sure why it would change anything on Valencia which has plenty of foot traffic already.
Economically a new AA store in the Mission will drive up commercial rents while producing only a handful of low-paying retail jobs for skinny, twentysomethings who meet the aesthetic tastes of its notoriously lecherous CEO.
Oh yeah, that and we’ll be treated to obnoxious, cheesy billboards and ads. AA’s ads usually don’t make me feel sexy, just creeped out, but that may be a matter of taste. I think the company has cynically co-opted the notion of pro-sex feminism. Truth is, Dov Charney and his company don’t give a whit about empowering women, sexually or otherwise.
As a pro-sex, BDSM-is-healthy feminist, I can make a distinction between Kink.com and American Apparel. Kink.com hasn’t to my knowledge, been hit with multiple sexual harassment lawsuits. Its CEO Peter Acworth is not a sexist creepazoid, and the women who pose for the site are well paid!
-Matt Cornell
In the future, we will be discussing How To Survive The Apocalypse.
It’s funny that everybody is waxing nostalgic about how much cooler the Guadauple Drag in Austin was before the AA store went in, but no one has mentioned their other store on S. Congress. (Perhaps S. Congress sold out long ago.) Then again, these same folks pitched a fit over that lame-ass Daniel Jonston mural on the drag, and cost the restaurant that went in there thousands of dollars to save it. (No wonder the restaurant closed down.)
The AA store on S. Congress replaced another clothing store called Factory People. Their stuff was pretty interesting; unfortunately, I didn’t have $500 to spend on a dress, or $200 on a t-shirt. To me, AA is a huge improvement over what was there.
Incidentally, S. Congress seems to survive just fine with both chain stores and local retailers. They co-exist quite peacefully, and there is a good balance of both.
Gotta echo some of the other sentiments here: there are much more important issues to focus on than what retailers do and don’t move into a neighborhood.
FWIW, when I lived on Valencia and 20th in 1989, I would have welcomed a store like this. It was pretty sketchy at the time, and getting home at night was not always a picnic.
Progress and change are inevitable, and not all of it is bad.
Last I looked AA stuff is made in the USA. AA creates value and US based jobs. They even sell their stuff abroad … Some of their products are made with organic cotton .. if you don’t think that is a good thing you have your head in the sand.
Violet says:
“as a pro-sex, BDSM-is-healthy pundit, and supporter of the significantly large and articulate kink-positive community, the image for this post really really sucks and alienates me further from any anti-AA argument. ”
The image is a prank, done by Mat Cornell.
I thought that was obvious. But the PC aren’t known for their humor.
I’ll put a laugh track on it next time….
What a thread! Hipster-loathing, eeeevil gentrification, corporate-hate, apocalypse chic, annoying rose-glass nostalgia. All started by the spectre of a trendy t-shirt boutique that runs creepy ads.
I am not a citizen of Bayaria, so I can’t say much about Valencia. I’ll spare you my opinions on most of the above, although I agree with some of the sentiments expressed. But there’s one aspect to this general subject that consistently burns my biscuit: how the businesses that one really needs in life seem to get ignored or pushed aside when gentrification swoops in.
How many fashion boutiques or hipster bars does a neighborhood really need, be they corporate or local? What about an affordable grocery store? A real hardware store? A pharmacy? A good machine shop? One minute, you’ve got nothing but a seedy convenience store peddling unhealthy, toxic crap to the urban poor, the next it’s an insanely expensive yuppie specialty grocery hawking $25 a pound produce. I don’t want to shop at either place… I just want basic staple goods, fresh produce and fair prices. To get that, I still have to go several miles out of my way. So much for gentrification.
As an independent person who likes to create, repair and maintain my life and my things on my own, I’ve watched in dismay as businesses catering to people who actually DO STUFF have been economically forced out to make way for coffee shops and tchotchke emporiums. The urban core used to be where you went to get things done, where everything you needed was close together. These days, you end up driving all over the far-flung exurbs, the only places that are available or affordable for people who actually do shit.
Maintaining neighborhood culture is important and worthy of attention. But if a neighborhood doesn’t have the basics covered, that culture will be ephemeral and perishable at best. When the hangover from the vodka infusions has worn off and you’ve had your fill of tapas, you’ll realize that you actually need to get something done, and coffee shops and t-shirt stores won’t be much help. You’ll end up spending your time going elsewhere… so much for hanging out in the old neighborhood.
To be sure, I would rather see a street with overpriced hipster establishments rather than one filled with crackheads and street drinkers, but for shit’s sake, isn’t there a happy medium?
My inclination is that I’d be less worried about the corporate effect of AA and more worried about keeping and creating businesses and infrastructure that serve basic needs. Then, maybe culture will stay put instead of having to constantly and desperately escape to the next urban frontier.
And here I still gripe over the closure of the Marin Flea Market in 96 that was developed into a ever failing strip mall.
ah well….
We won.
No AA store in the Mission.
Thanks everyone. 700 people showed up at the hearing. More than any other case in SF history.
“700 people showed up at the hearing. More than any other case in SF history.”
Am I the only one who finds that somewhat tragic and sad?
That the one city planning meeting that the most people in Frisco show up to is for some stupid T-shirt store?
it felt good…many businesses will be closing in the Mission this year unfortunately and the food banks are really suffering now. Chicken put a call out for people to donate food. Your voice is being heard, it might be able to feed during these times
Hey Chicken. Ryan from American Apparel accused you of being “a very nice person” in yesterday’s hearing. Are you gonna take that lying down?
See? See how low these things can make a guy go?
Disgraceful. Really.
hum…..dUnnO????? ReALLy……..iM sTAy’n iN The cUTs oN This oNe????? ….aS dAys pAss by…..wHAT LiTTLe wisdOm LeFT THAT i hAVeNT bURNed oUT uSiNg dRUgs/ALcOHoL………..
iNTUiTioN TeLLs me? TO sHUT The f##K up???????????
aNd wATcH aLL The nOise & peOpLe bAbbLe nOnseNse wiTH whATeVeR ageNdAs They hAVe neATly fOLded up iN oNes pOcKeTs……LOVe
deNiAL cALiFORnia
There is much deeper significance to this than what appears on the surface. The Chicken John flash mob in City Hall substantiates the political effectiveness of Internet orchestrated chaos. I think that history will reflect on this event as the line drawn down Valencia Street that became a chasm between the old American attire of consumerism and the new American revolution of hope.
We are in the midst of dramatic change. The rent on the planet is overdue and the economic reset button has been hit. Formula retail is facing an apocalyptic future and there will be a difficult period as we all learn to navigate the mentality of a new economic time. The vision of hunting rabbits in Dolores Park is indeed a dark one, and it could include stylish MadMax hipsters with crossbows hunting pigeons in Union Square to feed the Madoff homeless, but I think there is much hope in a vision that may include burning Ikea furniture in Jim Mason gasifiers as we drive thorough a Blade Runner landscape of slumdog gardens and ecotopian tribes living in shipping containers of artistic splendor. We may be at end times for things like the analog TV and the Church of the Cathode Ray Tube, but we are at the beginning of hacker pirate DYI city culture of MAKE technology running on alt-fuels… all inter-connected with femtocell WiFi networks, iPhones and BlackBerrys.
Evolution in our time.
This is possibly off-topic, but also kind of ironic: Bourbon Street is NOT a thing that anyone should strive to emulate. It is not, repeat not, the center of anything cool or cultural in New Orleans. It is a repository of skeezy strip clubs, manufactured “authentic” jazz, dime-a-dozen daiquiri bars (many of which are part of a chain infesting the entire gulf coast) and millions of tourists.
A block away is Royal Street, still tourist-laden but quieter, lined with art galleries, locally-owned boutiques and cafés and bars, and flats where flowers spill over the balconies. That is your New Orleans paradise. I know because it was home.
“Bourbon Street is NOT a thing that anyone should strive to emulate. ”
That was a joke, dear.
I must concur with Jeffrey McGrew. Find yourself a worthy cause if you’re going to be a cause guy, Chicken. It took 300 Greeks to block the pass at Thermopylae and a million Persians and you needed 700 to stop American Apparel? Couldn’t you have just done it with a bullhorn? THAT would have been impressive.
Oh, and Michael, if you’re going out in public, be sure and take your meds.
No chains in Valencia? What about 826 Valencia? They’ve dotted other neighborhoods with their spaces. While noble, it’s essentially what Chicken John argues against. Strange…
Hello, where was the “delicate ecosystem” back in the 1970’s and 1980’s when that section of Valencia St. was seedy and not very prosperous for businesses?
Now that there is money flowing and an economic foundation has been built, the ‘interested’ transplants get eco-conscious. Carpetbaggers!
What a bunch of baloney.
I could care less about AA.
What about Clement St.? That is a thriving funky business
street. What about 9th Avenue and Irving St. Another funky
business street. There’s more examples.
Raise hell about gangs and pick up the litter on Valencia St. Your energy better served.
What’s Wicken?