Gentrification Alert - Starbucks headed to San Pablo in Emeryville

Friends,

PLEASE FORWARD FAR AND WIDE

Just got word from some little birds that the City of
Emeryville is planning to place a Starbucks at 43rd
and San Pablo across the plaza from the Arizmendi
Bakery where I work. Several years ago when the plaza
was built the city agreed under overwhelming citizen
pressure to reserve the spaces in the plaza for
non-corporate locally owned businesses. This is how
the bakery, a worker-owned cooperative, came to be
there. The city is now secretly planning to renege on
that promise and bring a Starbucks in. They city
council will be meeting in closed session on June 6 to
approve the plan. If approved, citizens opposed and
affected will never be asked or given the opportunity
to speak up. Very fair.

Which is why I am posting this. Since we are
not being invited to speak we'll just have to crash
the party :)

I am asking all of you to please take a moment to call (especially east bay and emeryville peeps)
the Emeryville City Council members and register your
opposition to the Starbucks and to the way it is being
approved. It does not matter if you live in
Emeryville. If the Council feels pressure on this
they may open the process up and if they do the plan
has an excellent chance of being killed or delayed.

To reach them by email go to this webpage
http://www.ci.emeryville.ca.us/gov/city_council.html

To reach them by phone call 510 596-4376 for Ruth
Atkins or Nora Davis. Call 510-547-2101 for Ken
Bukowski. Call 510-654-3981 for Dick Kassis. And
call 510-601-8846 for John Fricke.

Please know that phone calls are much better than
emails for making your voice heard.

Thanks for taking a moment,

Much love,

Mama Dee