Editorial: A full Sausalito council should vote on Peet's

Christ on a cracker! Let's get some local quality into Sausalito instead of formulaic mediocrity like Starbucks.

Kracker is a censorable word????

The character of Bridgeway? Oh, puleeez....Have you seem the amount of schlock and touristy do-dads being sold there? The "charm" of home grown businessess consists of beer bottle openers with "San Francisco" printed on them? Let Peets in and I bet it will be packed. One coffee shop for another should be a no brainer.

"Famous main drag"? Surprising that "fame" is measured by the density of hideous, tacky, run down, and useless souvenir shops. Let Peet's come in. Chain development is better than vacant storefronts and the makeup of most of the other businesses in town.

This is just the beginning if they let it happen. Before you know it there will a Target, Wallmart, Home depot, Costco, and another Best buy RIGHT DOWN THE STREET.
STOP THEM BEFORE IT IS TO LATE!

Open Peets....Starbuck's needs the competition...!!!!

This cant be happening wrote:

This is just the beginning if they let it happen. Before you know it there will a Target, Wallmart, Home depot, Costco, and another Best buy RIGHT DOWN THE STREET.
STOP THEM BEFORE IT IS TO LATE!

And I bet they would all be packed! If chain stores are such an awful, dreadful things and local businesses are so much better, why are the chain stores always full of shoppers?

This articulates the issue perfectly. The council should also consider the extended negative impact on taxpaying citizens of fewer business ratables in town. The list of available business properties grows as we pick up the tab for greedy landlords dreaming of the next sucker to come along and give them 2001 rental rates in a 2009 recession.

Here's a thought, after over a year without a tenant, eliminate the Prop 13 exemption on these derelict properties and force the landlords to reconsider their P&L's in the light of the assessments the rest of us are paying taxes under.

Oh John Chandler you would do well working on Pelosi's staff with your kind of thinking. And jail for those who won't sign up for Obamacare too, right?

i'd rather see a Peets than another worthless T-shirt shop...

Please-- some clarification is needed here--this is not about a Peet’s on Bridgeway –I don’t think many residents would have a problem with that. But this is about waterfront property—totally a different universe than on Bridgeway Ave.—take a walk around the proposed site and you’ll understand what all the fuss is about.

Let's put in a McDonalds there, with a huge plastic Ronald statue waving at everyone. Mayor McCheese can run the city also.

The previous coffee house at 1250 Bridgeway was a sloppily-run operation, with an uncomfortable seating arrangement, erratic service, and a no-free-refill policy. Despite having an amazing site, they failed. Peets should be allowed to have a go at this location. The city council should put the needs of citizens above their political aspirations for a change.

bill k wrote:

Please-- some clarification is needed here--this is not about a Peet’s on Bridgeway –I don’t think many residents would have a problem with that. But this is about waterfront property—totally a different universe than on Bridgeway Ave.—take a walk around the proposed site and you’ll understand what all the fuss is about.

You would rather see the site abandoned?

Ok.
Always fascinating to get comments from non-citizens.
First of all.Starbucks on Princess St. was one of the first two establishments.Second,the other stores that have been cited,Bennetons,Crazy Shirts and even the now defunct Cafe Triest were all here before the ordinance that stopped "formula" retail establishments.AS for tacky buildings,some of us are fighting hard to beautify and improve out Historic Downtown Sausalito.Wish us luck and stop with the hateful non productive comments.

Just FYI, I'm not sure why it's saying 'Cupertino' next to my name, I live at Main & Crescent.

The fact is that 1250 Bridgeway is not in the downtown historical district, and would not be ugly, so the comments of 'sausalitohxbuff'(who the site says is from Mill Valley) would not apply to this site.

Agreed. I'm a photographer living and working in Sausalito. The City Council has been way too political, and generally not concerned with the interests of locals for years. A 'dead' spot along the waterfront does nothing for anyone but vagrants. 1250 Bridgeway is an excellent spot for a coffee shop, friendly to dog owners and bicyclists, and Peets is a locally-owned environmentally-friendly business. There is no rational reason to leave this site vacant.

I'm not quite sure what sausalitohxbuff meant saying that Starbucks was one of the first two establishments, unless it was one of the first two "formula retail" establishments; and it wasn't that, either. There have been many occupants of the Starbucks site. Starbucks is merely the most recent.
I would also like to know precisely what is wrong with Peet's (with 185 outlets) that is not wrong with Starbucks (with 16000 outlets).
The 1250 Bridgeway site is not in the historic area, has plenty of offstreet parking (vs the double-parking Benzes, Beemers and SUV's blocking Princess Street in front of Starbucks every morning) and will serve residents, tourists and waterfront workers alike.
This is classic NIMBY politics at its best.

How about a Doggie Diner there?
http://doggiediner.com/

Ditto what lencraft and Sauasalito Resident said. If you want to beautify downtown, then how about filling up some of the empty buildings between Dunphy Park and the site of the Old Vahalla-Charthouse-New Valhalla-Gaylords-whatever it will called next with viable businesses that won't go belly up in a year's time? And as for tacky buildings, Peet's would move into an already existing (and not tacky) spot. Speaking of tacky, the "formula retail" ordinance specifically exempts service stations. Have you seen the horrendous paint job on the service station across from the proposed Peet's site? THAT is the kind of thing the City Council should prohibit.