Some Residents Are Not Happy With Coffee Retailer Moving In
As the residents of Ocean Beach fight over whether to allow a Starbucks Coffee shop to come to the area, Gerrie Trussell finds herself between the two factions.
Trussell, the executive director of the Ocean Beach Main Street Association, found many, but not all, local residents are adamantly opposed to the Seattle-based coffee retailer establishing a presence in the area.
At issue is an ongoing battle over whether residents should allow a corporate presence in their community , and Starbucks is the “corporate poster child,” she said. Trussell ended up in the middle, being attacked from both sides.
“We’re getting people yelling, ‘Don’t you care about keeping this a small town?’ And then the other people calling, saying, ‘Who are you to say what can and can’t be rented to? Aren’t you supposed to protect businesses’ rights?’ Because we are the business association,” she said.
At the center of the battle is a vacant building at the corner of Newport Avenue and Bacon Street in Ocean Beach, a block away from the ocean. The site, long a gathering place for “questionable” activity, has been vacant for 18 months, Trussell said.
The business association had worked to fill the vacancy during that time. They later found out that Torrey Pines Property Management, overseeing the site, was in exclusive negotiations with Starbucks, she said.
But several business owners in Ocean Beach aren’t happy about the idea. At an April 17 meeting in Ocean Beach, opponents shouted down supporters of the project.
Kip Krueger, co-owner of The Green Store, a local ecology center, was among the opponents. He helped form the Ocean Beach Grass Roots Organization to fight Starbucks.
“We’re trying to preserve the small-town, old-fashioned atmosphere of Ocean Beach,” he said. “Part of that means trying to keep out the corporations, so that we don’t look like every other little beach town up and down the coast of California.”
In the case of Starbucks, their practices seem “predatory.” Once an outlet opens in a neighborhood, another Starbucks soon follows, and then another, he said.
“We think it will drive the rents up and make it harder for the mom-and-pop businesses to stay in town,” Krueger said.
It’s those very mom-and-pop businesses that give Ocean Beach its charm and make the area such a tourist draw in the first place, he said.
“We just like to draw the line here and save O.B., and keep it an old-fashioned throwback to another era (and) not to just homogenize us with the rest of Southern California and just see a McDonald’s and Starbucks and 7-Elevens. People like it the way it is,” Krueger said.
‘Trapped In The ’60s’
Norma Slaman, owner of two New Break Coffee locations near the site of the proposed Starbucks, is also opposed to the coffee giant coming to the area. Her main objections are for personal reasons.
As someone who lives and works in Ocean Beach, Slaman feels that one of the area’s greatest assets is its small-town charm.
“We’re known for being trapped in the ’60s, of course. We’re very community-minded; everybody takes care of everybody,” she said. “Businesswise, they’ve supported us. They come in here, and appreciate what we do, and, consequently, supported us for the last seven years.”
But if a Starbucks were to come in, that could prod more chain retailers and major fast-food franchises to come into the area, Slaman said. Ocean Beach would eventually become like Hillcrest or Pacific Beach, both of which have lost their sense of community, she said.
“I think it’s going to hurt the community to have ‘corporate’ here in Ocean Beach,” she said. “In Hillcrest, it’s not there. The little mom-and-pop shops are not there. The little bookstores aren’t there. And that’s what’s going to happen here.”
Slaman noted her two stores wouldn’t be greatly affected by Starbucks’ arrival. Her coffeehouses also serve meals, so she wouldn’t lose much business to another coffee retailer, she said.
However, other locally owned coffeehouses in the area would be devastated. She cited Java Joe’s, Jungle Java and Your Mama’s Mug as examples.
“(Starbucks) will be taking away from the small-business person,” she said. “Those people are going to definitely suffer because they’re on the main drag, and that’s what they rely on their business for, in the summertime, especially.”
A Vocal Minority
Greg Robers, regional director for Starbucks, acknowledged the opposition, but said it comes from a vocal minority.
“There are a lot of people in the community who are really looking forward to Starbucks coming there,” he said. “We tend to hear the people that are against us opening there, but there’s quite a few people who are passionate about Starbucks coming in that are very excited. They think it will actually upgrade the area, that it will actually be a positive influence in the community,” he said.
Robers said he has met with the opponents of the Starbucks and added some of them are even customers of Starbucks elsewhere.
Robers disputed some of their assertions. Rents, for example, have been going up in Ocean Beach, and will continue to do so whether or not a Starbucks comes to town, he said.
Nor would Starbucks put the mom-and-pop shops out of business. Using the example of Hillcrest, Robers said many independent stores currently exist there alongside The Gap and Starbucks.
Currently, Starbucks is evaluating the feasibility of the Ocean Beach site. The company would like to reach some form of accommodation with the community, he said.
Andy Parashos, property manager with Torrey Pines Property Management, said the plan to bring a Starbucks to Ocean Beach is moving along.
Parashos called the site ideal for a Starbucks, since it’s on the main street of Ocean Beach, and adjacent to a parking lot. The large size of the structure and recent improvements on the building attracted the attention of Starbucks’ real estate department, he said.
A Learning Experience
Parashos said the number of derelicts who congregate in the area , a longstanding problem in Ocean Beach , would be greatly reduced once a business rents the property. Meanwhile, an informal survey of surrounding merchants showed a Starbucks would be a good fit for that site, he added.
Parashos said the property management company was surprised by the strong opposition to the Starbucks. Parashos called the last 18 months a learning experience.
Parashos conceded Starbucks’ representatives and supporters were greatly outnumbered at the April 17 meeting.
“We filled them in on some of the inaccuracies that were going around about Starbucks, trying to educate them a little bit on exactly what was going to happen. But it was pretty one-sided, and we got shouted down a couple of times. And that’s kind of how it all ended,” he said.
Parashos disagrees with the opponents’ assertion that a Starbucks would somehow change the character of the neighborhood. There already is a corporate presence in Ocean Beach, he said.
“On the same street, there’s a Rite-Aid, there’s a Washington Mutual, there’s a Bank of America. So I think they kind of pick and choose how local they want to keep that street,” he said.
John Rippo, editor of The Espresso, disagreed. His monthly newspaper, which reports on issues affecting area coffeehouses, makes no secret of its anti-Starbucks sentiment. The May 2001 issue, covering the Ocean Beach flap, used the words “predator” and “mega-corporate locust” to describe the coffee giant.
The reason there’s a large chain drug store in Ocean Beach in the first place is that all the mom-and-pop drug stores have been driven out of business. Something similar could happen to coffeehouses, he warned.
Currently, Ocean Beach has a “Mayberry- RFD-by-the-Sea” atmosphere to it, and that’s its charm. The pre-packaged environment of Starbucks is the antithesis of that, Rippo said.
Rippo added Ocean Beach residents have a history of successfully opposing chains that try to come in to town. He cited Exxon, McDonald’s and Winchell’s Donuts as stores the area residents have been able to keep out.
Trussell, meanwhile, thinks Ocean Beach’s character is unlikely to change if Starbucks comes in. The area has managed to retain its feel even after large chains like Rite-Aid opened there, she said.
Currently, about 82 percent of the store owners in the local Business Improvement District live in the immediate area. That’s a remarkable number, reflecting a high degree of community involvement, Trussell said.
The other coffeehouses will survive the transition if Starbucks comes to town, she said.
“We have five other coffee houses here that do a dynamite job, that employ a dozen people, and serve the community well. So I believe the market will decide who comes and stays,” Trussell said.
“The people here, they drink coffee every single day. I don’t think people are going to deviate too much from what they do now. I don’t believe it’s going to be the end of Ocean Beach unless we, internally, let it.”
