Screw Big Chain Franchises: Support Your Local Bar!

[babylonsister]

http://www.alternet.org/blogs/workplace/128030/

Screw Big Chain Franchises: Support Your Local Bar!

Posted by Maura Moynihan, AlterNet at 6:49 AM on February 21, 2009.

Support local businesses and strike back against the commercial conglomeration of America.


I recently passed a Manhattan milestone; the death of my local bar. In a daze, I watched workmen plunge buzz saws into the old oak bar, rip up the green sofa, toss out antique etchings of Ireland and Yankees of yore. When I beheld the new tenant, Dunkin' Donuts, I hallucinated a horror from the dark annals of urbanicide; the wrecking ball crashing into the old Pennsylvania Station, a soulless sea of franchises desecrating its ignoble grave.

In the years that followed 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, Washington and Wall Street operated with a deranged disconnect from reality. Prudence and thrift were mocked, the poor and middle class were trounced, and luxury condominiums, supermalls and sports stadia came first. The franchise mafia declared war on every precinct within striking range, cocked their weapons and went in for the kill.

My Manhattan neighborhood is scarred with wreckage from the war at home. The post 9/11 casualty list includes brownstones, boutiques, theatres, schools, lots of Irish bars, churches and synagogues for Crissakes! Apparently nothing is sacred except market value. As deficits ballooned, as our men and women suffered and perished in foreign wars far from home, our civic elders willingly acquired perilous levels of debt to raze city blocks for glass towers proffering "luxury lifestyles." Looks good on paper, you know, swimming pool, high tech gym, red velvet settees and faux Warhols in the lobby, and enormous Hi-Def flat screen TV's in every laundry room. I walk by this stuff every day, and may I report, it's not exactly The Carlyle. Envision a set from "The Apprentice."

snip//

The Real Estate Roundtable, the national commercial real estate industry's lobby arm in D.C., is hustling for $20 billion in TARP funds to boost the commercial credit markets so they can build more skyscrapers and supermalls. They're also hard at work persuading the public that such expenditures are beneficial to the common good, at a time when millions of citizens have lost jobs and are forcibly evicted from their homes, punished for Wall Street's malfeasance.

But now citizens are fighting back. Home Defender, a new civil disobedience campaign, is holding meetings in New York and other cities to support families who refuse to vacate their homes under pressure from banks with toxic assets. Hundreds of endangered families have joined meetings in churches and community centers last week, organizers anticipate tens of thousands more will soon join the movement. Brooklyn Speaks, a coalition of community and civic groups has asked Governor Paterson not to grant federal stimulus funds to Forest City Ratner for the Atlantic Yards office tower/stadium project, which is out of cash after tossing dozens of families out of their homes with the assist of the "eminent domain" ruling.

The crash came just in time to save the East Village from rape and pillage. Plans were on the table to hack out the heart and soul of Freakville, Avenues A to D, the last holdout of the Blarney Stone and bodega. In much of America the franchise mafia is the only game in town, they've already killed every local business in sight. Given the wealth and power of the real estate lobby, they might grab a hefty slice of the bailout for more condos and supermalls. As you lurch into a doorway of the last Blarney Stone standing, and you ponder the systematic bankrupting of our national finances, the vulgarization of our cities, the deliberate neglect of the poor and the Rule Of The Really Rich, remember; Boycott the franchise mafia! Support your local bar!!!

[niyad]

1. and my favourite local bar is within walking distance (and the wings and 'shrooms are the best)

[DS1]

2. that's my motto

besides, you don't have to drive.

[OmahaBlueDog]

3. Don't stop there. Support everyone's local bar when travelling. Why?.....

I travel regionally on business. Mostly day trips, but I have to do a couple of overnights a month. Recently, we were all admonished to slash our travel spending. It seems some of my co workers like to eat and drink a little too well. However, I learned fairly early on that local bars offer some outstanding dine-out value. Happy hour draws for as little as a 1.25 - in some cases, a pitcher can be had for about $7 (the cost of 2 beers at a national chain).Wing specials - The other night, I ordered 2 beers, 10 wings, and a side salad at a local chain (2 stores in central NE, and 1 in IA)and got out, with a 20% tip, for $12. Why? It was .30 wing night. Some places have pretty decent happy hour buffets. Others have really good prices on burgers and sandwiches.

[babylonsister]

4. I knew a lady years ago who lived in NYC. She

knew all the local haunts and what they served. She went to a different one every night depending on what was being served in the buffet. Had herself a drink or two, and dinner was free. Not a bad idea when considering rents in the city, which have only gotten worse.

[Mind_your_head]

5. 'Highest and Best Use" in Real Estate Terms only refers to the monetary value

that a property can bring/generate. This real estate principle has always greatly bothered me.

I asked once if a community center or a high end hotel were considered being built on a piece of land, which was the 'higher & greater use'? Answer: If the hotel could rake in the $$$ that's the 'higher greater use' over a community center ~ always! No question about it.

That's a BIG part of what's wrong with 'today'? Money takes precedence over ANY OTHER MEASURE/SORT OF VALUE. Money is NOT everything! We've become lopsided people instead of well-rounded people....we place too much emphasis on money itself and have lost sight of what is 'truly valuable'.

[ejpoeta]

6. sorry, i don't go to bars anymore...

but when i did, they were local bars, for sure.

[Captain Hilts]

7. I do, because I don't drink and alcohol prices subsidize food prices! nt

[tomreedtoon]

8. There ARE no local bars.

And there are no local stores. There ain't nothin'. If you want to drink, drink alone at home. That way you won't get into fights and hurt other people, and you won't be driving anywhere so you won't kill any little kids.

[babylonsister]

9. You must be living in the country.

Did you even read this? It really doesn't have much to do with drinking.

[tomreedtoon]

10. I do live in a country. The United States.

And there are no local bars any more. They are all owned by corporate entities. Unless you somehow believe independent entrepreneurs are allowed to rent hotel space in the lobby of your local Hilton. And I live in a fairly large city (Orlando) and I get around to all kinds of other cities, large and small. I repeat: there ARE no local bars.

[babylonsister]

11. I said 'the' country, and pretty

much assumed that would be this one. But thanks for the clarification. Testy, are we?

And I just bet you're not looking if you can't find any, but I'm not really interested in local bars in Orlando.

I live in Houston and know of several, though I never frequent them. I think it's a different situation when you live in a city like NY vs. Orlando or Houston. We are a lot more spread out.