My guess would be that is that it's not an outright conspiracy, but opportunism by individual actors (circumvrenting rent protection for example, or populism) c

My guess would be that is that it's not an outright conspiracy, but opportunism by individual actors (circumvrenting rent protection for example, or populism) combined with a general push toward making the city center more proper for all sorts of reasons that affect a lot of popular cities (rising value, 'fancy' tourists, etc.). I think it's a sign of a bigger societal/urban change, and that the bigger, underlying problem is rapidly increasing segregation. My experience with any coffeeshop is that the vast majority of its clientele is, off the top of my head: 1) left-wingish 'hippie' type, 2) muslims/'ethnic' groups, 3) working-class individuals or 4) a certain subset of tourists. Most coffeeshops have at least a whiff of seediness. anyways, what all these groups have in common is that they're not particularly liked by those who have a stake in the future of urban centers. These places should be clean, expensive, commercial, and acceptable to as many people as possible.