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Big businesses are banned too, so really it's just about making sure those who were here first are sheltered from any newcomers. It's like Trumpism for liberal

by Apes 5y ago

Big businesses are banned too, so really it's just about making sure those who were here first are sheltered from any newcomers. It's like Trumpism for liberals. edit because hacker news won't let me reply: Big Businesses are literally banned from most places in San Francisco. If a business is over a certain size, they cannot open a franchise in around 90% of San Francisco. Last I heard, the cutoff was 6 franchise locations -- any bigger any you can't get approval. There are a couple of areas in the city where exceptions are made, but that's a very small part of the city.

throwaway8581 5y ago
Big businesses can afford to swallow upfront costs like that. Individual people using their savings to start a small business can't.
solarkraft 5y ago
Big businesses are more likely to be able to clear that cost of entry.
boringg 5y ago
My favorite example is that Blue Bottle a san francisco based coffee company that started as a super tiny shop ended up becoming one of the big companies and had a difficult time opening up coffee shops in the neighborhood due to the 6 franchise location. To be fair - it did take a lot of VC money to build out the company and it has a pretty impressive footprint. Still kind of funny to get kicked out of your own home turf. FWIW - as a former SF resident I love the diversity of stores without all the large chains coming in.
dang 5y ago
Please make your substantive points without flamebait. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- Apes 5y ago
  Let me be crystal clear then -- there are large groups of people in San Francisco who use intolerance and fear of newcomers as a defense against competition. They use regulatory capture to prevent people from moving here, and from opening businesses here. It's massively toxic behavior. I find drawing a parallel to Trumpism to be apt, since these are core defining traits of Trumpism. Yet despite all the valid hatred that Trumpism gets, the people abusing the same things in liberal cities get no criticism at all.
  - dang 5y ago
    I'm sure you have a good underlying point but this comment is not a step away from flamewar.

by Apes 5y ago

throwaway8581 5y ago

Big businesses can afford to swallow upfront costs like that. Individual people using their savings to start a small business can't.

solarkraft 5y ago

Big businesses are more likely to be able to clear that cost of entry.

boringg 5y ago

My favorite example is that Blue Bottle a san francisco based coffee company that started as a super tiny shop ended up becoming one of the big companies and had a difficult time opening up coffee shops in the neighborhood due to the 6 franchise location. To be fair - it did take a lot of VC money to build out the company and it has a pretty impressive footprint. Still kind of funny to get kicked out of your own home turf. FWIW - as a former SF resident I love the diversity of stores without all the large chains coming in.

dang 5y ago

Please make your substantive points without flamebait. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Apes 5y ago
Let me be crystal clear then -- there are large groups of people in San Francisco who use intolerance and fear of newcomers as a defense against competition. They use regulatory capture to prevent people from moving here, and from opening businesses here. It's massively toxic behavior. I find drawing a parallel to Trumpism to be apt, since these are core defining traits of Trumpism. Yet despite all the valid hatred that Trumpism gets, the people abusing the same things in liberal cities get no criticism at all.
- dang 5y ago
  I'm sure you have a good underlying point but this comment is not a step away from flamewar.