Thanks to my bro for sending me this article in the Philadelphia Weekly about the coffee scene in Philadelphia. (there's a photo of Chris at the very bottom, roasting coffee in what is clearly a masterful way.) It gives me a teeny tiny bit of hope, and it makes me think of our mayoral election of yesterday, and how, as Matt Gonzalez put it, even though we didn't win, we didn't lose, either.

Just in case the Starbucks people would like to know why I am so offended by them, I offer this as an example:

Schultz began changing the corporate culture at Starbucks, replacing post-hippie coffee evangelists with chain franchise business experts cherrypicked from McDonald's, KFC, Taco Bell and Pepsi. An elaborate corporate infrastructure was put into place to ensure the perfect mass replication of the Starbucks brand.

mass replication?

With little paid advertising, Starbucks managed to garner household-name status by spinning off its brand into supermarket drinks, CDs, websites, a magazine, airlines, rest stops, and hotel and bookstore chains. They call it viral marketing. At the same time new Starbucks stores kept opening at a dizzying pace.

viral marketing?

I was at Gonzalez headquarters last night with Daphne and Eli; we headed over there after fortifying ourselves with food and alcohol, and arrived in time to hear Peter Camejo, Art Agnos, Jeff Adachi and others speak, before Gonzalez himself made his concession speech. It was heartbreaking, and yet, the truth is- we didn't quite lose. 4 million dollars vs. 400,000 dollars, and Newsom only won by a few hairs? I was grateful for Gonzalez's tact and composure- it was a good speech, and it made me incredibly proud to have voted for him in this run-off. I can only hope people were actually listening when he spoke about how important smaller elections are. This process is all about taking steps and hanging in there for the long haul. And toothsome Newsom may have won this election, but as The Chronicle pointed out, he does still have to work with Gonzalez the board president, as well as "a prickly Board of Supervisors that hasn't been any too eager to support him in the past".
And as Matt put it:
"The campaign is bigger than one person. It doesn't matter whether we win in one particular race. What matters is, when Mayor Newsom is wrong, we're there to oppose him.''

There are 67 Starbucks in Philadelphia, but Old City Coffee and other small, independent coffee places are still doing fine- for the time being, at least. And that's something to hold on to.

All we have to do is continue to fight the virus, and never ever stop fighting.