Angry Opposition Greets This Week's Arrival of Carl's Jr. in Downtown SLO
BY STEVEN T. JONES
This week's opening of a Carl's Jr. restaurant on one of the most high-profile corners of downtown San Luis Obispo has provoked a strong, visceral reaction among those wary of the growing presence of large corporate chains.
Most people don't see the big deal. It's just free enterprise at work. We already had three Carl's Jr. restaurants in town, so what's one more? They see a fast-food restaurant, just another spot to grab a cheap, quick bite to eat. Period.
But others see a symbol. They don't see a restaurant, but a multinational corporation. They see that big, smiling star logo where their beloved Earthling Bookstore used to be, and they can feel the resentment, frustration, and sense of powerlessness welling up inside them.
"I was at Farmers Market when I saw it, and it just made me so angry," said 18-year-old San Luis Obispo resident Kyle Roth.
So strong were those feelings that Roth just had to take action, to do...something. He went home that evening and made a flier urging, "Don't Eat at Carl's Jr. Don't let Corporate America suck the life out of our local treasures! To join our picketing and protest, call Kyle at 542-9511."
The next day, Roth distributed about 60 of those fliers around downtown businesses and cars before getting a call from the San Luis Obispo Police Department letting him know that such fliering is illegal.
But Roth had gotten his message out and, with the help of a half-dozen people who responded to his call to direct action, he plans to picket the store–located at the corner of Broad and Higuera streets–during tonight's Farmers Market.
"I want to keep the downtown more unique and original. The corporations are poisoning the downtown," said Roth, who also cited the Gap and other Downtown Centre chain stores as contributing to the demise of downtown San Luis Obispo's individuality.
Another person may have reacted even more strongly than Roth. Early on the morning of Jan. 6, just days after the Carl's Jr. signs went up, someone pelted the unopened restaurant with stones, putting a half-dozen holes in windows throughout the front of the building.
Police Capt. Bart Topham said there were actually two separate attacks, one at 2:01 a.m. and one at 2:50 a.m., involving six to eight large stones. Although a young man was seen in the area around that time, there were no witnesses to the incidents.
"We could say that maybe someone has it in for fast food downtown, or it could be a random act," he said.
The attack left the restaurant looking battered and besieged during its first Farmers Market since the signs went up and caused a few snickers among the more liberal passersby, even as most condemn the destruction as pointless and ineffective.
Nobody was caught, so we can only speculate about the motives. But given the timing, scale, and rarity of such a pointed attack on a downtown business, most speculate that Carl's Jr. was chosen for a reason.
Even our local pro-business organizations have heard the primal scream of those concerned by the trend over the last few years of national chains snapping up key downtown vacancies, including five corners along Higuera Street alone.
Downtown Association director Deborah Holley said the association has gotten lots of calls about the new Carl's Jr., about twice as many from opponents as from supporters.
"For some, it symbolizes the epitome of a chain, or the L.A.-ization of our town, having such an obvious symbol of American fast food in such a choice spot downtown," Holley said. "For them, it's more of what it stands for than that this is a Carl's Jr."
Holley pointed out that there are also benefits to the community of having such a stable corporate presence in the downtown, and she supports its right to locate here, as does Dave Garth, director of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce.
"There is a little bit of grumbling and people who don't feel like it's the best thing for downtown, but most of our members believe in the free enterprise system," Garth said.
While he opposes throwing stones at Carl's Jr.–literally, at least–Garth doesn't take issue with those who would picket or boycott the Carl's Jr., calling it "the right Americans have to express themselves."
"If the people don't patronize Carl's Jr., they won't be there very long. That's the power the people have," Garth said. "The appropriate reaction is, if you like it, eat there, and if you don't like it, don't eat there."
In fact, the only other national fast-food franchise to enter downtown San Luis Obispo, a Taco Bell on Monterey Street, was shut down last year because of slow business. At its small, low-key location, that Taco Bell didn't generate any controversy, but it obviously failed to generate enough support from downtown diners.
Voting with their dollars is about the only power the people have in the case of Carl's Jr., because it wasn't subject to any political approvals in taking over the spot, only a review of its design and signage.
"I've had a number of people saying, ‘How can you let Carl's Jr. go in there?’" said city development review manager Ron Whisenand. "But in the city codes, a restaurant is a restaurant, and we don't regulate who can or can't come in."
He said Carl Karcher Enterprises Inc., which owns Carl's Jr., has actually been very cooperative, toning down the large illuminated signs and bright awnings it originally wanted in order to comply with city regulations.
Yet Whisenand also confirmed that city officials this week had to order the restaurant to remove a huge Carl's Jr. star logo–roughly 15 feet in diameter–that had been placed in a side window of the restaurant along Broad Street.
Carl's Jr. spokeswoman Narina Singh doesn't believe the stone throwing was a political or anti-corporate statement, but said that company officials are sorry to hear that some people are upset about their opening downtown.
"All I can say is we're disappointed with the reaction and we'll try to be a good community partner," Singh said. "Carl's Jr. is very active in giving back to the community. We support thousands of organizations."
Singh said Carl's Jr. restaurants have been picketed before, but usually by militant vegetarians and never to her knowledge for simply being a powerful multinational corporation.
The restaurant chain has also been boycotted by liberal groups because of founder Carl Karcher's support of conservative organizations. "Carl's Jr. is being boycotted by pro-choice advocates who claim that Carl Karcher, the owner of Carl's Jr., funds anti-abortion candidates," according to the Boycott News website.
Yet the reasons for Roth's boycott, and for the visceral reactions many locals have had to the new arrival, are far less clear-cut. They seem based more on emotion than reason, more of a lashing out than a call to any kind of action.
While young and a little unfocused about the actual damage national chains do to small towns like SLO, Roth's anger comes from the same well of discontent that caused rioting on the streets of Seattle last month, where a broad array of protesters lashed out against the World Trade Organization and the corporations that benefit from its policies.
Roth's reaction to Carl's Jr. springs from a political mindset that can probably best be gauged from a paper titled "China and the WTO's Dark Side" that he recently wrote for his Cuesta College English class.
"As corporations have developed their ability to tap into a huge global labor pool, they have less need for social welfare policies of any particular nation. Global companies may want various kinds of subsidies from the government, but when it comes to government regulations that could allow the people to exert control over big business, corporation ideology preaches 'free trade,' deregulation, and the downsizing of government," Roth wrote.
His paper even ended on a note of optimism and empowerment, with the belief that committed people can make a difference: "The good news is that there are thousands of groups struggling to create a more democratic control of the capitol and the capital. Protest leaders said Seattle activities were only a warm-up for what's to come."
Roth sees similarities between the protests in Seattle and the frustrations many people feel as they watch their downtowns inundated with chain stores and corporate logos, replacing the uniqueness of the mom-and-pop stores with market-tested homogeneity of large corporations.
"It's the same thing with the WTO riots," he said. "The people just want some control."
And while Roth said "violence doesn't solve anything" and "I wouldn't break anyone's windows," he also said that he understands the anger behind acts of rage. Æ
New Times staff writer Steven T. Jones has an alibi.