Said Rago, “The biggest misconception is that bringing in national chains will magically clean up the walkway, which is utterly ridiculous. Apparently, the people that think this have never been to the McDonalds, Coffee Bean or Chipotle on Hollywood Boulevard. Many people think these national chains have a magic wand and will magically end homelessness, vagrancy, drug use, and theft… I wish! If they did I’d be all for them, but that’s not rational thinking or common sense. Again, the goal of the protests and boycotting them is so the City puts in an ordinance to prohibit more national chains to open in the future, like so many other cities have done all over the country to protect and preserve their character and uniqueness. If San Francisco can do it for areas like Chinatown, we can do it here for Ocean Front Walk. No one comes to the walkway to go to a Starbucks or a Ben & Jerry’s, and no one loves Venice because they have a Skechers or It’Sugar on the walkway, if anything people love it because it’s not homogenized like that. And if nothing is done who knows what we’ll be seeing 10 years from now: Sidewalk Café could be a Dennys, Big Daddys Pizza might be a Dominos, the Figtree Cafe might be a Jersey Mikes… Who knows?” A date has not been set yet for their next protest.
To help and support the Venice Dogz in their venture:
1) Discuss this with your friends, neighbors and visitors and tell them to boycott these establishments.
2) Join the Venice Dogz mailing list at http://www.venicedogz.org to join them in future protests.
3) Sign the online petition at: https://www.change.org/p/venice-dogz-no-more-national-chains-on-ocean-front-walk-in-venice and forward it to others.