21–30 of 85 posts
Who do I vote for if I want a workshop office like this to be legal?
Not Nancy Pelosi, since it’s her daughter who is the one that is the lawyer on this case.
I used Workshop Cafe a little and liked it, but I agree with the planning commission. All they were asking was for 2/3rds of the space to be available to the public. They could have made 1/3 reservable. They could have charged for wifi in the other 2/3rds or came up with other ideas.
So what good do use based zoning rules do? I can see prohibiting heavy industrial or chemical in residential areas but outside of that it seems like more harm than good.
They increase property values for existing property owners in high-demand areas by preventing innovative mixed-use implementations. Forcing supply of office space or residential area down, while demand stays high, causes prices to increase.
The issue seems to be the combination of more than 30% of the floor space being dedicated to reserved seating, and the Cafe charging for those reservations. What's more surprising to me is that an area zoned for retail restaurants is not zoned for office use. I see shop fronts in strip malls converted to ad-hoc office space all the time. I assume this is a zooming regulation specific to SF? What would be the rational…
Preventing tech converting all the retail and restaurant space to offices.
The issue seems to be the combination of more than 30% of the floor space being dedicated to reserved seating, and the Cafe charging for those reservations. What's more surprising to me is that an area zoned for retail restaurants is not zoned for office use. I see shop fronts in strip malls converted to ad-hoc office space all the time. I assume this is a zooming regulation specific to SF? What would be the rational…
I used Workshop Cafe a little and liked it, but I agree with the planning commission. All they were asking was for 2/3rds of the space to be available to the public. They could have made 1/3 reservable. They could have charged for wifi in the other 2/3rds or came up with other ideas.
does SF only allow fancy restaurants to take reservations for 1/3rd of their tables?
It has meeting rooms, desks,...etc. Not really surprised the zoning department ruled it was co-working space vs a cafe: https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x808580795532c08...
I wonder if this is a bit of a perception is 9/10ths of reality thing where the fact that the furniture looks too "office like" with the separated meeting table with an wall hung TV and other office-feel things; rather than cafe-like with exposed wood and pipes, Edison bulbs, copper stuff, monitors that are built into an enclosure instead of free standing, etc. the bureaucrats found a probably already biased/influenced position and finding easier to rationalize.
I know that may seem silly to some, but if you have ever worked with or in a bureaucratic and especially a political office, you will surely know what I mean when I am describing the use of any and all excuses and tiniest little reasons to rationalize a preconceived or forgone conclusion. It's really a major scourge on every single aspect of government and leads to these kinds of decisions.
My theory is that it largely stems from the fact that bureaucrats, including most politicians these days, simply have no real accountability or consequences for their actions and decisions, so some tiny technical violation can invalidate everything else on precept.
http://urbankchoze.blogspot.com/2014/04/japanese-zoning.html