Who do I vote for if I want a workshop office like this to be legal?
SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
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Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#12Nothing worse then having cafe shops being packed with people working on their notebooks taking whole tables and not allowing people to enjoy them to drink their tea. I wouldn't mind if they would forbid notebooks in cafe shops like Starbucks
It's literally called Workshop Cafe. It's built from the ground up to be a workspace and cafe in one. If you want to enjoy your tea, go to Samovar.
Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#13Who 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.
Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#14Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#15Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#16Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#17So 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.
Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#18It 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...
Have you ever been there? I went a bunch of times just to use it as a coffee shop and it felt no different to any other coffee shop from that perspective. Hard to imagine who benefits from this (other than the national/multinational coffee chains in the surrounding blocks).
Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#19The 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 rationale behind it?
Re: SF Zoning Department rules that Workshop Cafe is an office, forcing it to close [pdf]
#20This decision is a real shame. There is real value to a space like Workshop that provides food and business services in a social space in the Financial District. A decision like this, which does not take into account the consequences to SF's everyday life, is one of the thousand tiny cuts the city inflicts on itself to no purpose.