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ANC 5C Commissioner John Salatti is circulating a petition in a last-ditch effort to convince Yong Choe, who bought the corner building at 1821 1st Street last October, to turn it into anything other than a dry cleaners (since there’s another dry cleaners just a hop skip away). It reads:
Although we definitely appreciate the owners’ efforts to rehabilitate a long-vacant building and put it back into useful service, we do not support the opening of a second dry cleaning establishment. This area needs a variety of services that we do not have currently and which we as neighbors would support heartily. These services include sit-down, full-service restaurants, boutiques, stationery and card stores, consignment shops, electronics stores, child-care centers, hardware stores, bakeries, delicatessens, diners, pet grooming establishment, vet clinic, bank, etc. These are businesses that we want, that we need, and that we will patronize. We are not likely to patronize another dry cleaning establishment.
The effort, now at 75 signatories, may be too late—all the construction permits had been issued by April, and construction is already well advanced on the cheery lavender-painted building. There’s always boycotts, though.