Discussion for article #235586
Free donuts for the cops!
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Maybe the intentions are good here, but I somehow doubt that the lives of Ferguson residents will improve because more of them start paying $4 for a cup of coffee.
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Right…because black people are apt to flock to Starbucks with their laptops (or the occasional ironic typewriter) to pretend they’re writing the great american novel while dressed in retro-grunge plaids, man-scarves, wood-framed glasses and 80’s sweaters, sporting a pompadour and neckbeard…sitting around sighing loudly after each slurpy sip and discussing the latest Starbucks CD offering before strapping the typewrite to an old-school bicycle and peddling off in their toe-shoes and mis-matched socks on the way to their spirulina colonic.
Fail.
Besides, their coffee sucks…tastes like burnt fashion sense and thwarted dreams.
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I hate their coffee too, but why shouldn’t kids in Ferguson be able to do the same stupid stuff as everyone else in America?
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Chillax…I was just taking advantage of an opportunity to manufacture a sarcastic pooping-on-hipsters rant.
Besides, embedded in my comment was the assumption that they wouldn’t want to, because, well, have you ever been to a Starbucks and looked at or smelled these people? haha
But of course they should be able to if they want. I wasn’t at all intimating that they shouldn’t. I suppose we could categorize it as analogous to “of course everyone should be allowed to equally enjoy the misery of marriage.” ALL people are perfectly free to wear macrame hats, grow curly-cue moustachios and smell like salty garbage while they conform obediently to an imaginary counter-culture movement if they want. Quinao power!
Edit: And just so you know, I get to say this because I was a dirty hippy with long hair during the mid-90’s and followed Phish around like a religion. Still go to shows of course, but somewhere along the way I accidentally learned to bathe and hold a job hahaha…someday, hipsters will too.
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If I remember correctly, the median income in Ferguson is well below the national average. While I don’t begrudge anyone the chance to enjoy Starbucks if they wish, it is unlikely to be an experience many of their young people can afford with any regularity (i.e. it won’t really better the community).
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Well, do the math. Now that Ferguson’s governmental structure has been called out, the milking of the minority community for fines and court fees and other things will (supposedly) stop. Starbucks smells newly freed disposable income in the water.
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Yeah. I was thinking maybe they could work some sort of deal with the Ferguson Public Library–which (from what I read) actually does help kids in the community hook up with the sort of information that might fuel their aspirations–even if their current aspirations are no more than: Read books while drinking coffee in a public place.
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Make fun of Starbucks all you like, but unless you take a dim view of caffeine, it’s a safe environment. Of all the things a kid might do after school while waiting for the parent to come home from work, nursing a latte and writing bad poetry at a Starbucks is pretty low on the you’re-driving-me-to-an-early-grave scale.
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Yeah, as someone who long mocked and shunned Starbucks (and resented not being able to go three blocks in most of Manhattan without seeing one), I’ve come around. Shoot me if I ever order a fancy coffee, but you can get just a regular one, or even just iced tap water with one of their cheaper snacks or smaller all-day breakfast sandwiches. (This poor actor does it all the time.) And they let you sit for hours, and they’ve got free wifi. I can definitely see people finding it a positive addition to the community. Good for Howard Schultz – sure doesn’t bat a thousand in the ideas department, but his heart seems to be in the right place.
But @Sniffit’s hipster riff’s still funny. (Though – word-nerd alert – it’s spelled “pedaling,” Sniff…)
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They could advertise the library-coffee connection with the actresses from one of those great, funny library scenes in Orange is the New Black.
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