Listen Local is Mission Local in audio form. We record live on a biweekly webcast at BFF.fm every other Thursday morning from 9:30 to 10:00.
In this week’s episode, we bring on special guest Alan Beatts, the owner of Borderlands Books, to discuss a controversial stance he took upon announcing that his bookstore would close: Beatts blamed the voter approved minimum wage increase. We discuss Beatts’ position that the minimum wage bump was the death knell for his business and what can be done to protect other small businesses like his. (Since recording this interview on Thursday morning, Beatts has since announced he’s got a new plan for staying in business.)
In the second part of our show, we discuss our investigation into the owner of the building that caught fire in the Mission last month. We debate what the city’s role is in investigating negligent landlords and what could be done to prevent catastrophes in the future.
Listen here:
The minimum wage went from $10.74 to $11.05 on January 1, and goes to $12.25 in May. If he’s riding on that thin a margin then his business model will never work no matter what he does. He has said he does plan to keep the cafe, though.