The $4 toast debate, which has had San Franciscans in a tizzy for nearly 3 months, may have finally reached a breaking point over the weekend, when the folks at San Francisco Magazine weighed in -- by employing Seussian rhyme.
A Venture Beat blogger ignited the debate back in August when she cited the $4 toast at coffee hot-spot The Mill as evidence that the influx of wealth from the tech industry is ruining San Francisco. Then, Eddie Kurtz, founder of the Courage Campaign (a group akin to MoveOn.org), got involved, decrying the $4 toast as the last straw in The City's affordability crisis. The Courage Campaign issued a petition to Mayor Ed Lee, urging him to "Stop catering to the 1 percent" and "Start fighting for an affordable San Francisco." Of course, the petition strays from the original point of contention -- toast -- and opens the debate up to the much larger issue of cost of living.
Last Thursday, the SFist weighed in, reminding readers that the $4 toast in question is made by a human being - in fact, by a local small business owner. Over the weekend, the folks at San Francisco magazine backed up the SFist with their own response to Kurtz, riffing on Dr. Seuss's 1984 allegory about mutually assured destruction, The Butter Battle Book.
The four-stanza piece of rhyming verse packs a punch, ending as follows:
So is tony tech toast really at fault?
For this should we force economics to halt?
Of course what we need is a city affordable
But are luxury goods and their buyers deplorable?
We know of some places where the toast is real cheap
They're Flint, they're Detroit, hell, they're Walnut Creek.
But we're San Franciscans, for better or worse,
And tech's tax money lines our city purse
So with some leftover dough from Biz Stone and Ron Conway
Let's have ourselves a bread and jam giveaway
And for his reelection campaign, we'll hear the mayor boast
"If they haven't got cake, then let them eat Toast."
· The Great Techie Toast Debate in Seussian Rhyme [San Francisco magazine]
· What Does Your Toast Say About You As A San Franciscan? [SFist]
· Courage Campaign targets Mayor Ed Lee, says he caters to the 1 percent [SF Gate]
· $4 toast: Why the tech industry is ruining San Francisco [Venture Beat]
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