Posted on 11/30/2008 10:20:49 PM PST by CE2949BB
The Fox Theater restaurant is proving a hard hole to fill.
Dozens of restaurateurs have toured the 3,000-square-foot space, and no fewer than eight have said they can’t make a project pencil out at that site due to Oakland’s living wage requirement.
The Fox hole’s fortunes could be turning, however. Business proposals from restaurateurs were due Nov. 17, and three were submitted. Phil Tagami, whose firm, California Capital Group, has managed the Fox rebirth, said that two other parties unaware of the formal proposal process expressed interest in the site, despite the wage requirements. He declined to say who submitted proposals.
The Fox Theater restaurant space is bound by Oakland’s living wage ordinance because the city invested over $100,000 in improvements. The ordinance requires employers to pay workers $10.39 an hour if they offer benefits and $11.95 an hour without benefits. That could cost a restaurant owner an additional $175,000 to $225,000 per year, Tagami said.
“The whole point was to get out of San Francisco” with its high labor costs, said Trip Hosley, the owner of Sauce in Hayes Valley and one of the restaurateurs put off by the wage ordinance. “But as much as I don’t like what we have in San Francisco, at least everyone’s paying it.”
In Oakland, a restaurant like Flora right across the street is not forced to pay the higher wages, Hosley said.
Max’s Restaurants also toured the site as a possible location for a Billy Berk’s restaurant; it also balked at the wage issue.
Oakland is undergoing something of a restaurant renaissance, with several high-profile eateries under development, none bound by the living wage ordinance.
Not everyone finds the living wage a deal breaker, as the new proposals attest. If the theater is a success once it opens in February 2009, it could generate enough business for a restaurateur to stomach paying a premium on labor.
Tagami will present the proposals for consideration on Nov. 24. A restaurant could be open as early as August.
“The good news is there are interested parties,” Tagami said. “The underlying message here is that in questionable financial times, there’s still hope.”
| Oakland Pride |
Does the ordinance include expected tips? $12/hour after tips isn’t all that much in a high-end restaurant.
If it doesn’t factor in tips, no restaurant can make a go of it.
This living wage requirement is coming to your city and state. The rats will pass a federal law increasing the minimum wage to $9.10 with an inflation index. They will also had other costly mandates especially a health care payroll tax.
This living wage requirement is coming to your city and state. The rats will pass a federal law increasing the minimum wage to $9.10 with an inflation index. They will also had other costly mandates especially a health care payroll tax.
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You’re right. Up in Santa Fe the living wage was put into effect about 2 years ago. It started at $9.50 per hour for employers with more than 20 employees. It is due to go up again soon to $10.50.
The legislators that fought for it said the minimum wage was supposed to be able to support a family of 4 when it was put into law & that it no longer did.
I never thought minimum wage was expected to support a family of 4. I felt the reason for it was to encourage employers to hire teenagers or inexperienced people, moving them up to a better wage after they gain skills.
I work in the hotel industry and see many owners in Santa Fe that struggle as some of the more average size hotels employ less than 20. Of course they can’t find employees that want to work for under $9.50 now when they can go flip burgers for that. So they are forced to pay the $9.50 anyway. It’s a mess!
I came across a couple of ACORN's tentacles while trying to find information on tips. The Living Wage Resource Center and East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy.
ACORN and the rest of the snakes haven't gone anywhere.
If anyone wants to get a good grasp of the magnitude of this, check out the "Living Wage Successes" list @ Living Wage Resource Center.
Frankly, there are lots of people whose skills and value don't warrant "minimum" wage. They will be unemployed.
If $11.95 is a “living wage”, why not $111.95? How about a “Livin’ Large Wage”? Everyone in Oakland would be rich, right?
The so-called “New Party” is up to its neck in this program. Their talking points for supporters includes the family of four argument.
In my former city, we had a rat majority, but a couple of conservatives on the City Council. The ordinance got passed, by we managed to trim down the scope so severely that it basically applied to no one. Nevertheless, the rats were happy because they could say they’d passed one and the city went on the proponent’s list of ‘successes’. It’s interesting that very few of the cities on that list actually passed an ordinance that mirrors the one the supporters are pushing. They’re well organized and well funded, though, with nice little union printed signs, and now coming to a city near you.
What Marxists pretend they don’t understand is that prices increase as labor increases, as labor is a huge cost.
The never-ending dollar tree is what Liberals, via debt, want to pull from, and as evidenced by Detroit (UAW) the excesses of sloth and non-innovation cost us dearly.
Funny, wonder why the influx of cheap Mexican labor isn’t mentioned? I guess only when they work at Piatti, Pelosi’s restaurant chain.
That’s pretty interesting Armsted. Of course it passed here in NM because Santa Fe is so liberal.
I just find it ridiculous to even imagine that a minimum wage job should support a family of 4. What employer wants to take a chance on a high school kid that has never been in the work force if it requires them to be paid $10.50?
Sante Fe business owners are trying to get the increase to $10.50 to be delayed due to the economy, but I’m not sure how successful they will be...
Will they serve bean pies?
Easy fix here. The city of Oakland can subsidize the restaurant by waiving all city and property taxes. Proving once again, that the Government lunacy trumps market forces.
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