Some of you may know that the new Starbucks on Redlands Boulevard took the place of a Mexican restaurant called La Rosita.  Being a Redlands native I have never gotten food at La Rosita but I never really saw anyone there anyways.  I am assuming that La Rosita was going out of business because they weren’t receiving any customers or revenue.  However, recently writing a paper about the new Starbucks and it’s clientele I found an article from the Redlands Daily Facts that makes me think otherwise.

The article said that The Planning Commission of Redlands approved the plan of building a Starbucks there because they thought it would be a great addition to Redlands and that the property will be nice to have in the city.  This property was actually a landmark of Highway 99 built in 1960.  One of the commissioners says, “‘I did find it a little sad that this last vestige to historic 99 through our community is going down with the replacement of yet another corporate franchise that’s indistinguishable from any other of its outlets anywhere else’” (http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/government-and-politics/20140515/la-rosita-building-to-be-demolished-for-new-starbucks-in-redlands).  He continues however by saying that the recognition of the franchise is an “award winner.” Meaning that since people are familiar with the area and that there is now a popular franchise there, the clientele and revenue will be great.

Although I have to agree that it has brought in numerous amounts of people, I don’t think that the Starbucks was built entirely on the fact that it would be just a great addition.  Having a Starbucks in this area of Redlands brings in a certain type of person.  As in, upper and middle class people.  Growing up going to Redlands High School down the street, it was no secret that homeless people hung out around those fast food places where Starbucks has now been thrown into.  Thus, with the type of people that Starbucks usually attracts, I think that one of the aims of this new development was to weed out some of those homeless people.  They don’t want Redlands to look run down and unsafe, especially downtown where people go to socialize.

I think that this is a great first hand look about how cities keep their homeless numbers under wraps as well as how they try to hide their homeless people.  I never thought of building a “high-end” store as a way to kick out the homeless but it sadly makes sense.