Back to Inner Sunset Burger King Invasion

Ken Garcia's Article

Thank you to George Shirk for permission to use this article. Readers be warned that Mr. Garcia got a number of facts wrong. I did not enter the restaurant and "spray" anyone. I was also not prevented by Judge Kramer from entering the restaurant to speak with the owner about problems I had.

The San Francisco Chronicle

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KEN GARCIA -- Neighbor's Whopper Of a Beef

Fast-food restaurant in the Inner Sunset

KEN GARCIA

SAN FRANCISCO

Let the record show that Harry S. Pariser hates Burger

Kings, especially the one that opened next door to his

apartment.

Let the record further show that Eddie Szeto hates Harry

S. Pariser, whom he believes has waged an unholy war

against his Burger King franchise through increasingly

creative acts of harassment.

And let the record show that city planning officials

whiffed big time on this case and good taxpayer money is

now being wasted to deal with alleged crimes against a

fast-food factory -- one that never should have been

placed in a residential-commercial neighborhood that has

fought hard to retain its character.

Although the battle between Messrs. Pariser and Szeto is

just one case, similar conflicts are being waged in

districts throughout San Francisco, as neighborhoods

from the Bayview to the Marina are trying to fight the

proliferation of chain stores and fast-food outlets.

They are also railing against lax city regulations that

have allowed many of the businesses to begin

construction without public notice.

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More musings and whatnot at Columnists on The Gate.

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Which brings us back to the burger war in the Inner

Sunset. Despite strong opposition from local merchants

and neighborhood groups, the city granted a permit to

allow Szeto to build a small outlet at Ninth and Irving

last year. Szeto, an independent businessman who says he

just wants to earn a decent living, opened his doors in

December.

Pariser's kitchen window looks out at the huge,

wood-covered smokestack that ventilates BK's kitchen,

and when he opens his back door, front door or any

windows, the smell invades his living quarters like a

toxic cloud.

For a growing 13-year-old, this might be considered a

good thing. For the 43-year-old Pariser, this is what is

known as hell.

So Pariser took it upon himself to close BK's doors

whenever he walked by. Szeto claims he slammed them.

Pariser says he tried to talk to Szeto about his

concerns. Szeto claims he screamed at him and his

burger-chomping customers.

Pariser took his campaign home, where he displayed a

giant ``Boycott Burger King'' sign in his window, along

with his anti-BK jingle, ``Lies, Litter, Noise, Stench,

Slander.'' Pariser claims Szeto threatened to sue

Pariser's landlord for harboring a criminal. Szeto said

he wrote him a note expressing his concerns about his

tenant's actions.

In June, Szeto took Pariser to court, contending that

Pariser threw garbage into his outlet and committed the

other aforementioned acts. Judge Richard A. Kramer said

there was enough evidence to support some of Szeto's

assertions and issued a restraining order, barring

Pariser from entering the restaurant unless he was going

to be a customer.

So far, Pariser has resisted the urge to purchase a

Whopper, but Szeto alleges that several weeks ago,

Pariser did enter the restaurant and sprayed a

disinfectant or some type of aerosol inside. {lie!} He also

claims that Pariser sprayed a garbage bag and an

employee who happened to be changing it outside.

So Pariser is now in the hands of the public defender's

office, charged with violating Kramer's order. His

hearing date is set for October 30. Pariser says he is

innocent. Szeto basically hopes that Pariser, who has

written seven travel books, will soon go off to research

another one.

But the court case really centers on the city's seeming

indifference to commercial-residential neighborhoods

that have long been populated by small independent

businesses. Instead, streets like 24th and Fillmore are

being overrun by national chains, while smaller

service-oriented businesses are being closed down

because they can't afford the skyrocketing rents.

And in some cases, the neighborhood residents don't even

know what's going in until it's too late. Because

Szeto's Burger King outlet is just under 1,000-square

feet, city laws did not require neighborhood residents

to be notified, and by the time they organized, it was

too late.

City planning officials say that they are not allowed to

differentiate between national chains and locally owned

businesses when approving permits, but they acknowledge

that perhaps there are cases where some fast-food

outlets might be inappropriate.

That's an admission that has come too late for Pariser,

who would happily move away from the dreaded BK, if only

it weren't nearly impossible to find an affordable

apartment in this rent- crazy metropolis.

``Aside from having to hold my nose each time I walk to

my house, there are a lot of advantages to living in my

neighborhood,'' he says. ``The city didn't regulate this

from the beginning. Now, how are they going to regulate

something like smell?''