Night Sports and A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

I was tooling around Cal Anderson when I thought I saw the dodgeball kids starting up another raucous game in the tennis courts. Alas, it was bike polo - still nifty, but I'm not good enough on a bike to play. Walking on I saw a bunch of folks playing kickball on the playfield...ah, full utilization of public spaces is such a delight to see.

There's something great about night sports in Cal Anderson Park. I know there's lots of people who play 'normal' sports and don't keep score, and there must be someone out there who's obsessive about winning at dodgeball. But as someone who used to be that kid who was picked last in P.E. because of utter lack of athletic ability, it's nice to be able to play games where it's patently obvious everyone's here to screw around and have fun with the space we got.

This talk of the repurposing brings to mind something completely different - the Sbux-in-an-indy-tee remodel of the Starbucks store on 15th. I know that the sucessful indy trends move to the mainstream, and that rebranding is part of the life of a company. But this is just weird. It's not like Hillites aren't going to know that's it's still a Starbucks' store. And it's certainly not like Victrola and Vivace devotees are going to discover this new "indy" shop and come in droves. What are you trying to do, Sbux?

PS Things aren't off to a good start between ex-Sbux and the neighborhood...Linda Derschang is pissed that the 15th Ave Coffee and Tea-to-be totally ripped off her decorating scheme.