Article this morning in SF Gate describes how several vendors at the San Francisco Ferry Building are being priced out of expensive rents. These are mostly small, entrepreneurial vendors (with the noted exception of Scharffen Berger Chocolate, which was bought by The Hershey Company.) The article is a typical San Francisco “evil greedy landlord shuts out small businessman” type article. The comments are interesting–people still don’t understand that in order to live up to the ideal of a “fair living wage” and “health insurance for all” you have to PAY MORE for your products and services.

But politics aside, it does bring up an interesting issue about the future of the Ferry Building. It is indeed overrun by tourists; doesn’t really provide anything unique to locals (I can purchase Far West Fungi mushrooms or Cowgirl Creamery cheese at almost any Farmer’s Market as well as Whole Foods.).

My wish would be for it to stick to its original intention as a showcase for regional food products, but also as an educational center–lectures, book signings, cooking demonstrations and classes, etc. I would love to see Omnivore Books in there, which sells new and used (and antiquarian) cookbooks. I’d like to see it part of the celebrity chef tour. I’d like to see an episode of Top Chef there. I would like to see food gardening classes, a rooftop garden, etc. And I would like to see small independent producers still dominate. We don’t need both a Peet’s and a Blue Bottle. We don’t need both Reccuiti and Scharffen Berger/Hershey.

I would love to see something like Eataly. You can sign up for classes online. There is a wine education center, as well as a beer education center. I was completely blown away when I was there. It was not necessarily the place I would do my weekly grocery shopping (if I did weekly grocery shopping). But it was clearly a celebration of an ideal when it comes to food. In fact, it also hosted the world Slow Food conference.