Gone!
Barracks Row Starbucks Removes Sidewalk Café
by Larry Janezich
Yesterday, Starbuck on Barracks Row removed the tables, umbrellas, and chairs which formerly occupied the space in front of the coffee shop. When asked why, an employee said, “Oh, they took them away for the winter.”
A better bet is that the seating attracted a large contingent of semi-permanent non-customers – some waiting for the buses which stop in front of the shop and some just waiting.
The action comes in the wake of comments made to the ANC6b ABC Committee last August 29th by Matchbox Food Group vice president Fred Herrmann. Herrmann cited several issues troubling Barracks Row restaurateurs and merchants, including “panhandling” in front of Starbucks and 7-11, the unsafe condition of the sidewalks – particularly the uneven surfaces presented by the one foot square pieces of slate which augment the herringbone brick sidewalks – and lastly, the conditions in the alley backing up to 7th Street between E and G Streets, SE. See CHC’s report on the latter issue below.
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 
Actually they routinely take down the tables and chairs in the fall and put them back up in the spring. The timing probably more related to arrangements for collection and storage than anything else.
Thank goodness, that collection of non-paying customers always created a problem. I hated going to that Starbucks for exactly that reason.
Joe–Facts would ruin Larry’s speculation. Stop it.
I guess the 47 percent will have to find another place to idle away the time between collecting government handouts.
LOL, I remember when Marvin, one of our local homeless, (who dissappeared, or maybe passed?) stole chairs from the ONH and set up shop on the corner…before Starbucks was ever there. I told him that he can’t do that…and he said to me, “you ain’t the pol-lice”. Anyway, it does make for a great first impression when non-paying customers squat at those tables. Not the welcoming committee that we would rather have in any event.