Miss Jo's San Francisco

MISS JO’S GIGGLING OVER THIS WEEK’S MISPLACED MARKETING OF Segway billboards rolling through San Francisco’s Mission District promoting McDonald’s new McCafe barista-like coffee.

Do fast-food advertisers really think South-of-Market indie cafe dwellers are going to unplug their laptops at Mission Pie and hustle over to McDonald’s @ Mission and 24 Streets?

The McCafe Segway soldiers are being used in the U.S. and Europe to fight coffee wars that are predominantly being waged between McDonald’s and Starbucks. The McCafe’s ad budget is $100 million for all media, which would include Segway sightings like this one snapped by Mission Mission .

But marketers getting under San Franciscans’ skin won’t be easy. Locals love their indie coffee shops, which flourish thanks

Martha & Bros., Upper Noe Valley

to superb coffee and super-strict curbs on chain stores locating in the City. Today, the zoning rules would never allow McDonald’s in the Mission to be built, and more recently the neighborhood spurned national chain American Apparel’s efforts to open a Valencia Street store, despite the company’s do-good ethics and use of organic cotton.

While there are Starbucks tucked elsewhere in the City, there are none in the Mission.

Not surprisingly, San Francisco’s general local-biz-first ideal has helped grow an economy where 85 percent of businesses employ 10 or fewer people, according to the city. Miss Jo, a humble freelance writer, falls into

Church Street Race

these ranks and considers several cafes within a 20-minute walk to be an extension of her home office. Lately, she’s been getting her java at the end of Church Street in the Upper Noe Valley, at Martha & Bros.@ Duncan Street or Cafe XO @ 30th Street, where the J-Line Muni Metro turns. On her way home she grabs a pound of something @ Drewes Brothers Meats and fruit @ Church Produce. And with any luck, she won’t run into any McCafe Segway riders, or for that matter, Big Red Yarn Balls. Photos by Miss Jo (except McCafe Segways). Top photo, view of Noe Valley from atop 29th Street. Beyond Noe, is the Mission and Potrero Hill. Across the Bay is Oakland. The peak is Mt. Diablo.