It was good to read that people in NY will pay extra to fund an enlightenened corporate ethos around boho chic furniture and homewares ("...customers willingly paid as much as 20 percent more for products bearing labels that cited a positive social impact -- in particular, the use of fair labor practices in their manufacture.").
But it was surprising that a department store in NY (ABC) beat the Left Coast to this concept.
Yup, all the action has been in NY for the last week. The Chron even paid reporter Zahid Sardar to cover the Bay Area's noteworthy contribution to ICFF, the mammoth contemporary furniture showcase. Highlights after the jump.
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King of the roses: The rose has met both its match and its maker in Tom Carruth, a 54-year-old hybridizer who's won 9 All-America Rose Selections awards in 10 years.
• A three-ring design circus: Practically a who's who of the San Francisco contemporary furniture design world.
• PICK OF THE WEEK: Buddleia alternifolia: Demetra Bowles Lathrop plants Buddleia alternifolia to conjure butterflies in a year when they are in short supply. This bush's street name is, literally,"Fountain Butterfly Bush."
• At ABC, shoppers can align spending with personal values: ABC Carpet and Home is one of our favorite places to lose an afternoon in NY, and they are now sweetening the pot (as well as making it more pricey) by evolving towards a corporate goal of showcasing and selling "100 percent responsible design."
"It was good to read that people in NY will pay extra to fund an enlightenened corporate ethos around boho chic furniture....but it was surprising that a department store in NY (ABC) beat the Left Coast to this concept".
Why do you find this so surprising?
Can you identify that great piece of furniture, please?
Surprising because I find people in the Bay Area to be much more aware of fair labor and sustainability concerns when it comes to commerce and consumption than people in NY. (The big exception of course is around cars, but that's a function of infrastructure.)
I left NY 5 years ago, so my impression could be outdated. Things do sometimes change for the better!
According to the Chron, the nightstand is by Ted Boerner and is available through De Sousa Hughes here in SF
Perhaps, Lisa, yours is an outdated bias and stereotype that many Bay Area residents seem to project on to NYC. I think you would be pleasantly surprised to witness that even with the development on steroids going on in New York, there is simultaneously a growing, educated awareness for more "people" oriented concerns, too.
And I don't believe that driving mega-sized SUV's in the Bay Area is so easily dismissed as "a function of infrastructure" as you suggest.
I'm not sure how long you were in NY Lisa, or what your experiences were, but I've been a NY'er for 38 years and can assure you that the vast majority of NY'ers are socially conscientious, reform minded and forward thinking people. And this isn't a recent development. Browse through the history books and you'll see that progress in fair labor practices began in NY. Other states then followed suit. Heck, just browse some of the discussions on NY AT for some insight into how much trouble NY'er are willing to go to and pay for, for greener and politically correct living.
Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now. Tho' I have to ask, do many Bay Area folks share the same opinion as Lisa about eastcoasters? Just curious...
NY and the Bay Area are wonderful in very different ways. NY is a hive of commerce, culture and intensity -- and yes, it's chock full of progressive, reform-minded people. But it also has a level of density (in population, social history and urban development) that the West coast does not, and (I believe) that makes it a little easier for folks here to integrate social and environmental causes into everyday life.
(fyi, I'm actually a third generation New Yorker. I lived in NYC for the first 31 years of my life. I've lived in 3 of the 5 boroughs, attended public schools the whole way through and took the subway everywhere. You can't really get more NY than that. But more importantly, I LOVE NY and have a very high opinion of New Yorkers. I also love the Bay Area and think I'm lucky to have a chance to live here, too.)
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree about your premiss, because the high density, social history and urban development actually necessitated and is one of the many reasons for the long history of high level social and environmental way of life in NY. Oh well.
I actually think Lourdes is right about (the reasons for social activism in) NY.
So what do y'all think accounts for the Bay Area's strong traditions of activism and environmentalism? Are they not rooted at least in some way in the belief (real or imagined) that California presents us with a clean slate, a fresh opportunity?