Video: Coffee Shop supporters crowd city council meeting, landlord pledges to work with owner

More than 100 supporters of Coastside Gourmet Coffee come to the Half Moon Bay City Council meeting Tuesday night to speak on behalf of the embattled coffee shop that may be evicted to make way for a Peet’s Coffee.  To keep things manageable, six people, including shop owner Raman Bechar, spoke on behalf of the shop. The primary theme was the importance of the shop to its patrons and the fear that local businesses will continue to be replaced by chain outlets.

Landlord Maher Shami made a surprise appearance at the meeting. Shami said that he can’t make his mortgage payments without more rent, but that he has discontinued his negotiations with Peet’s and has given Behar until Feb 15 to make an offer to pay a higher rent and upgrade the shop.

The County Times has a good account of the meeting by Julia Scott.

We will post the remainder of the city council meeting later.

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