Controversy brews over Yosemite Starbucks plan

Starbucks in Yosemite? Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, does it?

Well, after The Fresno Bee reported the other day that the park’s concessionaire was in talks with the coffee chain, a great hue and cry went out across the land.

To many of those who signed a petition protesting the plan, a Starbucks in Yosemite Valley is the beginning of the end.

“This could start a trend that has already seen the introduction of corporate sponsors like Budweiser, REI, and Subaru for the National Park Service,” Freddie Brewster told the Bee, conjuring up images of the Nike symbol plastered over El Capitan and Big O Tires billboards going up in Tuolumne Meadows.

Lisa Cesaro, the marketing manager at Yosemite Hospitality, told the Bee that the park is looking to “enhance the visitor experience.”

Bad idea, Mrs. Cesaro, said the 15,478 people who have signed the petition on Change.org to change the mind of anyone else hoping to bring Starbucks into one of the most beloved national parks in the country.

“Multinational corporations have no place in our National Parks,” the petition reads. “The opening of a Starbucks in Yosemite Valley opens the door to further undue development. The Park will lose its essence, making it hardly distinguishable from a chaotic and bustling commercial city.”

Meanwhile, over on social-media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, the pro-Starbucks and anticorporate crowd are going at it. Here’s just a taste:

“I have no problem with a starbucks in Yosemite,” Government Is A Failure writes on Fox News’ site. “Just keep all signs inside the building. Who cares what coffee company has a store in a food court? When you are outside looking at El Capitan and Half Dome and dodging bears you won’t be seeing the store. I think it would be great if they put a simple coffee place right next to the Starbucks that sold a simple cup of coffee for $1.50 with $1 donuts and see which one wins. A coffee and a nosh at Starbucks costs anywhere from $6 to $10.”

Other readers at Fox weighed in.

“What other vendors sell food at this food court?” asked one. “Any other multinationals? Every fast food business seems to be multinational. Why single out Starbucks?”

And someone named “Despise Leader” went after the socialist lefties he/she felt were behind the protest: “Yosemite is nothing but a Liberal enclave the ctrl-left has stolen from we the people and is truly Govt Gone Wild. At Yosemite the inmates are truly running the asylum. What Yosemite has been turned into should scare every American.”