Iconic owner of White Dog Cafe looks to new life

By November, she trusted Grims enough to move on the deal, as long as he signed a "social contract" agreeing to use sustainable energy and compost and buy materials from local, organic suppliers.

On Jan. 12, the sale was final.

"An old friend of mine flew in with caviar and champagne," Wicks said. And her new life began.

She still owns the building and plans to live off her income from the rent. It was just a block away - on Walnut Street - that she committed her first act of civil disobedience by lying down in front of a bulldozer to stop the city from building a mall. (She ultimately lost that battle. Evidence: the modern buildings behind the White Dog, occupied by the Gap and Starbucks.)

It looks as though Wicks will also lose her fight to save the White Dog's arts, crafts, and other cool stuff shop, the Black Cat, she said as she dipped into a bowl of yogurt and granola. She checked her iPhone for messages. (It went off several times, unanswered. The ring tone is a dog barking.)

From now on, she's dedicated to nothing less than world peace, through building self-sufficient communities.

Business is not the enemy. Nor are profits, she said.

"But we need to eliminate suffering from workers in sweatshops, from chickens in crates, from coal miners. For too long, our economy has been based on domination and violence. So I think it's the most important thing to be done in the whole world."