Vandals smashed a window. The words “white coffee” were spray painted in a cruel joke on the building’s exterior. And a coffee shop that had been doing business in Denver for three years without any problem suddenly found itself a target — and apologizing — for making its neighborhood a better place.
From Conservative Tribune:
The reason the shop known as Ink! Coffee was in liberal crosshairs was that it committed the sin of “gentrification” — and maybe the bigger sin of being proud of it — two sins that are apparently unforgiveable to the modern liberal.
The confrontation that closed Denver’s Ink! Coffee for a week took place in November in an area of the city called Five Points, which was once largely black, according to The Associated Press, but has “become one of Denver’s trendiest neighborhoods filled with breweries, restaurants and apartments.”
“Breweries, restaurants and apartments” is what liberals would call a dog whistle. Along with “gentrification,” it usually means white people — young adult white people with decent-paying jobs.
It was a clapboard sign on the sidewalk like a million other signs that have stood outside coffee shops and restaurants, carrying messages like the day’s specials or happy hour drink prices. This one said, “Happily Gentrifying the Neighborhood Since 2014.”
It didn’t take long for liberals to notice and start a social media campaign like this Twitter post that declared: “We are not cool with this sign on 29th and Larimer. Bad decision. Bad design. BAD. W.T.F.”
“The sign didn’t go over so well with some residents, many of whom congregated outside the little coffee shop in an angry mood. Hundreds showed up during a subsequent weekend to protest against the gentrification of their neighborhood, which they said had pushed out longtime minority residents. The shop building was sprayed with graffiti; at least one window was broken; the offending sign was carted off. The protesters demanded that the shop be shut down. Some wanted it replaced with a community center dedicated to helping residents with housing and other issues stemming from rising living costs in their neighborhood.”
So basically, a lot of pissed off poor, mainly black, people from the neighborhood didn’t like that the coffee shop made a funny sign that was speaking the truth? Pathetic.
