Is “gentrification” a bad thing?
Well, it’s a good thing, to the extent that it means attracting commerce to an area and increasing spending and investment there.
It’s a bad thing, to the extent that it represents pushing people out of neighborhoods, and changing the nature of those neighborhoods into what attracts the most commerce.
Regardless, it’s not something you want to advertise without a ton of context and nuance and neighborhood buy-in.
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Yep, it blew up on Twitter all day Friday, vandalized over night and a large protest of the sign Saturday night. The Denverite did a great job of covering it.
The pic of the stolen sign ended up on twitter as well.
It was very interesting to watch this play out on twitter in real time.
I've patronized a number of Ink! coffee shops, including that one at Five Points. I remain flabbergasted that they could be as tone deaf as they were in that particular messaging.
(It's also remarkable seeing a local coffee shop show up in a story by the WaPo and the Guardian ][https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/23/denver-coffee-shop-sign-gentrification-ink-five-points%5D.)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/23/denver-coffee-shop-sign-gentrification-ink-five-points
+Dave Hill the power of social media, it was truly amazing to watch.
But what is ink!'s target audience? If it caters to upscale people, then the message can resonate.
Granted, upscale people with a conscience may be repelled.
+John E. Bredehoft it is an upscale coffee shop that opened up in an historically African-American neighborhood. While it may have been funny to the hipster white people that have been gentrifying the surrounding neighborhoods, to the PoC and long time white residents it was a giant FU.
+John E. Bredehoft Well, it's a Starbucks-like Coffee Shop that's Not Starbucks. They have a dozen or so locations around the Denver area.
I would imagine most of the clientele at the Five Points store would be from local businesses and their patrons; most residents don't go to coffee shops unless it's to find a place out of the house that has Wifi.
A side note.
https://www.denverite.com/gentrification-dictionary-searches-way-up-thanks-denver-ink-coffee-46090/