With the business that sparked their outrage closed for a fifth consecutive day, anti-gentrification demonstrators outside the ink! Coffee shop in Five Points Monday turned their displeasure toward one of the city’s elected leaders they say has prioritized growth over people.
A handful of protesters gathered outside ink! Coffee at 2851 Larimer St. just before its posted 6 a.m. opening time to find the lights off and the door locked. Some would-be customers came by over the next few hours but no one entered or exited the building. A sign saying the store would be closed for a long holiday weekend but open again Monday still hung on the front door.
Ink! hasn’t served a cup of coffee since a sandwich-board sign it placed on the sidewalk on Larimer Street reading “Happily gentrifying the neighborhood since 2014,” went viral on social media Wednesday afternoon. The sign — stolen Wednesday afternoon — angered Five Points residents who feel redevelopment is pricing many out of the historically black neighborhood and made national news in the process.
“I think that’s a success for the community,” Tay Anderson, who organized a protest in front of ink! that brought out about 200 people Saturday, said of the shop remaining closed. “We occupied the street, we occupied the sidewalk and we let people know that we won’t stand for corrupt politicians pushing black and brown residents out to gentrify our neighborhoods.”
One of the politicians Anderson and others view as part of the problem showed up to demonstrate Monday, too.
About 7:30 a.m., Denver City Council President Albus Brooks joined a crowd that had grown to about two dozen people to express his displeasure with the sign.
“This is absolutely ridiculous. It’s been incredibly divisive,” Brooks said, adding that the sign the coffee shop’s corporate management has apologized for and called a bad joke has “exposed a deeper reality in our community.”
Brooks, whose District 9 includes the area, said that his priorities now were to hold ink! accountable, support locally owned businesses in Five Points — such as Coffee at the Point and Whittier Cafe — and focus on creating policies that address the problems of gentrification.
But many demonstrators said they didn’t feel Brooks is sincere. They pointed to Denver’s urban camping ban, legislation that Brooks sponsored, and the council’s endorsement of plans by the Colorado Department of Transportation to expand Interstate 70 through the nearby Elyria-Swansea neighborhood as examples of Denver’s leadership prioritizing business over people.
Edward Armijo, who identified himself as a friend and neighbor of Brooks, said that if he had the money set aside for I-70, Denver would have a permanent plot of land for homeless people.
Repealing the ban and halting the expansion are two of Anderson’s stated goals. Others include creating a citywide coalition to address affordable housing and gentrification, and electing a mayor and City Council that will act on those issues.
“I am sick and tired of people who we have in office saying one thing when they’re running, then when they get in and it’s something completely different,” said Stephanie Perkins, a former Five Points resident who arrived at 5:30 a.m. to protest. “How come rent is so high and how come we can’t cap rent?”
Brooks pointed out the city was building 600 housing units for homeless people in the Five Points area, but protesters argued it was not enough.
Ink! has not responded to requests for comment on the sign and ensuing controversy since Thanksgiving. In a written statement shared on its Facebook and Twitter pages that day, company founder and CEO Keith Herbert wrote, “Over the coming weeks and months, I will continue to educate myself and my colleagues about this issue, and we will find ways to demonstrate the depths of our contrition by taking meaningful steps to support our local community and its residents.”
His Larimer Street store, also ink’s roastery, has been vandalized multiple times since the sign went viral. Graffiti saying “white coffee” was covered over by Denver crews Friday. Denver Police have taken a report on the damage.
Anderson and others say the company needs to close the location for good. The business falls in the River North Arts District, but protesters point out that’s a more recent designation for a part of Five Points. They say businesses willing to joke about new investment pushing out longtime residents don’t belong there.
On Monday morning, they chanted: “Lights out ink.”
Sondra Young, president of the Denver branch of the NAACP, agreed ink! should shutter the store, one of the company’s 15 locations in Denver.
“We find no humor in racism. We find no humor in privilege. What looks like a great opportunity for some is really displacement for many,” Young said of gentrification. “Community doesn’t look like just the people that can afford $2,000 a month rent. People that are low-income have something to add to the community, too.”
