Vandal Targets Coffee Shop … Gentrification Not Welcome in Boyle Heights

NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS--A small coffee shop at the center of multiple anti-gentrification protests in Boyle Heights was vandalized Wednesday, according to its owners.

Footage from surveillance video at Weird Wave Coffee showed a person — clad in black clothing and a black mask — stepping out of an alley, then quickly using what may be a slingshot to shoot an object at the shop’s logo. The object cracked the coffee shop’s glass door.

Shop owners John Schwarz and Jackson Defa said they don’t know whether the vandalism is associated with the protesters.

“It could have been just some punk kid,” Defa said.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating.

Since it opened in June, the coffee shop has been the target of multiple protests and online trolling.

Activists say the cafe poses a threat to local shops because it will draw in similar hip, new businesses that cause rents to go up, ultimately ousting tenants who have been doing business along Cesar Chavez Avenue for many years. (Read the rest.) 

-cw