COFFEE BEANS & BEINGS / ESSAYS ON GENTRIFICATION

Boyle Heights/Los Angeles is ground zero in the coffee shop wars

From PBS (January 2018): A recently renovated Mariachi Plaza is pictured in Boyle Heights, Calif., is a Hispanic and low-income neighborhood of Los Angeles that's fighting hard to prevent gentrification, the threat of escalating rents and "washed out" identity.  Click here for rest of article.

From Pacific Standard Magazine (October 2017): It's a timeless axiom that once a high-end coffee shop arrives in a low-income neighborhood, residents can kiss goodbye manageable rents and a lasting local culture, not to mention the absence of man-buns. There's certainly a measure of truth to that sentiment: Coffee shops have accompanied neighborhood change in places as far-flung as Williamsburg, New York; Oak Park, Sacramento; and Delano, Wichita. But the coffee shop ire has reached new heights in recent weeks, following the recent opening of a café in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles.   Click here for rest of article

From Los Angeles Times:  After vandals hit Weird Wave Coffee House, a target by some local activists for promoting gentrification, more than 100 customers returned the next day to support the new business.  Click Here for rest of article.

CON: Boyle Heights protester with mask.

PRO: Free speech without mask