Last Wednesday morning, Dennis Crowley received a text message from his employees at the Gold Standard Café saying that their building had received a radical new paint job. The café, at 48th and Baltimore streets, was in its fourth week of operation. By the time Crowley arrived, employees had begun removing the splotches of silver. Broken Christmas ornaments that had held the paint lay shattered on the ground, and the word “Gentrifuckers” was spray-painted on the wall.
This was not the first “anti-gentrification” vandalism act targeting a new business in West Philly. Not long after it opened a few months back, WakeUp Yoga’s West Philly studio was decorated with the words “Yuppie Scum.”
Crowley (who used to work at City Paper) doesn’t believe anyone from the area could be responsible. Nearby residents, he says, know that the café’s owner, Roger Harman, has lived in the neighborhood since the 1960s, and that this Gold Standard is a reprise of the Gold Standard Restaurant that opened in 1979. “As a person who sort of identifies with counterculture movements, my initial reaction to any anti-establishment movement is sympathetic,” says Crowley. “But in this circumstance, and anti-gentrification vandalism in general, when it comes without knowledge of the history of the establishment, it’s an outrage.”
Crowley’s rage was soothed that day by customers offering condolences and assistance. Not to mention all the new patrons. “The tips by the girls working the counter were doubled,” he says.
One Comment
I’m not surprised that people are pissed about yups making everything into hip, white-friendly, “go-green” establishments. It’s comical that they didn’t do the homework and the place had been around for a while, and I’d be fuming if I were Dennis, but watching gentrification in action while long-standing local fare sinks into oblivion is probably maddening.