At least 5 businesses along Wealthy and Cherry Street were vandalized at around 5:00am Saturday morning. The Sparrows, The Winchester, The Meanwhile, The Greenwell and Richard App Gallery, all of which are locally-owned businesses, sustained varying degrees of damage. All were tagged with anti-establishment graffiti warning the businesses that they don’t belong in their respective neighborhoods.

The Winchester (648 Wealthy St. SE) bore the brunt of the damage when the front pane of one of it’s largest windows was smashed out with a brick marked with the circle-a anarchy symbol. Winchester owner Paul Lee, who received a call from the police at 5:30 this morning, returned to Grand Rapids from a family gathering in Cheboygan to assess the damages.

“I don’t feel that this is obviously anyone that is really from this neighborhood,” Lee said, “It seemed like the businesses were targeted - the ones that are frequented by younger people.”

Charlie Rello, who lives on Wealthy St., was surprised to see the damage this morning. “It’s not something that happens that often,” he said, “not like that. You might see graffiti like faces or words that are people’s tag names... but you don’t necessarily see something off the wall racist.”

The damage toll:

The Sparrows Coffee Tea and Newsstand (1035 Wealthy St. SE)

The storefront’s two largest windows tagged with the words “urban renewal = classist + racist” and “Fuck You!”

The Meanwhile Bar (1005 Wealthy St. SE)

Both front windows tagged, already been cleaned as of 11:00am this morning.

The Winchester (648 Wealthy SE)

One large window smashed, other windows tagged with graffiti that read “Gentrify this!” and "Yuppie Scum yer[sic] time has come!" and had a cartoon drawing of a pig.

Richard App Gallery (910 Cherry St. SE):

The Eastern-most wall tagged with the circle-a anarchy symbol.

The Greenwell Gastro Pub (924 Cherry St. SE)

Front windows tagged with the circle-a anarchy symbol and the words “This is not your neighborhood!”

[UPDATED] Townhomes behind ICCF

Rachel Lee, an East Hills-based community organizer, submitted a picture of the graffiti on a garage referred to by Ryan in the comments below. This garage belongs to one of the new ICCF-built townhomes between Cherry and Wealthy. The graffiti reads "Get out." Click to expand on the image in the sidebar above and to the right.

Business as usual

The GRPD crime lab was still collecting evidence at 11:00am. The Meanwhile has already been mostly cleaned up, and Lee is in the process of repairing the damages to his restaurant. It will be business as usual when the restaurant opens up tomorrow at noon.

“I don’t feel as though it should affect anything as far as the way business is run around here,” Rello said, “I don’t think anyone is going to up and move out because a brick was thrown or graffiti was placed on somebody’s window... They might tighten up security or something, maybe a cop or two... but I don’t think it’s going to scare anybody from walking up and down and doing their business here.”

Echoing Rello’s sentiments, Lee is optimistic about the future of The Winchester in the neighborhood.

“It won’t discourage us. In fact, we’ll just come back and have even bigger projects."

Map of vandalized businesses: