Description from the event page:
----The community will picket the opening of the Blue Cat Cafe on Saturday, October 17.----
Austin, and the country, knows the story of Jumpolin, the piñata store demolished by Darius French and Jordan French of F&F Real Estate Ventures.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2015-03-13/jumpolin-and-gentrification-backlash/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/20/pinata-shop-austin_n_6905968.html
After the inexcusable brutalization of Jumpolin, The Lejarazu family, owners of Jumpolin, and the community, including the NAACP, La Raza Roundtable, PODER, Resistencia, Equilibrio and others, called for a boycott and for Austinites to refrain from conducting business with F&F.
http://equilibrionorte.org/2015/02/28/joint-community-statement/
It was revealed in the past months that the Blue Cat Cafe, owned by Rebecca Gray and principal investor Jacques Casimir, was taking over the lease at 95 navasota. Gray said she "couldn’t imagine any other home for her café than on the eastside."
They were contacted by community organizers to hold off from opening the Cafe while legal proceedings are underway. Unfortunately, they have shown no interest in truly respecting the owners of Jumpolin, while claiming to support them. The cafe opens tomorrow (Saturday, Oct 16) at noon.
This is why community members are calling for a picket of Blue Cat Cafe's first day. We want to send a message that people and businesses coming into neighborhoods must stand with communities that have been under attack, or they can expect the community to hold them accountable.
The cafe's leasing of the lot would not have been possible without the demolition of Jumpolin, and while their concern for animal welfare is laudable, that doesn't excuse their indifference towards the realities of the lot (the parking and outoor seating are on top of the Jumpolin lot) and who they are conducting business with. Their rent goes into F&F pockets, and your purchases will go to them as well.
Many people who contributed to Blue Cat Cafe's kickstarter did not expect them to move into the lot where Jumpolin stood. Many of us are animal lovers in Austin, but our love for animals should not come at the expense and disrespect of hardworking families, predominately people of color and the poor, who are being pushed out of the central city at accelerating rates, with increasing indiffference and callousness.
Come out tomorrow to stand with Jumpolin and all those displaced by racist and classist patterns of development in our central city