CLEVELAND — After windows and doors were shattered and property damaged, many businesses downtown responded to the violence and destruction that impacted their storefronts.
Pour Cleveland, a coffee bar on Euclid Avenue said that while it does not encourage violence and destruction, they are not judging the anger from vandals Saturday night.
“Property damage can be fixed, things can be replaced, lives cannot. While we don’t encourage violence or destruction, we will not judge a response to pain, oppression and injustice that we cannot begin to understand. Thank you for wanting to support us, but please put your money and energy into supporting and sharing causes for racial justice,” Pour Cleveland wrote on Instagram.
The coffee bar shared links to donate to funds and organizations dedicated to fighting racial injustices.
CLEveland Clothing Co., located on East 4th Street, also addressed damage that their store suffered Saturday night while thanking those who came out Sunday morning to help with the cleanup efforts.
Yesterday was a sad day for many downtown small businesses like ours, but when arriving downtown and seeing what Cleveland really is, brought tears to my eyes. This community is so awesome, I couldn’t believe what I saw. People from all over Greater Cleveland out cleaning up broken glass and putting the city back together. This is the Cleveland I know, this is the Cleveland that I fell in love with. Windows will be replaced. We will all open back up. Cleveland will be stronger.
The clothing company said that they were not looted and that they had moved its inventory and property Saturday morning as a precaution.
Flannery’s Pub on Prospect Avenue also expressed gratitude for those who helped clean up Sunday morning.
We are almost boarded up so I wanted to take this time to sincerely thank everyone that came down to help us all out today. We saw some old friends and made a lot of new ones. It was a good look today Cleveland ...keep showing the love!
REBoL, an organic cafe on Superior Avenue, shared a quote from Nelson Mandela and said that while it knows change is needed to fix racial injustices, destroying the city and small businesses “does not equate to justice.”
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