On Tuesday, November 25, South Grand’s business district sprang into action, responding to the vandalism undertaken in the wake of the Brown/Wilson grand jury announcement. During the early morning hours of Tuesday, around two dozen businesses had suffered damage, mostly from broken front windows; both chain and independent storefronts were affected, with numbers ranging from a few hundred dollars’ damage, to over $25,000, in the case of the new Rooster. With social media leading the charge, plans to paint the boarded-up building throughout the district were pulled together quickly.
So much so that by the evening rush hour, the street had almost come to a traffic standstill. Hundreds of cars were on the block, amateur and pro photographers taking snaps of the artists who’d materialized on to paint the vast square footage of wood now enveloping many of the block’s linchpin businesses.
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“Tuesday was just a strange day,” recalls Chris Shearman, the proprietor of the seven-year-old Gelateria Del Leone. “People overuse the term ‘surreal,’ but it was that. You don’t get much sleep the night before and the next day, you’re waking up to a very different scene on South Grand. We immediately had people here in the morning, from South Grand and City Hall. The immediate attitude was ‘Let’s get to work,’ which was awesome. Everything was just so quick; the different groups came together and communicated, you could really see the value of social media as a positive tool. Very quickly, everything was boarded up and, just as quickly, everything’s being painted. What felt like a negative series of events now had activity, from local leaders trying to help out, community people coming up to clean or volunteer for anything. Other people were just taking it in, taking pictures. You saw a line of cars, a parade of cars, rolling through with people trying to absorb what was going on. It was wonderful to see, though definitely a strange experience that will stay with me.”
While a large chunk of the business district boarded up proactively that day (which is to say, they weren’t damaged, but were girding against that), Shearman says that the option was never seriously considered for his own space, despite the Galateria’s large windows facing Grand.
“The first night, the only people who boarded up were at AT&T,” he says. “They felt that they were probably more at risk. So the first night [Monday], no one else boarded up. We didn’t know what to expect, but I have a lot of faith in our community, so we expected and hoped for the best. The second night, we knew that there was gong to be a larger police presence throughout the district. We talked to the police chief, and we’d expressed that we didn’t want to board up. We didn’t like the message that it sent, but wanted to know that we weren’t being foolish. He encouraged us to go ahead and not board up, and we felt a little more comfortable with that. We were also talking to the chief about closing early [on Tuesday]. We did not like the message that would send, as well. The police chief agreed, and we had confidence that the second night would go better than the first. We were all in agreement on that.”
The decision to not board up, Shearman says, was a decision based on the fact that “we’re in a unique position compared to other businesses. Although things could’ve happened to our business, we don’t have things of value accessible. For others, it made sense. I understand a place like Cheap Trx [boarding up], as they have so much of value readily available.”
What’s left is a strange scene. For anyone who’s shopped in, or eaten at, one of the boarded-up locations, there’s a strange sense of “off-ness,” one that’s starting to slowly dissipate. Clarkson Eyecare is among the first businesses to disassemble their boards.
“It’s a building-by-building, space-by-space situation,” Shearman says.
Which does leave the question of what will happen to the boards, post-need.
“We want these to be stored in different basement and storage spaces, and have them catalogued,” Shearman says. “We know there’s an interest in a presentation of some of the boards. This has been a model of how a community can come together to do good, unifying the community. Tom [Halaska] at the Art Bar is working with Rachel [Witt of South Grand’s business district] to see what we can do with these pieces of our local history. There’re a lot of people interested in how we can continue to spread the message of community.”
As that process occurs, more will come down, with another week, maybe two needed as “plate glass goes in quicker. The double-paned, or tempered glass, can take longer to fabricate. Those usually take about two weeks or so. The ones you’ll see up are those where there are actual windows missing. So you’re going to see a lot come down over the next week.”
In the meantime, grab those pics.
