Gentrifying Businesses Again Targeted in Atlanta’s Cabbagetown Neighborhood

Stock photo from Williamsburg Observer

The following communique was sent anonymously to It’s Going Down and we reprint its contents below.

The communique reads:

On the night of January 6th, we smashed out all 3 of the remaining windows on Sock Fancy, the self-proclaimed “awesomely random sock shop” in the Cabbagetown neighborhood of Atlanta.

This is the second time in just over 2 months that Sock Fancy has had their windows smashed out. Still to this day, Sock Fancy has yet to repair their window from the last attack. The veneer of their shop has been boarded up for almost two months.Sock Fancy is a small part of a larger trend of gentrification in the Cabbagetown neighbrohood. We do not care if this business is ‘local’ or not, since it caters to an audience of milquetoast hipsters that are nowhere in the world.

While more and more shops, boutiques, coffee shops and condos are built in this former working-class neighborhood, rent prices sky rocket and those who are less fortunate are forced to move elsewhere. At the same time, the Georgia State Police harasses houseless people, denies them free food and tries to kick them out of public parks. All the while, Amazon speculates on making Atlanta the home of its second headquarters, a move that would restructure the city and make it entirely uninhabitable and unaffordable.

With this small action we hope to send a firm statement to all gentrifying businesses that have their sights set on Atlanta: Atlanta is not a stable environment for your business. Our city has a strong history of resistance to gentrification and capitalism. A history that includes blockading highways and setting fire to train tracks, storming airports and tearing down white supremacist monuments. You will not be welcomed here, you will be run the fuck out. Trust us, you ain’t seen nothin yet.

“We don’t beef on social sites, we just hit our targets”

– Some spirits of the night