On Saturday, 10 people gathered on West Leonard in Grand Rapids, to kick off a campaign to boycott the local distillery known as Long Road Distillers.

The boycott campaign was organized by the Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union, as a response to the recent adoption of two ordinances by the City Commission, ordinances that will both criminalize the unhoused. Long Road Distillers is co-owned by 1st Ward City Commissioner Jon O’Connor, one of the 5 members of the commission to vote in favor of adopting these ordinances.

The tenant union had sent out a Media Release, which reads:

The Grand Rapids Tenants Union (GRATU) will be holding a rally at the sidewalk in front of Long Road Distillers at 537 Leonard St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504 on Saturday August 19^th from 4-6pm. Signs with relevant messages will be at the rally but people are welcome to bring their own.

GRATU is promoting a community boycott of Long Road Distillers because of the backwards decisions made against the public by City Commissioner John O’Connor, one of the owners of Long Road Distillers. His vote for anti-unhoused changes to the City ordinance expresses the wishes of the rich exploiters, and not the majority of people. John O’Connor voted to give the Grand Rapids Police Department a legal shield to intensify state terrorism against those who are deemed as unhoused in the City.

Anyone who wishes to show up against the unjust political system in Grand Rapids is welcome to join. In Beer City, those in power want us to prioritize the consumption of alcohol and events over the basic needs of the people. We must have Grand Rapids be known as a City that innovates in housing justice. A city where safe housing, health care, healthy food, and living wages are human rights, and available for everyone. 

We are calling for a Boycott of Long Road Distillers on W. Leonard, Less Traveled on Cherry St. Se and Long Road Distillers in Grand Haven.

There are clear consequences to voting on public policy that marginalizes those with the least power, and since there will be money and social costs to the unhoused because of the ordinance that Commission O’Connor voted for, then we are going to impose a cost on him with this boycott. 

The only local news agency to show up was WXMI 17, which ran a story the evening of August 19 during their 10pm newscast, a story which was also posted online, with the following headline, Small protest at Grand Rapids business urges city leaders to change new ordinance.

The Fox 17 story lasted 3:32, which features two sources, someone from the tenant union and City Commissioner Jon O’Connor, who also is one of the owners of Long Road Distillers. However, before the viewers hear from either source, the reporter stated that the “protesters single out one of the Commissioners because he has an influence on businesses.” This is a misleading statement, a statement which really frames the entire news story. The Grand Rapids Area Tenant Union singled out Commissioner O’Connor because he co-owns Long Road Distillers and they wanted to make him feel the economic impact of a boycott against his business because of his vote in favor of the two ordinances that will criminalize the unhoused. This point is made clear in the Media Release, which WXMI 17 received.

There are two points that Commissioner O’Connor made in response to the organized boycott of his bar, I want to address. The first, is when O’Connor says: 

“These were gaps that, you know, opportunities to address some gaps in the system based on, you know, behaviors in our community that we didn’t think were acceptable,” O’Connor explained.

This sentiment from O’Connor, is very similar to comments he made during a June Public Safety Committee meeting and reflected in the image here below.

It is important to note that when it comes to the growing number of people who are unhoused and housing insecure, you can’t solve the problem with a few tweaks in the system. The system is the failure, whether we are talking about the ridiculous rise in housing costs, the market-driven realities of the real estate and rental property markets, and the role that these industries play in influencing public policy, all of which we have addressed previously.

The second thing I wanted to point out was O’Connor’s weak claims that there are option for the unhoused, which is how the Fox 17 story concludes, by saying: 

O’Connor, on the other hand, offered several options for someone trying to seek shelter in the city of Grand Rapids right now— He says there are beds open and many resources available to help people get back on their feet.” 

“We have the Fusion Center, which operates at Crossroads Bible Church every week,” he said. “You have an opportunity, if you are unhoused, to go to one location to get an ID if you need it, to get signed up for your VA benefits or your SSI benefits, to take a shower.”

Let’s be clear, these are not solutions to the housing crisis in Grand Rapids, they are bandaids to a much larger, systemic problem. The beds that O’Connor is referring to are those that are available at Mel Trotter Ministries and Guiding Light Ministries. What we have been hearing from those who have stayed in these facilities is that they are not safe, they are not healthy and both of them are religious charities that are completely uninterested in challenging the current housing crisis or the root causes of this crisis. 

This point is further solidified by O’Connor who references the Crossroads Bible Church and the resources people can access there. While the resources are useful, they do not address the larger, systemic problems of the housing crisis. Therefore, it seems clear to this writer that Commissioner O’Connor either fails to recognize that there are root causes of the current housing crisis, or that he just doesn’t give a shit. 

Lastly, it is necessary to point out that the WXMI 17 reported did not challenge the claims of either the tenant union or Commissioner O’Connor. More importantly, the reporter fails to address the whole point of the protest, which was to kick-off the boycott that the tenant union was calling for, specifically a boycott of all the Long Road Distillers locations in West Michigan.