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Riot-weary businesses hope to rebuild
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November 1, 2020Father Ramil Fajardo, a priest of the Archdiocese of Chicago in residence at its Holy Name Cathedral, recalled the first night of rioting in May triggered by the death of George Floyd. The cathedral serves an unusual neighborhood, as it is two blocks from Michigan Avenue, with high-rise office and residential buildings, expensive retail shops, elegant world-class restaurants, luxury hotels, and the downtown campus of Loyola University. Normally safe and drawing many tourists, the area during that first night of rioting, he said, “was awful. There were so many people running around in the streets, with a heavy police presence.”
Rioters broke into and looted businesses, leaving much damage in their wake. Even the cathedral was tagged with graffiti. Violence was part of the mix; the morning after the rioting, for example, two priests joined a local restaurant owner in surveying the damage, and when the owner turned a corner he was struck with a pipe by someone lying in wait.
A second serious round of rioting and organized looting occurred in August as looters drove in with trucks and hauled away millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise.
An ominous feeling
Today, with the tourists gone and few business people around, Father said an ominous feeling has descended upon the neighborhood: shops up and down the avenue and the posh Gold Coast shopping district have been boarded up with plywood, giving the area an uncharacteristically “depressing” atmosphere. Police and fire sirens are constantly heard now. Father said, “The whole thing is deeply unnerving. People are on edge as though you risk a possible confrontation with someone walking past you if they feel you are looking at them the wrong way. It makes me angry, this ‘new normal’ with which we are confronted.”
At the cathedral parish itself, Mass attendance is significantly down with no tourists and workers to fill its pews, and older parishioners are relocating away from downtown. Fr. Fajardo said, “Things are still shaky. There is a lack of confidence. There are some who are still hesitant to go outside. How long will it take the neighborhood, the parish, businesses, and city life to bounce back? In the next year or so? Longer?”
Someone who is also wondering if his community will “bounce back” is Jacob Harb, a Legatus member and owner of Yara , a Lebanese restaurant in midtown Manhattan. As late as February, the restaurant was going “gangbusters,” but the twin effect of the COVID-19 lockdown and riots has made it a struggle since.
Harb left the city to avoid the lockdowns and violence, but since he returned in early July he has noticed that personal safety is a constant concern. He said, “My sixth sense has been heightened. You don’t feel as safe walking around as you did previously. I think that sense is universal in the city.”
Running his business has also been a challenge, as the city has been slow to ramp up indoor dining and an early round of generous unemployment benefits made it difficult to persuade staff to return. Harb said, “Many are still weighing the costs and benefits of working.”
Another challenge has been the decline in potential customers for the restaurant in the city, as many workers have opted to continue working remotely outside of the city rather than return to their Manhattan offices. A reflection of this, Jacob has noted a significant decline in the amount of street traffic for which New York City had been famous. Harb continued, “It’s hard for me to believe I would ever say this, but it gives the city a desolate feeling. I’m worried that New York City is changing for the worse.”
Wracked after recent rebound
Another community hard hit by violence has been Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the aftermath of the August 23rd shooting of Jacob Blake by police. Jim Barry is a 15-year member and past president of the Milwaukee Chapter of Legatus, and he owns a commercial real estate company with properties in Southeast Wisconsin. Barry drove through the Kenosha area in the weeks after the rioting, and was troubled to see that the area that had been enjoying an economic rebound in recent years “looks like the city of Berlin at the end of World War II.”
He explained, “Cars on car lots were burned. Buildings destroyed; some literally blown up. Others boarded up as a defensive measure. The city has a beautiful old courthouse building, but it was surrounded by barricades in an effort to protect it.”
The area suffered a major economic decline in the 1980s, but had been on a positive economic trajectory since. The riots have been “a major setback.” Barry called on elected officials to put aside partisan differences and “enforce the law … When violence like this occurs, there needs to be an appropriate amount of police and military force on hand to deal with it.”
The city of Milwaukee itself, where Barry and Milwaukee Legatus Chapter president Rick Schmidt are headquartered, saw less violence, but the rioting they did see combined with pandemic lockdowns has made economic life difficult. Schmidt owns a Milwaukee construction management firm which is anticipating a significant slowdown in 2021. He said, “With the uncertainty in the economy, a lot of businesses are reluctant to pull the trigger on capital improvements. So, next year is not looking favorable.”
Bringing Christ to the demoralized
Schmidt noted that despite the challenges his firm faced, employees were active in a variety of efforts to help those suffering, including donating blood and supplies to combat the pandemic and offering a corporate donation to a local school to facilitate online learning by students.
Father Fajardo warns faithful Catholics that the Church itself can expect to become a target of this rage. He recalled a recent Chicago dinner with a priest-friend during which a man came up to them and asked if they were Catholic priests. When they replied in the affirmative, the man screamed vulgarities at them, and walked away. Another priest-friend was spit on.
Ultimately though, Fr. Fajardo recognizes that the solution to violence in the cities ultimately does not lie solely with governments and civil authorities, but with more people “getting to know Jesus, then committing more than ever to know, love, and live their faith.”
He explained, “No amount of government fiat is going to help when people don’t have a moral foundation and an underpinning in faith. We are experiencing a morality and virtue crisis; people don’t act this way in an educated, just society. We’ve seen a lot of built-up rage and hatred, resulting in violence. There’s been a dramatic change in our country since March, and not just in my neighborhood.”
He urged Catholics to be “apostles in the world, witnesses, doers of the Word.” He continued, “With a positive attitude and a joyful, supernatural outlook, we are not discouraged. We choose to make a positive impact wherever we are, because believers are anchored in, and bring Jesus Christ to, the center of all their daily activities. We live the Faith, and not just talk about it. We want to share Him with everyone.”
“And we always pray that God changes hearts – mine, yours, all of ours – and that this conversion makes us authentic participants in building a culture of life and a civilization of love. The gift we offer the world is the gift of faith, the peace and love only Jesus Christ can give, because as we hear at the Mass, all things are intended by God to be through Him, with Him, and in Him.”
JIM GRAVES is a Catholic writer in Newport Beach, California.
