A sign displayed at a popular Mission Hills coffee shop is garnering a lot of attention and has been a boon for business, the owner says.
“Syrians + Muslims + Mexicans + Immigrants + Everyone Are Welcome,” the sign at Meshuggah Shack reads.
The owner, John Bertsch, said he posted the sign at his coffee shop, at the corner of Goldfinch Street and Fort Stockton Avenue, the day after last week’s election.
He sees it as a "protest" sign against some of the divisive rhetoric he heard during the campaign season.
He told NBC 7 that business has been up 20 percent this month over the same month last year, and largely all of the response has been positive. The only exceptions: one person shouted a slur at hime and another Trump supporter complained, Bertsch said.
Patrons in this neighborhood, which voted against Trump by more than a 1 in 3 margin, overwhelmingly said they supported the sign's message.
"I love it. I think we're supposed to be showing our diversity and our differences," said patron Katelyn Ford.
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"We wanted to express the opposite of what his campaign stands for," patron Connie Johns echoed. "This sign means everything for our neighborhood. It has made our spirits rise."
The Meshuggah Shack’s sign comes as protests have sparked nationwide against the presidency of Donald Trump. Many protesters decried and expressed fear over Trump’s campaign to build a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico and also to deport undocumented immigrants and Muslims.
Many of these campaign promises have been either softened or removed from Trump’s website.
Bertsch said he plans to keep the sign up "as long as he needs to."
