Businesses Flee From Portland, Citing Failure of Local Government to Protect Against Riots
Businesses are shifting operations from downtown Portland or scuttling plans to open stores because ..
Businesses are shifting operations from downtown Portland or scuttling plans to open stores because of rioting thats kept going virtually every night since May 28.
Portions of the city are boarded up. Tens of millions of dollars of damage or lost business was caused by the unrest by early July. Rioters often gather around 9 p.m. and dont disperse until early the next morning.
While many workers have been working from home since March because of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic, a segment continued to work from Standard Insurances downtown headquarters until recently, a spokesman told The Epoch Times.
“Many of those employees who had remained in our downtown offices have now been temporarily moved to our Hillsboro campus to ensure their welfare in light of continuing safety concerns and property damage downtown,” the spokesman said in an email. “Several employees and security contractors have been assaulted near our downtown offices in recent weeks and months, and that contributed to the decision.”
Other business owners planned to open stores in Portland despite the pandemic. The riots convinced them to put those plans on hold or terminate them.
“We were actually going to open two stores in Portland, and then all this happened,” Joe Raetzer, co-owner of Steepologie Teas, told The Epoch Times.
Asked whether “all this” meant the pandemic or the unrest, he added: “Just purely the unrest. The riots.”
Steepologie also shut down their downtown Seattle location because of rioting there. An employee was assaulted inside the store.
In an interview with The Epoch Timess sister media NTD Television, Uncle Fabes owner Fabian Gordon said he knows business owners who have started to sleep at their stores.
“Theyre talking about going up on the roofs of their buildings with guns. Theyre terrified. People are setting fires. Whens it going to happen to them?” he said. “Theyre heavily armed and theyre all very afraid.”
Gordon said city and state officials seem to be handling the situation by hamstringing the police and pointed to the new prosecutorial policy of presumptively dismissing charges including riot, disorderly conduct, and interfering with officers.
“The leadership are obviously cowards. Theres just no other way to put it,” he said, adding: “Who in their right minds would come to start a business in Portland, going forward? Who in their right mind? Why would you? Why would you visit?”
In a recent letter to Portland City Council members published by local media outlets, a major developer said the effects the riots are having on business is unprecedented.
“If you know a retail or office broker, give them a call and ask them how many clients they have are trying to leave. The number is like nothing I have seen in 42 years of doing business in downtown,” Greg Goodman of the Downtown Development Group wrote.
“Their departure has absolutely nothing to do with Black Lifes Matter [sic] movement (which has been a positive) but does have most everything to do with the lawlessness you are endorsing downtown. You are doing an excellent [job] of enabling people who dont know or care about George Floyd to ransack our city at the expense of the people you are trying to help,” he added. “Think how many jobs have been lost by people of color in our city, not through protest, but from vandalism. I would make the case that your actions have hurt those you have intended to help.”
Goodman said “a larger number of businesses are moving out of or locating outside of the Central City,” including Daimler Chrysler, Airbnb, Banana Republic, Microsoft, and Saucebox. Google is halting construction in the Macys building, he added.
A Google spokesman told The Epoch Times via email that the unrest has not impacted the companys construction schedule. A Daimler spokesman said the company has no intention of moving its headquarters from Portland. An Airbnb spokesperson said employees have been working from home since March.
A Microsoft spokeswoman said in an email that some employees looked into the matter “and we have nothing to share.”
Gap, which owns Banana Republic, didnt respond to an inquiry, nor did Saucebox.
