“Businesses are leaving,” Portland Business Alliance CEO told KATU. “We need to start to turn the corner now, so that this sort of irreparable damage does not last.”
Between the unnecessary and unnecessarily punitive lockdowns combined with the nightly riots, downtown Portland business owners are not only losing a fortune but fear for their own safety.
One business owner claims to have already lost $20 million.
“The financial consequences to the downtown corridor are a running calculation that is almost impossible to wrap your mind around. The financial impacts of physical damage is one thing, and that continues to increase,” Hoan explained. “Then the ongoing loss of revenue to the business community who cannot operate their places of businesses is also a number that continues to rise.”
Physical damage from the left-wing riots costs money. The stupid lockdowns cost money, keeping customers away. Fear that downtown is no longer safe (a reasonable fear — would you go shopping in downtown Portland?) scares customers away.
How can this not be a financial catastrophe?
A downtown jewelry store was looted for a cool million dollars.
The owner of a Subway franchise added, “Safety-wise, we’re just concerned. Our employees are a little bit nervous being here, especially later in the evenings. We try to have extra people just to make sure that everybody is safe and feels comfortable.”
So you not only to worry about the Democrat Party’s Brownshirts storming your business, you have to worry about being assaulted while you walk to your car or to the bus, and you really have to worry about accidentally turning a corner and finding yourself face to face with the mob. These Antifa savages will pull you from your car and beat you within an inch of your life.
Hoan said he doesn’t yet know how many businesses have fled, or what the precise reason is from the multiple choices above, but another factor killing commerce is that downtown Portland looks like something out of the third act of a zombie movie.
“You have blocks and blocks of plywood. You have graffiti. You have an accumulation of damages that are un-repaired, an ongoing perception that coming downtown is not a safe place,” Hoan explained.
The Subway owner says she supports the idea behind the protests but, “We work very hard to build our businesses and be successful and employ people, and when they come in and destroy it by breaking the window and everything else, we’re the ones who have to pay for that.”
As you take this all in, the thing to keep in mind is that when Democrats see this their first thought is that everything is going exactly according to plan.
This is a violent, socialist revolution disguised as righteous protest. Destroying businesses, destroying peace of mind … that the job of the terrorists.
The job of Portland’s elected officials, like that eunuch Mayor Ted Wheeler, is to use President Donald Trump as an excuse to do nothing, is to claim it’s all Trump’s fault and that federal law enforcement officers protecting federal property caused all this.
And then there’s District Attorney Mike Schmidt, who’s created a revolving door. Hardly anyone who’s arrested is prosecuted. So the terrorists all know there are no consequences.
And then there’s Joe Biden, whose job is to ignore the riots and the anarchy, is to gaslight (with the help of the corporate media) us into believing it isn’t really happening.
Well, it is happening, and it’s moving into residential areas, and if Democrats seize power in a couple months, things are going to get a whole lot worse — and things are already worse than we have ever seen them.
At least in my lifetime, I have never lived in a country where one of our two major political parties and all of the establishment media are not only ignoring, but helping to organize and encourage this terrorism.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.