Surprise? Businesses Abandoning Portland Downtown Area

You already had the city ignoring the homeless, the drug needles, the urine and feces, now you throw in constant “protests” which leave trashed businesses, cars, glass everywhere, fires, and so much more, with the cops being held back for weeks on end. Who thinks this is a good business environment?

Businesses leaving downtown Portland over ‘lawlessness’: report

The months of protests and riots in Portland have prompted some businesses in the city to opt to move out completely or relocate outside its central district, according to a report on Monday.

Greg Goodman, the co-president of the Downtown Development Group, said in a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler and members of the Portland City Council that the exodus of companies wasn’t related to the Black Lives Matter movement “but does have most everything to do with the lawlessness you are endorsing downtown.”

“The number is like nothing I have seen in 42 years of doing business in downtown,” he wrote, according to Portland’s KOIN.

Goodman said companies include Daimler Chrysler, Airbnb, Banana Republic, Microsoft, Saucebox, and Google, which he claimed: “leased 90,000 square feet in the Macy’s building [and] has stopped construction of their improvements.”

“The list goes on and on. If you know a retail or office broker, give them a call and ask them how many clients they have are trying to leave,” he continued.

Goodman encouraged city leaders to “walk around downtown Portland in the morning,” adding that he would personally give them a tour.

“You aren’t sweeping the streets, needles are all over the place, garbage cans are broken and left open, glass from car windows that have been broken out is all over the streets, parks are strewn with litter,” he wrote. “You are willfully neglecting your duties as elected officials to keep our city safe and clean.”

If they move completely out of Portland, how much tax revenue will be lost? How many lower end workers will no longer have those jobs because they cannot afford to travel to surrounding cities to do those jobs? Then you have other workers leaving the city to follow the job, and others leaving the downtown area because of the danger to their lives/having their property trashed. Who is going to want to live there? Who is going to want to open a business?

Of course, Mayor Ted Wheeler is Suddenly Concerned with the violence

In a statement to KOIN, Wheeler said he is reviewing the decision as to why officers didn’t step in on Saturday when right-wing activists, and Black Lives Matter counter-demonstrators fought.

“I vehemently oppose what the Proud Boys and those associated with them stand for, and I will not tolerate hate speech and the damage it does in our city. White nationalists, particularly those coming to our city armed, threaten the safety of Portlanders, and are not welcome here,” Wheeler said. “We are at a critical place where police officers are needed to intervene in protests where police officers themselves are the flashpoint.”

So, Ted only has a problem with one set of A-holes, not both sets of A-holes, when it is the second set of A-holes who tend to start the violence. The BLM/Antifa folks do not need the Proud Boys around to get violent.

Anyway, Portland is just learning the lesson of NYC and Minneapolis. And other Dem cities allowing constant violent protests. A lesson Kenosha is learning

Police and protesters in Kenosha, Wis., clashed for a second night Monday following the shooting of a Black man that touched off civil unrest similar to that in other cities across the country.

Officers deployed tear gas in an attempt to disperse a crowd outside the Kenosha County courthouse. Gov. Tony Evers deployed 125 Guard members to the city in an effort to prevent the kind of violence and vandalism that occurred in the city on Sunday night.

The unrest continued overnight, as video appeared to show a car dealership in Kenosha being looted, while others stomped on cars and pulled down street lights. Earlier, a furniture store was looted and set on fire. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections building was also reportedly set on fire.

Several businesses in the city’s Uptown district were ablaze by 1 a.m., which one New York Times reporter called “Just a horrible scene.”

The question is, what does Gov. Evers do for today, because, kudos to him for sending the Guard, but, it’s not enough, obviously. But, do those businesses that have been trashed return? Or do they go elsewhere?

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7 Responses to “Surprise? Businesses Abandoning Portland Downtown Area”

  1. Professor Hale says:

    In many cases, they aren’t “leaving”. They were put out of business by the choices of their politicians to not maintain the social order. They didn’t move somewhere else. Oddly, most of them will re-elect those same politicians because they are progressive and Orange man bad.

  2. Est1950 says:

    EX-GOP Senator who hated Trump openly and retired rather than lose his reelection bid is a Never Trumper and here is what never trumpers believe.

    “We passed the bipartisan immigration bill that appropriated $20 billion for border security. That was when President Obama and Joe Biden were in the White House. We did that in the Senate. I’ve been supportive of many of the things that the president has pushed,” he said.

    20 billion that was never spent on the wall. At all. Period. They just built more holding facilities to put kids in cages and seperate them from their families. Obama was not called the DEPORTER IN CHIEF for nothing.

    “But you just don’t like his character,” MacCallum responded.

    So here is the crux of the Never Trumpers Movement. Which is smaller than ever by the way.

    “It’s not just that,” Flake posited. “Republicans have traditionally been for free trade. The president is very much a protectionist. The Republicans have stood for strong American leadership … He canceled the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Trans-Pacific Partnership, if anything, would have helped keep China in check by allowing countries, particularly in southeast Asia, to go somewhere else for their trade.”

    Trump just negotiated a middle east peace deal that has 3 more Arab nations wanting to join with Israel against China/Russia/IRAN. They understand that the new axis of evil is trully that and Israel is not fighting muslims, but rather standing in the way of Iran and China and Russia from TAKING OVER THE MIDDLE EAST. Trump is playing 5D chess and the old GOP is still complaining about losing their under the table money from CHINA.

    FREE TRADE that sent all our jobs overseas so the filthy rich could get richer and Senators and lobbyists could make insane amounts of money from lobbying efforts.

    His take on the TPP is total bullshit. The TPP put CHINA in control of global trade and put a knee to the throats of anyone who would dare stand against them.

    One only has to look at how much of the global goods are made in china by SLAVES and a communist nation that HATES YOU. The same country that tried to poison your pets, has had umpteen uncounted items recalled for safety hazards.

    So the main reason the never trumpers are opposed to Trump is that the world without borders agreements opened up 10’s of thousands of new opportunities for the rich and filthy wealthy to get even richer off the backs of Americans.

  3. Elwood P. Dowd says:

    80,000 US small businesses have shut down, resulting from the Trump Recession/Depression. No doubt some even in Portland.

    The worst is yet to come now that unemployment payments have plummeted.

    On the other hand, the top 10% of wealthy Americans who own 92% of stocks are raking in the dollars, thanks to the Fed raining TRILLIONS on the markets. The Trump Recession hits the working and impoverished classes almost exclusively. Factory workers, service personnel, repair workers, can’t work from home.

    In America, government takes care of the wealthy.

    • formwiz says:

      80,000 US small businesses have shut down, resulting from the Trump Recession/Depression. No doubt some even in Portland.

      You should be cheering, good little Commie that you are. And 5 gets you 10 most of those people blame the Demos’ lockdown, arson, crashing the markets, and tolerance of looters.

      The worst is yet to come now that unemployment payments have plummeted.

      Yeah, some people will have to go back to work.

      On the other hand, the top 10% of wealthy Americans who own 92% of stocks are raking in the dollars, thanks to the Fed raining TRILLIONS on the markets.

      Lie. Most of that is owned by working stiffs.

      Unless you’d care to prove it.

      The Trump Recession hits the working and impoverished classes almost exclusively. Factory workers, service personnel, repair workers, can’t work from home.

      The Democrat recession has hit service industries hurt by lockdowns and small businesses ruined by the riots.

      So it’s only half lies.

      In America, government takes care of the wealthy.

      Only when the Democrats get in.

  4. Dana says:

    Our distinguished host asked:

    If they move completely out of Portland, how much tax revenue will be lost? How many lower end workers will no longer have those jobs because they cannot afford to travel to surrounding cities to do those jobs? Then you have other workers leaving the city to follow the job, and others leaving the downtown area because of the danger to their lives/having their property trashed. Who is going to want to live there?

    There’s more. Housing prices in city centers are elevated, because so many of the well-to-do decided that they liked the urban lifestyle for high earners and the short, sometimes even walkable, commute. Now, as their jobs move out of the city, yeah, they might be able to commute, but much of their reasons for spending big bucks has been lost. More, their housing values will drop.

    Of course, a lot of businesses won’t relocate: law firms will always stay in the city center!

    “I have come to the conclusion the one useless man is called a disgrace, two are called a law firm, and three or more are called a Congress.” — John Adams in the musical 1776.

  5. Jl says:

    Black lives (that have been shot by the police) matter! Blacks shot by other blacks (the overwhelming majority of deaths) and black businesses, not so much. Libs are hypocrites-shocking

  6. Jerry JDowd says:

    The Proud Boys marched in Kalamazoo two weeks ago. Though I detest them I noted that they were marching in an orderly fashion until alleged BLM supporters showed up and started throwing rocks and bottles at them. The police ended up making some seven arrests. Two points to note. The next day people were whining that only BLM supporters were arrested. They wanted to know why peaceful marchers from Proud Boys weren’t arrested. The second point. The local U.S. representative made a statement and the first words out of his mouth were in reference to the PB “they need to go back under whatever rock they crawled out from under.” No mention of the people who committed the violence. I repeat. I do not support PB but they do have a right to protest peacefully.

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