A clothing store in Portland, Oregon , has been forced to permanently shutter after a string of break-ins amid rising crime in the city mean the business is no longer financially viable. Over the past 18 months, Rains PDX has been broken into 15 times. The cost of repairing the damage together with the amount of stock being stolen each time has given the owners no choice but to close for good.
It is the latest in a series of problems for key businesses in the Democratic stronghold, which is struggling to contain spiraling crime. Nike, whose HQ is in nearby Beaverton, had to close a long-standing community store for weeks because shoplifting was so out of control and iconic ice cream shop Salt & Straw last week threatened to move its headquarters out of Oregon. To residents wondering why the Rains store (pictured) is no more, a searing note on the front door reveals all with ‘unrelenting criminal behavior’ and ‘escalating safety issues for our employees’ to blame.
‘Our city is in peril. Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business, in our city’s current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished. Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins … we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd,’ the store’s owner Marcy Landolfo wrote. Landolfo explained that the business is simply unable to survive such financial burdens. ‘The problem is, as small businesses, we cannot sustain those types of losses and stay in business. I won’t even go into the numbers of how much has been out of pocket,’ she told KATU2 .
‘The products that are being targeted are the very expensive winter products and I just felt like the minute I get those in the store they’re going to get stolen,’ she said. When the store was broken into in October, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler promised the city was going to come up with a plan to help out business owners who had been targeted and needed assistance to repair their shops. needed to repair their shops. ‘Paying for glass that’s great, but that is so surface and does nothing for the root cause of the problem, so it’s never going to change,’ Landolfo said, noting that crime is the major problem.
‘Mayor Wheeler and his team understand that local businesses often must make a choice whether to pay out of pocket or file a claim with their insurance after a break-in,’ a statement from Wheeler’s office read. ‘For this reason, we’ve worked to increase funding for Business Repair Grants through Prosper Portland, and recently held a Retail Safety Summit to strategize with local business leaders and loss prevention specialists on the retail theft crisis. We are also working with interested property owners to streamline the permitting process to add enhanced lighting to storefronts, which can help deter nighttime break-ins,’ the spokesperson added.
Popular ice cream business Salt & Straw threatened to move its Portland headquarters out of Oregon last week as crime, drug use and homelessness continue to plague the woke Democratic city. Salt & Straw was created to be a community gathering place, according to its website. It was set up as a parlor in 2011, and quickly became known as one of the United States’ best scoop shops, further bolstering Portland’s reputation as one of America’s best foodie cities. But co-founder Kim Malek (pictured) said last Wednesday that if things don’t change, her firm will be forced to leave. ‘We would consider all options,’ Malek told Oregon Live. ‘We don’t have concrete plans. But our intention is to be at the table working with the city and county to find a solution and not move. Portland is part of the soul of our company. We love this city. This is about having a safe place for our team to work.’
Last Monday, an RV fire near the company’s headquarters brought down a transformer and caused Salt & Straw and several other businesses to lose power. The fire and gun incident was detailed in an email by Lauderdale. ‘Their lease is up in April, and although it will cost them millions and millions to relocate, they are at a breaking point and are planning to move out of state,’ Lauderdale wrote. ‘This is less a homeless issue; it is a health and public safety and drug issue. The schizophrenia we’re seeing, the violence, the fires … this is drug fueled, and it needs to be addressed immediately.’
Malek, who founded the company in Portland with her cousin Tyler Malek, told Oregon Live that she doesn’t want the company to move, and said she would prefer to find a solution by working with elected leaders. ‘It’s really hard for a lot of people right now,’ she said. ‘I’m not here to point fingers. I want to be part of the solution.’ She hasn’t said where Salt & Straw might move instead, although the firm now has parlors across the US – including in Florida. Malek added that one solution she’s interested in exploring is cutting off the supply of drugs into Portland that she believes is fueling crime. ‘If we can’t make it safe, I can’t stay here,’ Malek said. ‘It’s just not responsible of me to put my team in that position.’ Residents and business owners have been saying for months that escalating crime and homelessness are affecting their way of life and safety. ‘Our intention is to work through this,’ Malek said. ‘I cannot stay here if we don’t.’
Jason Bolt, the owner of Revant Optics, who also threatened to leave the area, testified at City Hall in early November that his employees feel unsafe going to work. ‘If the city is not going to take care of their citizens and create a safe place for businesses to operate, then we’re going to go somewhere else,’ Bolt said. ‘We have to look out for the safety of our teams.’ Portland is currently in the grip of a homeless crisis with tent cities (pictured) having sprung up all over the place. Lax bail reform laws implemented by woke Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt have left little to no deterrent for criminals in the city.
Rising crime and homeless camps that have spread from downtown and into the suburbs have pushed out countless businesses and residents. In a recent incident, someone pointed a gun at a Salt & Straw employee’s head, according to civic advocate Thomas Lauderdale who sent an email to two dozen community leaders in Portland City Hall, Multnomah County and Oregon’s congressional delegation. Other incidents have also happened near the headquarters, including a fire at an RV parked near the business which resulted in power loss. Dilapidated RVs are used by homeless people throughout the city, and are often spotted parked near encampments.
The Democratic city has one of the most deserted downtowns in the United States as soaring crime rates and homelessness are scaring away both locals and tourists. Portland currently has more than 700 homeless encampments across the city within less than 150 square miles, and the ordeal has also led to skyrocketing crime in the area. And some of the most charming, trendy and expensive neighborhoods of the Pacific Northwest city are now overrun with tent cities crowding residential sidewalks and littered with trash – and the issue is scaring away both locals and tourists. Portland City Council rushed to refund the police last November after defunding them by more than $15 million in 2020. Officials voted to add $5.4 million to the force’s budget. When the police was defunded in 2020, the Portland Police Bureau suffered through a rash of retirements and resignations.
In 2021, there were 90 homicides amid a surge in gun violence, which shattered the city’s previous record high of 66 set three decades ago. There have been 72 murders recorded in 2022 so far. Robbery is also of huge concern up 32 percent compared to this time last year. Overall crimes are up almost 21 percent compared to 2021 Violent crime in Portland has ramped up particularly over the last few years. A recent study found it rose sharply in 2020 when the city played host to almost nightly protests and riots following the death of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests. The city saw a 58 percent increase in homicides in 2020 compared to the year prior, and 2021 notched a 54 percent increase in homicides compared to the already violent and bloody 2020. The number of homicides in 2021 was a 238 percent increase from the numbers recorded in 2018.
DA Mike Schmidt is an outspoken progressive and police critic, who came into office during the height of the riots in the summer of 2020 and promptly enacted a policy decriminalizing most riot-related offenses. But now his woke bail policies are also affecting other quality-of-life issues around Portland. His successful 2020 campaign was supported by Real Justice, a political action committee co-founded by radical anti-police activist Shaun King. Over 90 percent of those arrested at the riots in 2020 in Portland for crimes ranging from arson to assault had their cases effectively dropped.
Police have said the DA is actually rejecting cases without giving sufficient reasons and appear to be unable to know which cases to prioritize because they’re unsure which cases prosecutors will ultimately choose to charge, according to Wweek.com. Portland is in the midst of a homelessness crisis. Although the city is known for its unique neighborhoods, bike-friendly commutes, and locally-owned businesses, many Portland residents have become so terrified of homeless people plaguing the area, which has now spread into the suburbs. The Democratic city has one of the most deserted downtowns in the United States as soaring crime rates and homelessness are scaring away both locals and tourists. The crisis has become so bad that many homeowners are looking to leave. Homeless camps are now becoming a permanent fixture in the suburbs, with the city being forced to conduct sweeps on a regular basis.
Portland declared a state of emergency on homelessness in 2015 and has extended it five times since then. The measure, now set to expire in 2025, reduces the bureaucratic red tape surrounding the creation of homeless shelters. Despite the city’s years-long emergency measure, the estimated number of people experiencing homelessness spiked 25 percent in the Portland area between 2020 and 2022, according to point-in-time counts reported to The Department of Housing and Urban Development. Oregon’s homelessness crisis has been fueled by a housing shortage, the coronavirus pandemic and the highest drug addiction rate of any state in the nation. Federal data from the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that nine percent of teens and adults in Oregon had illicit drug use disorders in 2020.
The state has wrestled with a debate over the best way to reduce homelessness. Some business groups have called for more encampment sweeps and stricter enforcement of anti-camping ordinances, while others want more investment in social services and affordable housing. Along with the influx of homeless communities, comes the rising numbers in crime and drug use. The drug crisis in Portland, especially among homeless communities, has become unmanageable for authorities in the area. Photos show the desperate situation in the liberal Pacific Northwest city, where people can be seen shooting up drugs or passed out in broad daylight.
Oregon was the first state in the United States to decriminalize possession of personal-use amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone, and other drugs after voters approved a ballot measure in 2020 to decriminalize hard drugs. A person found with personal amounts of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and other drugs receives a citation, like a traffic ticket, with the maximum $100 fine waived if they call a hotline for a health assessment. The state’s program, which has been promoted as a way to establish and fund addiction recovery centers that would offer people aid instead of incarceration, is being watched as a potential model for other states. But drug overdose deaths in the state also hit an all-time high in 2021 with 1069, a 41 percent increase from 2020.
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