Business owners finally seeing some hope in the pandemic, still worry about vandalism from demonstrations
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PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — The fence that surrounded the downtown Portland federal courthouse for eight months after demonstrations last year was taken down earlier this week, only to be put back up days later.
After the fence came down, the building was vandalized.
Meanwhile, Portland business owners who are finally seeing things open up more from the pandemic are now worried about more violence from demonstrations.
“Still a little nervous on the protesting front, but I’m feeling positive about Covid,” owner of Ecru Modern Stationer, LeAnn Dolan, said.
She said her Pearl District and South Waterfront locations have had steady business and are benefitting from more people out and about as COVID-19 restrictions loosen.
But her downtown store is not doing nearly as well. She attributes that to not having the normal downtown workforce with people still at home instead of in offices, the lack of tourism, and the perception that downtown is unsafe with riots and vandalism.
During a New Year’s Eve riot, her windows there were smashed, and the store ransacked, in another blow to business.
“Having the boards up just cut whatever we were doing in half,” she said. “It’s been tough. The random vandalism really hurts. It’s expensive to board up, replace your windows, hope it doesn’t happen again.”
Now with recent demonstrations and destruction in the Pearl District, she worries about her store there too.
“I’m glad the police came in and took measures to stop them in their tracks,” Dolan said. “It felt like something was finally happening because it really doesn’t feel like anything happens. These groups are just able to come in and basically terrorize a neighborhood.”
Back downtown, at the federal courthouse, the surrounding fence put up as a barrier for demonstrations last year was just removed this past week, only to be put right back up days later.
“The protesting, I think we’ve got some tough times ahead because we’re coming up on the year mark of a lot of anniversaries of things,” Dolan said. “I’m a little nervous about what’s to come in the next two months unless somehow they’re able to control them or people obviously breaking the law are held accountable and contained in some way.”
We reached out to the Federal Protective Service Sunday to get some more details about the barriers coming back up so soon after being taken down but did not immediately hear back.
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