This is how a city dies.
Portland, Oregon, is without excuse. But in case Mayor Ted Wheeler and the Leftists working in both city and county governments are unclear about how they’re strangling their city, a local businesswoman left a note behind explaining it.
All Marcy Landolfo wanted to do was sell upscale, fashionable streetwear. A store named Rains PDX in the nation’s unofficial rain capital? A match made in heaven, right? Except that for the past three years, Landolfo’s life has been hell.
Hers was — that’s right, was — an independent business that is part of an international chain of boutiques.
Over the weekend she closed her shop after her 15th break-in. Fifteen major thefts in the last year and a half, and no one has been caught–much less prosecuted. Five of them occurred in the past three weeks.
George Soros runs Multnomah County’s DA’s office. Sure, he doesn’t live there, but Landolfo and her employees do, and, like Soros, she can’t guarantee their safety either. She told KATU that “it’s just too much of a gamble [to stay open] in a city that is unsafe. And the thing with my employees – I can’t put them in danger. No way.”
There’s surveillance tape showing thieves breaking her windows to get inside and then swooping up entire racks of clothes and escaping. Recently, she resorted to leaving her windows boarded up. What’s the point? They’ll just come back. People in Portland don’t go to jail anymore for stealing even if their underfunded police department does catch them, which is unlikely. The cops have too many murders to solve. Thanks, George!
Before she peaced-out, Landolfo posted the note on the door explaining why she was leaving. It wasn’t the 95 Theses, but it was a bracing synopsis of why Portland is going to hell.
The owner at Rains tells me after five break-ins in about three weeks, she made the sudden decision to permanently close. Staff here are putting pressure on the city to look after small businesses dealing with ongoing challenges with crime. pic.twitter.com/XyP2p6PR6W
— Megan Allison (@mallisonKATU) November 26, 2022
After thanking her customers for their patronage, she got down to it, writing that “due to the constant and unrelenting criminal behavior, coupled with escalating safety issues for our employees, we have decided to permanently close.”
She prophesied that “our city is in peril. Small businesses [and large] cannot sustain doing business, in our city’s current state.” Why? For the very reason why Portland is circling the drain. “We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished”–and, of course, she’s right. She had a message for the woke Anfitastan citizens who believe that there really is a free lunch. “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.” Not that they’ll believe it.
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It’s not like she set out to make a bold political statement. She just wanted to run a successful business, but Portland is like the dumb neighbor who leaves the front door open and hopes the neighborhood junkie doesn’t steal the money and jewelry left on the table.
“It’s just too much with the losses that are not covered by insurance, the damages, everything,” Landolfo told KATU. “It’s just not sustainable. It just gets tiring and exhausting when you see no change in the future or — not moving forward. You know, not making positive changes.”
Wheeler and company didn’t catch a clue after Louis Vuitton refused to pay its taxes after becoming Lootie Vuitton during the Summer of Love. And now Salt & Straw is thinking of leaving because the city is “unsafe.” Portland is expensive, and it’s not worth the price anymore. It’s clear they still don’t get it.
After Landolfo left her note and closed the store, a local reporter asked the mayor what he could do to stop the bleeding. “His team said they’re working to increase funding for business repair grants through Prosper Portland.”
No, Ted, paying for the broken glass isn’t going to cut it. Landolfo said that “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.”
Maybe she’ll run for mayor.
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