Breaking news takes on new meaning in the Pearl
Prosper Portland has a program to help businesses that suffer damage from intruders
Going for ice cream is not so sweet when the door is boarded up because someone smashed it with a hammer. But it’s all too common: Ovation Coffee and Tea, Fancy Baby champagne bar, and Miss Oz Ice Cream & Dessert are just a few of the businesses broken into recently.
Miss Oz owner Millie Keum got a call from Emergency Communications on Thursday at 4:30 a.m. asking how soon she could get there. Since she lives two blocks from the business at NW 11th and Johnson she bought three years ago, her answer was “very soon.”
“The guy came in and jumped the counter and took the cash and destroyed the register,” Keum said. “The entire front door was destroyed, it took him two minutes.” Keum said she doesn’t keep much cash on hand except a little for customers who want to pay with cash and to make change. “I have the sign that says ‘No Cash on Premises,’ but he must have been in that day to look around.”
Cash sales make up less than 5% of her sales, she said.
Keum was unaware of the local program that reimburses small businesses for window replacement costs due to theft and vandalism.
“I didn’t know, but Chase (McPherson director of the Northwest Conservancy Conservancy) told me about it,” she said. “I don’t know, I hope I have time to do that. I have to fill out insurance forms first and I’m very busy here.”
Prosper Portland is the city’s economic and urban development agency. Its Small Business Expanded Repair/Restore Grant program, new in June, provides funds to small businesses that have sustained physical and economic damage due to break-ins and vandalism. The application is a three-page form that can be found at ExpandedRepair@prosperportland.us
“I feel a little sad for the community,” Keum said. “The Pearl isn’t the same right now.”
This is a good program for sure, but my question goes back to why there are no police patrols in the Pearl. If the City spent the money adequately policing the Pearl, this might not be necessary. And where are those bicycle patrols that were allegedly assigned here? Has anybody seen them? I sure haven’t.
Here we have an example of using local resources to **manage** a current urban problem rather than everyone going off and preaching hostility towards annoying but vulnerable populations in our midst.