Businesses Fleeing Downtown Portland

A spokesman for Standard Insurance told Fox Business news yesterday that, “Our downtown properties have sustained significant vandalism and a number of employees and contractors have been assaulted in recent months.” The building is now empty and the 2,000 staff members who once worked there are reporting to the company’s Hillsboro campus—a safe distance away from the riots.

OCHIN, a health care non-profit once based in downtown Portland, has also announced the sale of its 40,000-square-foot building. The organization has determined remote work for the staff will become a permanent fixture of its operation.

“Businesses are leaving,” Portland Business Alliance President and Andrew Hoan told KATU TV. The report also details the theft of $1 million in jewelry from one of the local retailers. “The financial consequences to the downtown corridor are a running calculation that is almost impossible to wrap your mind around.,” he said.

The news that two major businesses are packing up comes only days after a motorist was drug from his truck and beaten to unconsciousness by rioters. His injuries were significant enough to require hospital treatment. Eyewitnesses to the assault said the assault began after he came to the aid of a person robbed by rioters.

Authorities are still investigating the incident, although an Aug. 11 report in Forbes provides a glimpse as to why the nearly three months of nightly violence that has continued unchecked. According to the story, a policy announced by Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt effectively drops all charges,“When damage is primarily financial instead of physical…charges will be dropped and victims will have three month[s] ‘to make it right.’”

It remains unclear whether “making it right” means companies and individuals must identify the criminal responsible and incur the legal fees required to recover financial loss in civil court—assuming the rioter has the means to compensate for the damage or theft.  The Forbes story does, however, explain that the policy resulted in, “…a significant portion of the over 500 charges against protesters [earlier this month] being dropped.”

The violence has spilled into the daytime hours as well. Yesterday an award-winning photojournalist was forced to shelter in his vehicle after being targeted by protesters.