Portland, seen from Pittock Mansion, June 8, 2021.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
Portland small business owners who managed to make it through the pandemic are still facing challenges — from break-ins to neighborhood changes, to stressed-out clients.
Sarah Shaoul runs Bricks Need Mortar, a small business support organization. She’s been surveying businesses since the first pandemic shutdown of March 2020, and periodically ever since. She told “Think Out Loud” well over half of the more than a hundred businesses that responded to her latest survey reported that they had experienced vandalism, break-ins or both in the last 12 months.
“They’ve made it through all these crazy challenges from worker shortages to supply chain issues, and this is just something completely out of their control, and it’s pretty demoralizing,” Shaoul said. “If you have to come into work, and you’re all excited about your work day, but then you’re dealing with a broken window and an insurance claim, if you’re gonna go through insurance, it really messes with your mojo, so to speak.”
Peter Cho is the chef and owner of restaurants Han Oak and Toki, which he opened in 2021. He says business is pretty good, but he has had to replace windows several times over the last two years.
“Throughout the week, we work really hard and the profits are gone and windows smashed,” Cho said. “And a lot of that also isn’t even a break-in to steal anything. They’re just going by and smashing windows, so they’re not even coming in to take anything. So it’s just especially frustrating.”
Nevertheless, Cho’s business is growing, with plans to open a Korean BBQ restaurant in the next few months. He’d like to see the city help downtown businesses remain strong – like taking a look at the permit fees it charges for restaurants to serve customers outside on the sidewalk.
“I mean for us it’s a space that allows traffic to come and a space for us to activate that neighborhood,” he said. “So I think it’s something that’s positive for downtown. We could use a little help in keeping that space active.”
Sita Symonette had a successful acupuncture practice when the pandemic hit and was in the process of buying Black Pearl Wellness clinic in the Pearl district. She says federal relief money made it possible for her to make it through the last few years, but there were some unsettling times.
Symonette knows many acupuncture and alternative medicine practices went out of business permanently, which has led to a long waiting list for her business. She also says she has been seeing a distinct difference in the people who come through her doors.
“I’ve seen a huge increase in people wanting to come in specifically to get treated for stress and anxiety and depression,” she said. “Stress was always something that I would see pretty regularly for people, but it was kind of always a secondary thing to like their low back pain or whatever else we would be treating. But in the last three years, it has more and more consistently come up as one of the primary things people want help for.”
Bricks Need Mortar’s Sarah Shaoul says she’s hopeful because of what she’s seen Portland area businesses already face down.
“Our small business community is so incredibly resilient,” she said. “It’s amazing what they’ve been through and that there’s so many of them are still here or opening up other locations. It’s just incredible and it should be really inspiring actually for our community.”
Listen to the full “Think Out Loud” conversation from Feb. 15:
