Posted on 11/07/2011 7:00:33 AM PST by Second Amendment First
Kevin Best and Misty Rasche remember when they had waiting lists for a Friday reservation at their bistro in the historic Old Oakland business district.
That was in 2007, before the recession hit and a series of angry protests that would come to define downtown Oakland.
Most recently, business at their B Restaurant & Bar has been harmed further since Occupy Oakland tents went up at City Hall on Oct. 10. Best and Rasche worry that the collateral damage from the protest may be the final blow for their restaurant.
"If we go two more months like this," Best said, "it's a wrap."
Their restaurant is five blocks from the encampment. Businesses closer have suffered more, and not only from a loss of customers. Windows have been broken, street fires have been set, and graffiti has become part of the landscape, block after block.
Best and Rasche, West Oakland residents, don't want to leave.
But as downtown business owners, they have been on a never-ending roller-coaster ride through the recession and the impact of high city unemployment rates, a series of high-profile protests and the disruptive demonstrations, and now Occupy Oakland, with its two tear-gassed melees in a little more than a week.
Despite it all, what may hurt most is the damage to the area's image.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
This is exactly what happened to Detroit. Rioting started “White Flight”.
Did I not just read last week that Men’s Warehouse owner supports OWS?
What do the protesters care?
Dogs typically don’t poop in their own dens. It’s unlikely more than a few of these protesters are really from Oakland.
Drive to Emoryville.
Why any business would settle in a hellhole like Oakland is way beyond me. Get out of there... fast!
I read that Mens Wearhouse closed for the general strike. Bet they didn’t pay the employees for the day off though.
I'm sympathetic to their plight, but a more industrious reporter might have focused on businesses closer and more directly impacted by the encampment. But that would have involved venturing too close to Oakland's New Soweto tent slum.
Those clever urban dwellers sure know how to stick it to the man.
Spot on. It's all part of Bam's "Plan".
How ANY business could support this "movement" or this administration, is beyond belief.
While Big Mamma Bama whines about inner city food deserts, she ignores the fact that there were once grocery stores there before being driven out by their “customers”.
From Nov 2....
“Don Harbison, owner of B Restaurant and Bar (with locations in SF and Oakland), sent SFist a list of Oakland companies taking part in today’s general strike by going cash-only and eschewing credit cards.”
They need to make up their minds.
http://sfist.com/2011/11/02/oakland_businesses_go_cash-only_in.php
I was in Oakland 10 years ago. There was “Jack London Square” (a small shooping district) ... And the rest of the city was a dump that I’d not particularly want to be in during the daytime, never mind after dark. Sounds like it’s getting worse.
I was in Oakland 10 years ago. There was “Jack London Square” (a small shopping district) ... And the rest of the city was a dump that I’d not particularly want to be in during the daytime, never mind after dark. Sounds like it’s getting worse.
I think the writers are describing this as one more, and perhaps final, event that is pushing out the last of the survivors, as well as discouraging any further investment.
LOL: “Big Mamma Bama”. I like it.
Can't say I sympathize with them.
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