Another downtown Portland busin, one driven by foot
traffic and that's helped boost neighborhood buzz u might say, is calling it quits. Cova coffee on the corner of SW 12th and Jefferson, says the never ending threats,
the vandalism, the violence mean after
nearly five years, it is time to go. Catherine Cook shows
us how its latest, the latest shop to close
on that block and why another is choosing to . SW 11th and Jefferson
has seen some dark days and tough decisions
at Cova Coffee. Calling the shots has never felt this hard. I mean, I think all of us, like here at the caf, feel a little distraught. On Monday, management announced on social media they'd be closing this location for good. Thursday will be their last day. The business cited extreme violence and criminal activity that keeps getting worse. We had like a window that was shattered during like
business hours, and then we also had
like a chair from like last Wednesday
at at this window. And it's during business
hours and people feel unsafe and it's
pretty traumatizing. Baristas like chance McLeod say they wanted to work here to make good coffee and a safe, inviting space for people
to enjoy
it in. He never thought that would ince hazard pay and deescalation training, but here we are. Things escalate because
we only have
so much like escalation training
as baristas and cova's exit follows Amazon's recent departure from this same building, both open in 2017. That leaves Karam restaurant anr as the last remaining
business tenant. Our mindset is definitely not on on leaving, right? I mean we we signed a very longterm lease for a reason bece we're we're in it to win it. Owner Karam Karam is grateful fr continued business and support. But he's also dealt with his own share of crime, including several broken window. But nothing he says
in the last month. For him, that's a win every day. Coming, coming
to work has all. It's always a surprise for me, kind of roaming around the buil, seeing if there's any broken gl, think there's any breakins.
It's just been such a shock. Sarah Shaul is CEO of
bricks need mortar, an advocacy group for
small businesses. Each year they survey small
business owners. Out of 118 questioned, 63% said that in 2021 their buss had been broken into or vandali. In 2020, 279% said they'd been , many more than once. There's a lot of blame pointed t the other entities where there it's the city versus the county, or whether it's the police
versus the DA. Come on guys, we got
to cut this out. We need to get together and we d to just work to solve
these problems, Shaul admits. What's happening in Portland is not much different from what may other cities are experiencing, but maybe the tumble began from a more idyllic place. I believe that, you know, Portld just had much farther to fall and this is just one block. I kind of hope the street can can get better after. You know a certain amount of tie so important to support
our local businesses. Akova Coffee still has two other locations that will stay open, one on southeast Hawthorne, the other on Southeast Grand. Also last month bricks need morr started a monthly meet up group to help reconnect business owne. They're calling it shop talk. We'll post more on that
on kgw.com, David. And sadly right now Catherine te is just so much to talk about.
