Nike has closed a community store in its home city of Portland after it was plagued by shoplifting in the crime-ridden city.
The sportswear giant confirmed it will not reopen the Northeast Portland store in a statement issued earlier this month, nearly a year after a “temporary” closure was announced.
Nike, famous for its social justice activism, wrote to outgoing Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler in January, warning him that the store was closed due to “deteriorating public safety conditions and a rapid escalation in shoplifting.”
The company offered to pay off-duty Portland police to ensure safety, but Rose City officials could not spare enough staff from the notoriously understaffed police department to help.
Nike’s May 1 deadline was missed – and the store was doomed KKG reported. Wheeler – who has been widely criticized for failing to tackle crime in the city – said he was “very disappointed” by the store’s closure.
The Nike Unite Factory Store was the company’s first factory store and has been a fixture in Northeast Portland for decades
A shoplifter is pictured fleeing the doomed community store in Portland, his arms filled with Nike loot
Another shoplifter walks out of the store loaded with her ill-gotten gains
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (pictured) denied Nike when the company asked for more security to prevent the store from being brutally robbed on an ongoing basis
Nike is just the latest in an extensive list of Portland businesses that have closed, including Walmart, which closed its last two stores in March
The Nike Community Store had been a fixture in Northeast Portland since 1984 – it was Nike’s very first factory store.
It proved such a success that it moved to larger premises in 2000, joining other community stores since opening in the United States.
Nike’s decision to close the store is another huge blow to Portland, where the crime and drug-ridden downtown has lost several major retailers, including REI.
Portland also lost its only two Walmart stores last year.
George Floyd’s protests against racial injustice also led to a wave of crimes such as looting, arson and vandalism. The ongoing theft that followed caused serious problems for Nike’s community store
Nike employees admitted that they were prohibited from physically stopping shoplifters so that thieves would not have to worry as they fearlessly left the store with arms full of shoes and clothing.
Employees at Nike’s flagship store were not allowed to physically intervene with shoplifters, meaning thieves confidently left the store with loads of stolen goods
Crime has been a major problem in the liberal city since the death of George Floyd and the subsequent BLM protests
Lawmakers have tried to tackle the problem of homelessness and crime by banning daytime camping and defunding the police (after defunding them just a few years ago), but nothing has helped
According to official police statistics, Portland has one of the highest crime rates in America. Last year there were more than 63,000 thefts of property in the city.
In 2020, Portland became one of the first regions in America to fall foul of the “defund the police” movement, cutting $15 million from its budget.
The move prompted Mayor Wheeler to make a desperate plea to renew the department’s funding after it led to a disastrous crime spike.
But two years later, as rampant crime continues to tear the city apart, including a surge in homelessness and serious crimes including murders and robberies, officials are once again trying to stop the bleeding.
The two task forces are expected to be strengthened by the introduction of new deputy district attorneys and investigators, who will reportedly be tasked with building and prosecuting cases, according to Oregon Live.
However, Portland residents have criticized officials for their lack of efforts to prosecute criminals in recent years.
Portland lost $1 billion in revenue in 12 months between 2020 and 2021, in the wake of rising crime, rampant homelessness and riots following the death of George Floyd, Internal Revenue Service data shows.
Shocking figures also show that conditions in the city are far from improving, with fentanyl deaths increasing by more than 200 percent since 2020. Homelessness is also up 50 percent since 2019, while Portland broke its own homicide record in 2020 and 2022.
Portland residents are fed up with waking up to tents on their lawns and drug dealers on every corner as homelessness spirals out of control in Oregon’s largest city.
This follows news that Democratic lawmakers in Oregon want to decriminalize homeless encampments with a law that would allow people living there to sue for $1,000 if they are harassed or told to leave.
The hugely controversial bill claims that “decriminalization of quiet” would allow city leaders to “redirect” money from law enforcement toward measures that “address the root causes of homelessness and poverty.”
Portland saw some of its wildest riots in the wake of George Floyd’s death — and then again on Memorial Day — and things haven’t calmed down since.
Lawmakers in the progressive city are grappling with the homelessness crisis as Portland continues to lose businesses and residents because “every citizen is fed up with the growing homelessness problem,” an angry Portland business owner posted on social media.
Portland residents have complained of waking up to find tents in their front yards and have reported seeing drug dealers on street corners
“Portland used to be clean and safe and a place we were proud to call home. Now people are fucking moving.”
Residents of the city of 641,000 have told DailyMail.com they are fed up with tents being set up on sidewalks, lawns and along canals.
Officials began dismantling encampments, but tents resurfaced within hours.
Entrepreneurs complain about homeless people who relieve themselves in front of their shops.
The common fear is that Portland has gone from a crazy, progressive city with great restaurants and reliable public transportation to a hellhole with high taxes and overburdened city services.