Downtown Seattle business leaders cite losses, call for protest crackdown
Dec 11, 2014, 1:53 PM | Updated: 2:38 pm
Downtown Seattle business leaders say ongoing demonstrations have significantly hurt during the critical holiday season and they’re calling for the city and police to take new steps to cut down on the protests.
The heads of the Downtown Seattle Association, Visit Seattle, Alliance for Pioneer Square, and the Seattle Hotel Association sent a lengthy letter to Mayor Ed Murray and the Seattle City Council Thursday outlining their concerns and calling for significant changes to the way the protests are handled.
“The recent non-permitted nightly protests in Downtown Seattle have caused significant disruption and impacts to transportation, commerce, jobs, retailers, residents, employees and tax revenues,” the letter says.
For example, the letter says Seattle’s popular Ride The Ducks tour has suffered a 30-percent drop in walk-up ticket sales. It also says, in addition to businesses, nonprofits that rely on donations at downtown-based holiday events have take a significant hit.
The groups say while they support peaceful, permitted protests, rallies and marches, the non-permitted marches have taken over a small area of the city near Westlake Park, causing businesses and groups in the area to bear the brunt of the impacts.
The letter also calls out current policy preventing Seattle police officers from stopping the unlawful protests.
“For the past two years, SPD has been quick to confront and arrest protesters who trespass on private property or who cause property damage, yet police officers are not currently authorized to halt protests that cause costly disruption to retail and restaurant operations, community events or seasonal visitor attractions.”
In addition to urging the city to develop new strategies and approaches to “reduce the frequency, duration and negative impact of non-permitted marches,” the groups are also calling for an accounting of police overtime and City revenue taken up by the protests. They are asking the City to clarify the process for dealing with protesters who enter private property, like those who overran Westlake Center and Pacific Place on Black Friday.
The letter includes a number of comments from downtown businesses, visitors, and residents lamenting the protests. Among them:
“People are scared … our customers left and went home because they felt unsafe.”
“Customers are calling to see if it is safe to come Downtown … most of our scheduled clients called to cancel their appointments, which make up a significant part of our business.”
“We’re worried about the protests getting violent, so we’re having to order supplies to protect our windows and doors.”
“If we don’t figure this out, all Eastside customers will stay on the Eastside – and will be closely followed by Seattle-based customers.”
“The protests have hurt our sales tremendously. We are down about 40% for our anticipated sales … if I didn’t have to work Downtown, I most definitely would not have bothered to visit here over the weekend. I have a young daughter and wife, and I would not want them to feel threatened. I promise you many others feel the same way, and I am sure many local stores and restaurants were way down in sales as well.”
“I’ve stopped shopping completely Downtown. And I live Downtown. Not safe with the protests. I’ll listen to the protestors but they have no right to block my day and make the kids scared. It makes Seattle a kid negative city. Impacts are long term. Why would I or my family want to go to Westlake center?”
“As an everyday citizen, I only see the surface of the issue – not the behind the scenes and details of the situation. All I know is that for a city that says it wants to be a world-class city, it sure is going about it in an interesting way. Seattle needs strong leadership – in the council, in city hall, and in the police department. And we need it sooner rather than later.”
“With the demonstrations constantly blocking streets and intersections our Ride the Ducks vehicles have been unable to maintain an adequate route, consistent schedule, and our parking location – on multiple occasions – has been inundated by protesters and SPD officers. When dealt this hand, we have been required to provide an immediate alteration to our boarding/ debarking process severely impacting our guests and staff … and have been forced to move our starting location from Westlake Center to our main location near Seattle Center … causing un-needed stress on our guests and additional training for our employees.”
