For the past year, Nike's flagship store in Portland has been temporarily closed due to rampant theft while the company searches for solutions to the very serious and ongoing crime problem that plagues the city. We have now learned that Nike has given up on the location and has no plans to ever reopen it.
"Nike's commitment to supporting and uplifting Portland's North and Northeast community is unwavering," the company said in a statement – keep in mind that Nike is based out of Oregon, which makes this look really, really bad for the state.
"We are reimagining Nike's retail space, permanently closing our current location at 2650 NE Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and considering future locations as part of this community's long term revitalization plan. True to our roots, we will seek the input of local community organizations and leaders to determine the best new location."
Portland "community leader" Ron Herndon says he was personally told by a Nike representative the other day that the store will remain closed forever, which he called "very disappointing."
"I wish we could have had a different outcome," Herndon added in a statement.
(Related: Another major retailer, REI, is also fleeing Portland due to out-of-control crime that continues to go unpunished.)
There COULD have been a different outcome for Nike if Portland actually punished crime
Herndon played an instrumental role in convincing Nike to open the flagship store on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. nearly 40 years ago. With the help of Black United Front, Herndon persuaded Nike to build its first ever factory store at the now-closed location, which used to be on Union Ave. before it was renamed to honor MLK Jr.
In 1984 (oh the irony), the Nike flagship store opened and became a Portland institution, eventually outgrowing its original home and moving to its current location in 2000.
Everything probably would have been fine had the George Floyd psy-op not become one of the most in-your-face propaganda campaigns pushing anarchy and chaos as the solutions to so-called "white supremacy."
Now, there are hordes of angry, violent people – many of them desperate for some kind of asset to support their existence – who are willing to smash-and-grab stores like Nike and ransack everything inside. This can only go on for so long unpunished before the targeted company, in this case Nike, is no longer able to survive and make a profit.
At some point last October, Nike quietly closed the store without releasing so much as a statement, even on its website, about the move. Initially, the company did put a "Closed for the next 7 days" notice on the website, but that message disappeared and a week turned into a month, which turned into a year, which turned into forever.
Just so he knows why the store was closed, Nike sent a letter to Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler back in February explaining that "deteriorating public safety conditions and rapid escalation in retail theft" were the driving forces behind the closure.
That letter was intended to be a hint, hint type of situation to get Wheeler's attention and perhaps convince him to re-fund the police and make Portland livable again. Instead, Wheeler ignored the letter and now Nike is fleeing for greener pastures.
Nike even offered to directly pay for dedicated police support to reopen the flagship location, but it fell on deaf ears. Nike is essentially being driven out of Portland because the city has largely become a lawless cesspool of crime and violence – and Portland is rapidly becoming economically unviable the longer this continues.
Will Portland survive as a first-world city? Find out more at Collapse.news.
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