There is a store in downtown Portland that sells fur. It’s been in downtown Portland a long time, something like 112 years. It’s family owned and operated, the current owner is the founder’s great-grandson or something. The store, Schumacher’s Furs, used to be on 10th and Yamhill or Morrison, near the MAX and streetcar lines anyway. I remember looking at the store all the time and was amazed that such a store could exist in leftist Portlandistan. I figured it must have gotten a pass somehow because it was such an old store, like it has been grandfathered in and given a pass because it started back in the day when people didn’t know that raping the land for its resources was a BAD THING.
About a year ago, the store moved to 9th and Morrison. That move causes a ripple in spacetime or something, because almost immediately after the move, anti-fur activists starting showing up on Saturdays to protest. These weren’t the sort of half-assed, quiet protests of a couple of union workers holding up a banner about low wages. These were spontaneous, angry protests by crowds of unwashed youth wearing animal masks and holding up signs with pictures of skinned animals. They set up a tv and repeatedly showed hidden camera videos of minks and racoons and bunnies being skinned alive.
Apparently, the protests started out small and grew in size as the year wore on and the word of mouth about the evil fur store spread around the network of animal rights activists. By the end of last year, the crowd was so thick you couldn’t walk on that side of the street, even if you wanted to and didn’t fear for your life. The protesters were loud and angry, always straddling the line between peaceful and violent, despite the continual instistance by the leader and spokesman for the group that the protests were indeed peaceful and that they didn’t want to hurt anyone.
The owners tried to get the city to do something about the crowd. They had video of the protesters breaking whatever nuisance laws there were and just wanted the police to enforce the law. Unfortunately, they didn’t really help their case much because they put up their own protest signs in the store windows, describing what they wanted to do to the protesters. Gregg Schumacher was interviewed several times on local talk radio and other media. He made some valid points in his favor but his angry stance never made him a sympathetic figure.
The city didn’t do much to protect the store. In fact, Randy Leonard, a city commissioner, flat out told Gregg Schumacher it might be best if they left downtown altogether. Well, Randy Leonard is an idiot, in my opinion, and it didn’t really surprise me that he would say something like that, although it did disappoint me quite a bit. One of the responsibilities the city has to it’s citizens is to foster an environment that encourages business, even business that may be considered politically incorrect to a segment of the city’s population. Otherwise, where does it stop? Right now, fur is pollitically incorrect, so stores that sell fur get targeted. What happens when a group decides to start targeting tobacco shops or liquor stores that sell explicit adult magazines and creates a scene like the one in front of the fur store? Will Randy tell that store to leave downtown, too? Leonard’s comments were doubly bizarre given that the city council and the Portland Business Alliance have both decried the slow death that downtown seems to have been going through the last few years. Given that, why would someone in a position to do something about it make comments that are so anti-business?
After Randy made that comment, other stores that were around the fur store took him to task precisely on that point, but it didn’t really make a dent. Leonard and Tom Potter, the mayor, both publically left the Schumachers out in the cold. They used Schumacher’s public comments as an excuse to distance themselves from the situation. I don’t remember what stance the other city commissioners took, and it really doesn’t matter.
Late last year, Gregg Schumacher announced he was moving out of Portland and into a store in some other city, most likely in a mall where the stores are surrounded by private property and any protests would be forced to take place on the street, so far away from the targeted store as to be meaningless. The protesters were happy he announced his leaving, but they didn’t stop protesting. Typically, they vowed to continue until the store was closed for good.
The latest chapter of this soap opera has just unfolded. Schumacher is claiming that the two malls in the region that are upscale enough to support his store has turned him down, based on protests from the anti-fur activists, forcing him to close for good. Representatives of those malls deny they were influenced. The leader of the protestors, one Matt Rossell, was happy the store was closing down and the went on to make this nonsensical statement:
Although it was never our intention to put them out of business, it’s a really encouraging sign that this community won’t have them.
It’s nonsensical because putting the Schumachers out of business was his intention all along, even if he never publically stated that fact. So, he’s either a liar or in denial. My bet is the former. After all, what did he think would be the logical conclusion to his protests? He and his group got the Schumachers to leave downtown Portland. Does anyone readiing this think they would just stop? Of course not, they would eventually find out where he moved his store and start the protests all over again. Their goal isn’t to get fur stores to move, it is to get fur stores to close.
I really don’t have an opinion on the ethics of the fur issue. In this particular case, I know that both sides used questionable tactics to get what they wanted. The Schumachers tried to demonize the protesters and the protesters used videos and pictures that were staged to make it appear the fur industry is deliberately cruel. What I find disgusting in all of this and what is, finally, the point of this post is the duplicity I see in both the way the city handled this issue and Rossell’s motives.
This whole episode shows, to me, how anti-business the city council is. Portland will continue to have such a stigma as long as it has a city council that favors one interest group, the protesters, over another, a store that is currently politically incorrect. It could have easily accomodated both sides, but choose not to. It could have moved the protesters to Pioneer Square, just a few blocks away from the store and a site that is traditionally used for protests. It could have then initiated a more constructive dialog with the Schumachers. The fact that the city did not do this exposes the commissioners biases and political leanings in such a way that is detrimental to the city’s business heath. Why would anyone want to start a business in such a climate of fear, where the business could be targeted and forced to move or close just because of the business itself?
Rossell may be well-intentioned and to the degree that he deserves respect (which isn’t much), I can respect him for the courage of his convictions. But he’s either a naive lefty if he truly believes that he didn’t want the Schumachers to go out of business based on the series of events he initiated or a lying sack of shit if he did. This is the source my annoyance. At least be honest with the public and say that you want all fur stores to close in general and the Schumacher’s in particular. I would think reasonable people would have more respect for his views if he was. As it is, I find him to be a reprehensible shit and as much as Gregg Schumacher deserves my scorn for his actions, Rossell deserves my hatred.