I could probably write a story like this every day of the week. Yesterday I wrote about one of the largest grocery stores in San Francisco which had decided to shut its doors at the close of business Monday. Whole Foods hasn’t decided if the closure of that location will be temporary or permanent but it’s clear why they shut their doors. Since last year the store has experienced rampant theft and street violence that made employees feel unsafe.

Today, it’s basically the same story except this time it’s in Portland. A local coffee chain called Coava Coffee is closing one of its downtown stores because there is too much violence and too much crime.

Coava Coffee on the corner of Southwest 12th Avenue and Jefferson Street announced Monday that its last day in that location would be Thursday. The business cited extreme violence and criminal activity that has gotten increasingly worse. Coava’s remaining two locations on Southeast Hawthorne and Southeast Grand will remain open.

“All of us at the café feel a little distraught,” said barista Chance McCloud.

Despite the emotional toil of the closure, McCloud noted that staying open was not a safe option.

“We had a window that was shattered during business hours and we also had a chair thrown last Wednesday at this window,” McCloud said. “People feel unsafe and it’s very traumatizing.”

There had been an Amazon pickup location next door but that has already closed for the same reason.

The factors that are driving these locations out of business aren’t unique to this block. A small business advocacy group called “Bricks Need Mortar” surveyed small businesses in Portland and found that 79% said they had been vandalized or broken into in the past year. Of those, 19% said they’d been hit 5 or more times in a year. Only 17% said they’d only been hit once.

Last November a retailer in downtown Portland announced it was closing permanently after suffering 15 break-ins in 18 months. The owner posted a note on the store window which read in part:

Due to the constant and unrelenting criminal behavior coupled with escalating safety issues for our employees, we’ve decided to permanently close.

Our city is in peril. Small businesses (and large) cannot sustain doing business in our city’s current state. We have no protection, or recourse, against the criminal behavior that goes unpunished. Do not be fooled into thinking that insurance companies cover losses. We have sustained 15 break-ins…we have not received any financial reimbursement since the 3rd.

More recently, Walmart announced it was closing its two remaining stores in the city. Nike, which closed one of its locations last year because of rampant shoplifting asked the city if it could hire off-duty police officers to help. The city said no.

Of course some level of turnover is normal in retail and restaurant businesses. The difference here is that all of these closures seem to have been brought on by crime and street conditions which made it unsafe for workers and unpleasant for customers. In other words, the chaos in the streets and the constant low-level theft is another level of trouble that is pushing some businesses over the edge.

Here’s the full report from KGW 8: