It has begun. Businesses are leaving Seattle.

[Sparko]

Seattle business owners close shop as city moves to defund police: 'Safety became paramount'

The push to defund the Seattle police is causing a local business owner to close his store, said Matt Raetzer, owner of Steelpologie Teas.

“It was a decision after deliberation. We’ve been there for three and a half years. That was our first store,” Raetzer told “Fox & Friends.”

Raetzer said that over the past several years the police have made “best efforts to stem the tide of growing homelessness, open-air drug use and violence.”

“Seattle City Hall seems to continue to hobble their efforts to make a change,” he said.

Meanwhile, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best on Tuesday announced her resignation, saying that she was not leaving because of pay cuts to her department, but because of the “lack of respect” toward her fellow officers.

Best’s resignation comes amid the City Council’s decision to reduce the department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition.

In response to a reporter who asked if her decision was motivated by protesters who appeared at her home earlier this month or the City Council’s decision, Best said it "is not about the money, and it certainly isn’t about the demonstrators."

Raetzer said that near his store in Seattle there were multiple shootings resulting in injuries and death.

“Several people were murdered and several people were injured and so at that point, safety became paramount,” he said.

“Then when the Seattle City Hall started talking about defunding the police, we had to think about closing the store instead of pressing forward.”

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/...-defund-police

[seer]

Seattle business owners close shop as city moves to defund police: 'Safety became paramount'

Then the leftists will complain of white flight, the loss of the tax base to fund their crap schools. This is happening up here in NYC.

[Cow Poke]

I'm shocked. SHOCKED, I say!

[Sparko]

Then the leftists will complain of white flight, the loss of the tax base to fund their crap schools. This is happening up here in NYC.

degentrification!

[rogue06]

Seattle business owners close shop as city moves to defund police: 'Safety became paramount'

The push to defund the Seattle police is causing a local business owner to close his store, said Matt Raetzer, owner of Steelpologie Teas.

“It was a decision after deliberation. We’ve been there for three and a half years. That was our first store,” Raetzer told “Fox & Friends.”

Raetzer said that over the past several years the police have made “best efforts to stem the tide of growing homelessness, open-air drug use and violence.”

“Seattle City Hall seems to continue to hobble their efforts to make a change,” he said.

Meanwhile, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best on Tuesday announced her resignation, saying that she was not leaving because of pay cuts to her department, but because of the “lack of respect” toward her fellow officers.

Best’s resignation comes amid the City Council’s decision to reduce the department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition.

In response to a reporter who asked if her decision was motivated by protesters who appeared at her home earlier this month or the City Council’s decision, Best said it "is not about the money, and it certainly isn’t about the demonstrators."

Raetzer said that near his store in Seattle there were multiple shootings resulting in injuries and death.

“Several people were murdered and several people were injured and so at that point, safety became paramount,” he said.

“Then when the Seattle City Hall started talking about defunding the police, we had to think about closing the store instead of pressing forward.”

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/...-defund-police

That in conjunction with the City Council passing new payroll tax on big businesses last month

Source: 'We want your jobs': Councilman asks Seattle businesses to consider Spokane after payroll tax passage

SPOKANE, Wash. — City Council Member Michael Cathcart is encouraging businesses based in Seattle to make the move to Spokane following the passage of a new payroll tax on big businesses.

The Seattle City Council passed the new tax Monday.

The tax targets big earners and the companies that employ them. Companies with more than $7 million in annual payroll will be charged a percentage based on how many people they employ with salaries of at least $150,000.

Companies that have billion-dollar payrolls will pay an even bigger share for high wage workers.

The tax rate will range from 0.7% to 2.4%, depending on annual payrolls and individual salaries.



Source

© Copyright Original Source

Another example of liberal actions producing "unintended consequences" that anyone with at least two working brain cells could have seen coming from a mile a way.

[seer]

degentrification!

My Capitol city, Hartford, used to be safe with fairly decent schools. Until the riots and rise in crime in the 60s. The money and businesses fled to the suburbs. You would think that leftists would learn.

[rogue06]

I'm shocked. SHOCKED, I say!

[seer]

Another example of liberal actions producing "unintended consequences" that anyone with at least two working brain cells could have seen coming from a mile a way.

When we jokingly say that liberalism is a mental disorder, I can help but to think there is a lot of truth in that.

[Cow Poke]

When we jokingly say that liberalism is a mental disorder, I can help but to think there is a lot of truth in that.

2 Cor 4:4

[Starlight]

When we jokingly say that liberalism is a mental disorder, I can help but to think there is a lot of truth in that.

Maybe it's just you whose insane? Seems vastly more likely to me.

[Starlight]

Businesses close stores all the time. It's a simple function of the capitalist system. Businesses fail, often. Sometimes due to mismanagement, sometimes a lack of customers, sometimes market forces, sometimes an economic downturn, etc.

And when a business has to close, human psychology means that the business owner wants to place the blame on something other than himself as the cause. It was the fault of some other competitor undercutting him, or the fault of the market, or the fault of people shopping more at suburban malls and less in the downtown area, or the fault of his employees being bad, etc. True, or false, people will find something other than themselves to blame their business' failure on. The real cause of the closure is nearly always that the business was not making money, but determining why any specific business isn't making more money than it is, is immensely complicated. So instead of acknowledging the complex reality of "we weren't making enough money, and we're not really sure why, because it's complicated" the business owner will typically prefer to seize on something random (and external to themselves) and say that was the reason why they weren't making more money. But they're not necessarily at all right in their claims.

In the OP we see a business closing, and the business owner blaming it on a bunch of things. That's not news. It's not something unusual. It's probably something that happens daily or even more often in a city the size of Seattle. And business owners' claims in general about why they closed the business are absolutely not to be trusted. So the OP is dumb... it bizarrely presents a single store closing as news, naively buys into all the different claims the business owner makes about why he did so, and seems to assume that a single business closing one store, constitutes some sort of massive business flight from the central city area. What idiocy.

[Gondwanaland]

Seattle business owners close shop as city moves to defund police: 'Safety became paramount'

The push to defund the Seattle police is causing a local business owner to close his store, said Matt Raetzer, owner of Steelpologie Teas.

“It was a decision after deliberation. We’ve been there for three and a half years. That was our first store,” Raetzer told “Fox & Friends.”

Raetzer said that over the past several years the police have made “best efforts to stem the tide of growing homelessness, open-air drug use and violence.”

“Seattle City Hall seems to continue to hobble their efforts to make a change,” he said.

Meanwhile, Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best on Tuesday announced her resignation, saying that she was not leaving because of pay cuts to her department, but because of the “lack of respect” toward her fellow officers.

Best’s resignation comes amid the City Council’s decision to reduce the department by as many as 100 officers through layoffs and attrition.

In response to a reporter who asked if her decision was motivated by protesters who appeared at her home earlier this month or the City Council’s decision, Best said it "is not about the money, and it certainly isn’t about the demonstrators."

Raetzer said that near his store in Seattle there were multiple shootings resulting in injuries and death.

“Several people were murdered and several people were injured and so at that point, safety became paramount,” he said.

“Then when the Seattle City Hall started talking about defunding the police, we had to think about closing the store instead of pressing forward.”

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/...-defund-police

[Ronson]

Businesses close stores all the time. It's a simple function of the capitalist system. Businesses fail, often. Sometimes due to mismanagement, sometimes a lack of customers, sometimes market forces, sometimes an economic downturn, etc.

And when a business has to close, human psychology means that the business owner wants to place the blame on something other than himself as the cause. It was the fault of some other competitor undercutting him, or the fault of the market, or the fault of people shopping more at suburban malls and less in the downtown area, or the fault of his employees being bad, etc. True, or false, people will find something other than themselves to blame their business' failure on. The real cause of the closure is nearly always that the business was not making money, but determining why any specific business isn't making more money than it is, is immensely complicated. So instead of acknowledging the complex reality of "we weren't making enough money, and we're not really sure why, because it's complicated" the business owner will typically prefer to seize on something random (and external to themselves) and say that was the reason why they weren't making more money. But they're not necessarily at all right in their claims.

In the OP we see a business closing, and the business owner blaming it on a bunch of things. That's not news. It's not something unusual. It's probably something that happens daily or even more often in a city the size of Seattle. And business owners' claims in general about why they closed the business are absolutely not to be trusted. So the OP is dumb... it bizarrely presents a single store closing as news, naively buys into all the different claims the business owner makes about why he did so, and seems to assume that a single business closing one store, constitutes some sort of massive business flight from the central city area. What idiocy.

The business isn't closing, they have several stores. The owners are closing just the one outlet.

But yeah, it's not a lot to hang a story on. I could find a store closing in just about any venue right now.

[Cow Poke]

The business isn't closing, they have several stores. The owners are closing just the one outlet.

But yeah, it's not a lot to hang a story on. I could find a store closing in just about any venue right now.

I did a quick Google, and found a number of stores pulling out, either to Phoenix or Texas - due to unrest, taxation, etc. Don't know why the OP focused on just that one store.

[Ronson]

I did a quick Google, and found a number of stores pulling out, either to Phoenix or Texas - due to unrest, taxation, etc. Don't know why the OP focused on just that one store.

That would be a good story. Hopefully someone will follow up on that soon because it will give the subject more depth.