The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce is discovering that sponsoring mountain trolls to bang on drums and hoot in megaphones scares the straits:
Two weeks after the Berkeley City Council refused to apologize to the Marine Corps for calling them “uninvited and unwelcome intruders,” Berkeley businesses said they are feeling the backlash from people who don’t want to spend their money in the city.
“We’re hearing of folks canceling reservations and canceling hotel rooms, and we know there is a direct correlation. How big, I don’t know. We’re in a tough economic period anyway,” said Ted Garrett, chief executive officer of the chamber.
Garrett said the chamber has received an estimated 300 e-mails, letters and faxes from people upset about the council’s action and its refusal to apologize.
“Folks are upset,” he said. “Unfortunately, they are blaming the businesses.”
It’s a bad break for the small business folks, and it’s coming frankly at a bad time – with the threat of a recession looming, it’d be nice to be able to put a bit away for the lean times. If consumer spending really takes a nose-dive and the time comes to cut costs, the first people to feel the pinch are at-will employees working for hourly wages in small companies. Folks like that tend to have few resources of their own to fall back upon.
City Councilmember Dona Spring is unsympathetic to her constituents:
(She) doesn’t view the protests as a problem. She said only the businesses on the same block as the demonstrations are being affected.
“Every anti-war group in the East Bay wants to come and protest. This is where the action is,” she said.
Might be where the action is, but considering that Ms Spring is involved in local government she’s strangely unconcerned about local payrolls and tax base, not to mention her neighbors.
It’s unfortunate but maybe it’s time for the small businesses in the area to place appropriate pressure upon the City Council to act like adults instead of the idealistic, ignorant youths they allowed their schoolteachers to cut loose in the park that afternoon.
Just a thought.
Um, well, yeah —they probably SHOULD blame the businesses. The businesses that have actively or passively aided and abetted this foolishness for what–decades?–now.
Duh, the moonbats go where the money and the mental climate are supportive of their antics. “Know money, Know ‘justice’ –no money means nobody will long be affilicted with their warped sense of entitlement masquarading as justice. They’ll just take their perpetual grievance hysteria elsewhere, to where the dollar pickings are easier. And attracting all sorts of fellow traveler rif-raf with them.
The lifeblood of any city are its local businesses. The tax rolls that can pay for good government can just as easily be hijacked by ranting fools of any political persuasion, if nobody is paying attention to the consequences.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Capt J and Homefront Six and Captain Lex … It’s time the “ignorant idealistic youths” learned that — hello!– actions have consequences, and, as always there’s an oversupply of nuts everywhere. We have lots of them in Texas too. Just went over to vote today. The Republican [grown-up] side of the room was sparsely populated. The Democratic side was clogged. At least Hillary wasn’t there.
Marianne
The protesters probably don’t give a dang about the businesses success or failure. Hell, many of them probably don’t even support capitalism so they most likely won’t even recognize that losing small businesses is a bad thing for any city. As for the councilwoman, her shortsightedness is breathtaking. Does she believe that newly arrived hippy protesters’ spending will offset the lost revenues from businesses that are forced to close?
Berkely is about to get a lesson in economics. How much do you think Code Pink members spend there anyway?
Ya know,
Maybe it’s time that some of the business folks there filed a class action suit against Code Pink, ANSWER, et al, to have them banned as a public nuisance.
These protesters and their enablers (of many fashions) have directly impacted the business climate, and thus been instrumental in driving down sales and resulting profit. If the business’ can show a direct correlation between the protesters and the loss of income, they might well prevail, regardless of claims of “free speech”.
One’s free speech can never be used to directly ( or indirectly) impact or deny the livelihood of another.
respects,
Tim, let’s not forget the proximate cause of all this noise is the City Councils ill-advised vote. Not the protestors, just those flaming…er, idiots. I wonder when the lightbulb is going to come on, when they realize next campaign cycle, that they no longer will have all those contributions coming in.
The local political leaders gave official cover to attacks on a neighboring business and are unconcerned about the collateral damage as such, a business owner has no choice but to re-evaluate their ability to prosper in that political domain. If the numbers don’t add up, the business owners can either seek to change the political situation, salvage what they can as they their investment out of the political domain or accept the continued losses.
I wouldn’t spend a dime in the Bay Area. Being from the east coast, I am looking at vacations in Denmark this year… I vote with my dollars.
Communists smell.
Business owners. What a quaint capitalistic concept. [/sarcasm]
Putting economic pressure on the taxpaying businesses is the only method individuals have to pressure the politicians that made these decisions. If they have a problem with it, remember the lettuce boycotts. Personally, I would have been in favor of pulling the Marine recruiting station out, and cutting all federal funding to Berkeley.
I’m a Brit who spends quite a bit of time in the bay area.whilst there I like to shop in a supermarket in Berkeley called Andronico’s….no longer…its the least I can do and I’m sure if more do so it will clear the leftie fuzz from at least some of the council members minds…or maybe not!