Front Page > Issues > 2004> June

Failed firebombing divides neighborhood

The prospect of a new Starbucks on SE 21st and Division has been a major issue in the neighborhood for months. It became more so on May 5, with the new store’s grand opening. In the months leading up to that date, people smashed windows in the building several times to protest the corporation moving into a neighborhood predominantly filled with small, locally-owned businesses. This culminated in the early hours of May 5, when someone allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail through the window, although the explosive did not go off. As a result, a First Response security guard with a gun now patrols the property after hours.

The issue of vandalism and of the Starbucks’ response to it has further divided the neighborhood over the prospect of hosting a Starbucks store in the first place. On the part of some neighbors, even those who initially opposed the Starbucks, the response has been sympathy for the new store. Some have sent flowers and brought the store their business. Others, whether they support the vandalism or not, find the presence of an armed guard intimidating and unnecessary.

Starbucks’ nearest neighbor is Climb Max, a locally-owned mountain climbing gear supplier. Concerning the Climb Max workers’ attitude toward the new Starbucks, employee Kim Whitney said, “I don’t know that any of us will support it. We’re going to keep supporting the local businesses we’ve been supporting.”

On the other hand, she added, concerning the vandalism, “I don’t think it’s especially necessary. Positive action is more necessary, in the sense of supporting local businesses instead.”
She was unsure how she felt about the She was unsure how she felt about the presence of an armed security guard next door.

Starbucks’ relationship with the First Response security company goes back to the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle, where anti-globalization activists targeted the corporation with acts of property destruction. The guard on Division, an ex-military officer who lives in Sherwood, was present 24 hours a day for the first few business days. As of press time, he was on duty only at night.

For Sarah Woodell, who lives just a few blocks away from the new store on Division, a guard with a gun is an inappropriate response to a property-related crime. She points out, especially, that all the acts of vandalism occurred at night, when there were no people present who could have been harmed.

“I’ve been held up at gunpoint on the job, and the response certainly wasn’t to bring in an armed guard,” Woodell said. “But the experience has certainly made me very nervous whenever I see a gun.”

Woodell pointed out the inconsistency of her neighbors decrying the “violence” of the vandals while making no outcry against the presence of a gun-carrying guard in the neighborhood. “It’s as if no one in the neighborhood could be both against vandalism and against an armed guard,” she said.

Meanwhile, developer Peter Perrin, who owns the Starbucks building, has put the Hosford-Abernethy (HAND) neighborhood association on the defensive by publicly accusing it of “stirring things up.” This was despite the fact that the neighborhood association never publicly took a stand on the Starbucks. Many members, however, had expressed concerns that the new store would cause increased car traffic and drive up rents for other businesses in the area.

At the opening day, the store handed out free coffee while protesters in “No Starbucks” shirts stood outside the store handing out fliers and creatively altering the wording of the logo on their free Starbucks coffee cups. Since then, the new store has not seen much business. There are, after all, three locally-owned coffee shops within a four-block radius and most neighborhood residents are continuing to frequent their old haunts. The majority seem to be taking an attitude of “If you ignore it, it will go away.”

Only time will tell whether they are right.

Abby Sewell is a Portland Alliance intern and a 2004 graduate of Reed College.