SPOKANE, Wash. – Elected officials, business owners and public figures crowded into Zona Ceviche Bar for a press conference Monday, after the restaurant announced it would be closing permanently due to crime-related issues downtown.
City Councilman Jonathan Bingle hosted and arranged the press conference. Public figures including former Spokane Mayor, Nadine Woodward and County Commissioner, Al French, were in attendance.
Bingle voiced his frustration with the City for not prioritizing the safety and security of businesses downtown.
“First and foremost, we absolutely must be enforcing our public drug-use laws in the City of Spokane,” Bingle said to the crowd.
Zona Blanca’s owner, Chef Chad White, also addressed those in attendance.
He told NonStop Local that crime and drug issues happening in downtown Spokane have made it almost impossible for him to run the business.
“It’s become too difficult to continue to operate on a daily basis. We’re constantly repairing a broken window or dealing with other vandalism and threats. We have people that come in and just yell at us for no reason while we have a full restaurant, full of people. [I get] waken up in the middle of the night because someone is breaking in,” Chef White, said.
Statistically, reported crime in downtown Spokane has decreased. But that data does not mean that crime in downtown Spokane has decreased.
“I can speak for our tenants in the buildings that we own that they are not reporting all the crimes because it is very, very difficult… the [police] response time… and what they are doing… Criminal activity has to be a priority. And in our experience downtown, it’s not a priority,” Bobby Brett, a prominent property owner who attended the press conference, said.
Brett is the owner of multiple buildings downtown and owns the Spokane Chiefs and Indians.
He is one of the co-owners of the building Zona Blanca is in.
“When we look at Chad White, in this restaurant, I mean, right outside the front door there’s illegal campers doing drugs right at the entryway,” Brett said.
During the press conference, NonStop Local Reporter, Steffi Roche, asked Bingle if, with Chief Kevin Hall now heading the Spokane Police Department (SPD), he planned to try to convince them that the issues businesses are facing should be a top SPD priority.
“In my meetings with Chief Hall, those are the things I relayed. We need Spokane to be clean and safe,” Bingle said.
Chef White told NonStop Local that, after great consideration, he just cannot keep the business open with the current conditions of downtown Spokane.
“We really are exhausted. There’s a lot of things that go with operating a business. We’re just kinda tired of it. It’s like ‘why continue?’,” Chef White said.
Zona Blanca will remain open Thursday through Sunday until Sept. 29.
