GIVE A DAMN
Willamette Week’s POLITICAL PICKS Marred Landscape Property values are rising, and it's the tenants--not the landlords--who are upping the prices. Taco Del Mar--a $5 million, 40-plus restaurant chain from Seattle, with four shops in Portland--is so set on expanding its walls that it offered to pay arent increase for the space at at 921 SW Oak St.--a 600-square-foot sliver across the street from Powell's. Unfortunately, Chloe Eudaly, the 28-year-old owner of Reading Frenzy, was already there. Taco Del Mar currently occupies the space next to Reading Frenzy and wants to expand into Eudaly's space. Eudaly started the 'zine shop in the Hawthorne District in 1994 and moved the store downtown two years ago because she needed a bigger space. Eudaly pays $580 a month. Last week the property manager, Doug Bean and Associates, denied her the option of renewing her lease, which expires in February. Eudaly was not told how much Taco Del Mar offered nor given a chance to negotiate. She put posters in her store window to protest, but Bean and Associates told her she had to take them down. Bean's decision to go with Taco Del Mar is a blow to small, locally owned businesses, Eudaly says. "They have no loyalty to tenants like me," says Eudaly. "Basically, what they're saying is small businesses are just filler until they can get a large corporate client to rent." Bean representatives did not return WW's call. They offered her first dibs on two smaller spaces in the same building, but Eudaly isn't interested in scaling back. The business tripled its 'zine selection in the past two years. She says she'll soon begin scouting for a new location. With a decidedly underground selection of 'zines--such as Constipation, written by and for prisoners, Hot Pantz, do-it-yourself gynecology, and Temp Slave--Eudaly's store is a counterculture oasis in today's Barnes & Noble landscape. Marty Kruse, who runs the small-press section at Powell's, says Reading Frenzy carries things Powell's won't--because the profit margin is too low or the content is "too extreme." "It's an important resource, providing voices that would otherwise be ignored or squelched by the mainstream," Kruse says. --Josh Feit |
