Longtime Seattle business owner fed up and moving out
Joey Rodolfo says he's fed up with the lack of leadership and support for small businesses amid the 'CHOP' zone takeover.
Joey Rodolfo, the owner of a clothing store in Seattle, Wash., told “Fox & Friends” that he plans to move out of the state, citing “no leadership” and a “socialist” city council as reasons for his decision.
Rodolfo, the co-founder of Buki clothing, made the comments as authorities in Seattle are making preparations to retake the Capitol Hill Organized Protest zone, or CHOP, after several shootings and a number of other crimes have been reported in what protestors have declared a “cop-free zone.”
Demonstrators moved in and occupied the neighborhood on June 8 after police pulled out of their East Precinct building following more than a week of protests over the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, some of which grew violent. Floyd died while in police custody.
On Monday, Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan announced the city will move to end the police-free zone after two recent shootings, one of which was deadly.
“I will tell you what's currently happening in Seattle,” Rodolfo said on Wednesday. “We have people in leadership positions where we have no leader.
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“We have seen this happen in the private sector and you know what eventually happens without leadership right? Companies usually die in the private sector,” he continued.
"Since we have no leadership and we have a city council that's so socialist, there really is very, very little support for businesses. As far as the city reaching out to small businesses like ourselves, or any business, there has been zero.
“In fact, most of the attention has been focused on CHOP, making sure that people in CHOP are well taken care of, but there has been absolutely no support or no encouragement for us to reopen our stores and have any significant sense that there will be a future here if we were to keep our businesses in Seattle or the state of Washington.”
Rodolfo said that as a result, he plans to move to another state after 38 years of living in Seattle.
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“We are looking at so many options, but Arizona with Governor [Doug] Ducey seems to be a great bet quite frankly,” Rodolfo said.
“There is a lot of support in Arizona for businesses and it just seems like a great state right now.”
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.