Business owners and employees across Seattle opted not to show up for work Friday as part of a national movement to bring daily life to a halt in protest of a federal crackdown that saw two people killed by agents this month.
The January rain cleared in time for hundreds of protesters, toting homemade signs and bundled in warm layers, to crowd in front of the Target store on 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle.
Right now, Minneapolis — Target’s hometown — is Ground Zero for raids by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Agents swarmed the Midwestern city in December. Two residents, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, were killed by federal agents this month, which fed the public’s fury.
In Seattle, the downtown demonstrators sought to not only shame Target into turning away federal agents but to raise their voices against ICE activity.
Conor Nickel, 26, expects more out of the businesses he frequents. He wants them, he said, to stand by their communities.
“If you want people to buy your products, you should make ethical and moral business decisions,” the Seattle-area resident said outside the Target near Pike Place Market.
Dozens of Washington small businesses shuttered on Friday in solidarity with Minneapolis and the burgeoning general strike. Protest guidelines ask participants not to work, shop or attend school. Several events are planned for Saturday, including a 1 p.m. rally at Seattle Central College.
The pressure on the city’s businesses to show their teeth is rising.
Most of them, including all of the region’s largest employers, remained open Friday. But some that couldn’t close found ways to back the protesters.
Spice Waala, a trio of restaurants in Columbia City, Ballard and Capitol Hill, continued welcoming patrons Friday after hosting a fundraiser to support immigrants and the protest movement the day before.
Uttam Mukherjee, co-owner of Spice Waala, said he wants to turn his full attention to his job: feeding roti bread and green chutney to his fellow Seattleites. But the fear of racial profiling by ICE is also on his mind. The agency has faced widespread complaints — including from the Minneapolis police chief — on the issue.
“We are first-generation immigrants,” Mukherjee said. “No matter what the law says, right now, everyone is at risk. We could be stopped tomorrow on the streets.”
Some Seattle businesses locked their doors Friday for the strike.
Both the Seattle Art Museum on 1st Avenue and the Seattle Asian Art Museum on East Prospect Street were shuttered due to “higher than anticipated staff shortages,” in wake of the strike.
On a subdued and drizzly morning on Capitol Hill, a tense undercurrent was building.
The wall above the awning of restaurant Hot Mama’s Pizza on East Pine Street featured graffiti of a yellow duck floating in blue waters. Next to it, a painted warning: “Dawn of fascism / Get your ducks in a row.”
A neon red arrow on the sidewalk of 11th Avenue encouraged passersby to “shop the alley,” pointing them toward Chophouse Row, a retail marketplace. Two stores nestled in the narrow passage — boutique Butter Home and slow fashion studio Celine Waldmann — defied that directive.
A handwritten sign in Butter Home’s front window informed would-be customers that it was closed in solidarity with the general strike.
“Please support small businesses unable to close today!” it read. “ICE out of everywhere!”
Posted next to information about a hand-sewing basics workshop and a monthly collage club, a flyer in the window of Celine Waldmann’s storefront proclaimed that the business was shut down Friday to “demand ICE out.”
Nearby, Retrofit Home announced a sale in bold red letters on a banner. But that was not the focus today.
Plastered with a smattering of anti-ICE messages, the furniture store was shuttered Friday. “To help support our small staff, please consider purchasing a gift certificate” online or later at the store, signs read.
Hoste, a vintage clothing store in West Seattle, was closed for the day, with the exception of a four-hour afternoon window when community members could meet, make crafts and speak about how to help their neighbors and oppose ICE, said manager Oran Miller.
Hoste will be able to pay its workers for the day, Miller said. The symbolic gesture is a “moral choice” to stand in solidarity with Seattle businesses and communities, as well as Minneapolis.
“We’re willing to take a hit for a day if it means pushing this collective together,” Miller said.
Many businesses continued to operate as usual, “open” signs beckoning to passersby in rain jackets: Enter.
Mukherjee, 40, took a break to speak with The Seattle Times before the dinner rush at Spice Waala, which specializes in Indian street food.
“We just can’t afford to shut down right now,” he said. “A lot of restaurants are struggling.”
He owns Spice Waala’s three Seattle locations with his wife. Though they’ve watched revenue fall over the past couple of years, the pair still has to keep up with the surging cost of goods and rising minimum wage.
“January has not been good,” Mukherjee said. “October, November, December of last year has not been great at all.”
But the ICE raids in Minneapolis and around the country are also top of mind for him. He settled in the U.S. from India in 2007.
Mukherjee worries whether he and his immigrant neighbors will be torn from their loved ones during enforcement actions. He hopes his community continues to push back against ICE.
To do their part, Mukherjee and his spouse coordinated a fundraiser Thursday, with proceeds donated to restaurants in Minneapolis. More than 70 Seattle businesses participated in the drive.
That day, “we literally just sold out of food everywhere,” Mukherjee said.
At Big Mario’s Pizza on East Pike Street, patrons sheltered from the drizzle around lunch time as an employee stretched and shaped dough.
For each slice purchased Friday, $1 would go toward immigrants, workers, families and restaurants in Minnesota, along with the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, an immigrant rights organization, the restaurant chain said on Instagram.
Cafe and bar Gemini Room on East Pike Street remained open. Behind the cheery pink front door, Daria Parodi stood at the bar, preparing a steaming cup of coffee for her lone customer.
She said she’d spent the morning mulling over the nationwide strike, which she backs wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, she was also the only employee who could work the Friday shift.
Tapping her shaped nails on the bar top, Parodi, 23, explained that she was proud of Seattleites for supporting their immigrant neighbors — and of her employer for doing what it could to chip in. Those contributions resonate with her: Her partner comes from an immigrant community.
What’s happening right now, “it breaks my heart,” she said.
Parodi also felt disappointed by the stream of consumers crossing the picket line Friday to grab lattes and breakfast — moves that she believes shows their privilege.
But some customers showed up explicitly to help local businesses at this time of growing turmoil.
In Ballard, Tracy Wight wandered into Push/Pull, an arts and crafts store on Northwest Market Street. She browsed through the red, yellow, black and pink poster board, picking up a guide to protesting.
She’d seen a social media post about Push/Pull staying open and wanted to support the local business, as well as the cause.
Owner Maxx Follis-Goodkind spent Friday handing out free poster boards for protest signs, whistles, “Abolish ICE” flyers and literature about protesting guidelines and mutual aid. The classroom area was open and stocked with supplies for poster-making.
Shuttering wasn’t an option for the 12-year-old small business, Follis-Goodkind said. Losing even a half day’s income would be prohibitively expensive.
But since ICE activity began ramping up, the business has already given away a thousand whistles and 100 posters, Follis-Goodkind said. “This is what we do every day.”
For their part, Wight, who is retired, and her husband won’t be shopping at any larger companies during the strike.
“We’re all immigrants,” Wight said. “I’m an immigrant, you know, 200 years ago.”
She walked out with an “Abolish ICE” poster in a bag to protect it from the raindrops.
At West Seattle Grounds, closing for the day “would be detrimental,” said director of operations Joanie Jacobs. But the small business planned to donate 10% of its sales Friday to the West Seattle Food Bank in solidarity with the general strike.
The coffee shop isn’t flush with extra income. It’s hardly breaking even, Jacobs said.
The business wouldn’t be able to pay their employees if it shuttered. Plus, as Jacobs sees it, the coffee shop is a space for the community to gather.
Customers entering the shop had donated $300 to the food bank by midday, Jacobs said. She hoped the assistance will help disenfranchised people who might be fearful of ICE operations.
“What is happening in Minneapolis is terrible,” Jacobs said. “It’s not, today, out of the realm of possibilities for it to be happening in Seattle, too.”
A cacophony of car horns, cheers and tambourine jingles filled the air on 2nd Avenue Friday afternoon.
“Target, you should be ashamed of yourselves,” a protester screamed into a microphone, the crowd in front of her animated. Another balanced atop a Seattle Public Utilities garbage can, chanting into a megaphone.
Valerie Costa, 44, is a member of Troublemakers, the Seattle-based activist group that planned the local strike. They held the event to push back against ICE’s presence in Minnesota and to insist on accountability for federal agents who commit crimes, among other demands.
“Frankly, people are doing so much more than those in power right now to stand up and say, ‘This is not OK,’” she said at the protest. “It’s important that corporations realize that they have a lot of power in this country.”
Draped in a blue poncho, Lisa Morrow, 71, held one end of a large banner condemning ICE. In her hand, she gripped an upside-down American flag, a signal of distress.
“We are inspired by the citizens of Minneapolis who are fighting back, standing strong,” Morrow said. “Hope we can do as well as they do when it’s our turn.”
“And it will be our turn.”
The opinions expressed in reader comments are those of the author only and do not reflect the opinions of The Seattle Times.