AKRON, Ohio — In Akron, Downtown businesses are dealing with the impacts of the Jayland Walker grand jury decision, saying they have seen an extraordinary drop in business since Monday.
On Wednesday, Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett was seen talking to businesses.
"I'm just touching base and getting a sense of how everybody's feeling," said Mylett.
He tells News 5 many are impacted by what's happening in the city, and he wanted to check-in. One of those affected includes the owner of Twisted Tomato and The Dailey Pressed, Chris Sedlock; he's worried he'll feel some of the same hardships last year brought.
Over the summer, his business was called Karma Cafe, and during those protests following Jayland Walker's death. Protesters busted out windows along with other damages downtown.
This time, following the grand jury decision, Chris boarded up his windows, adjusted his hours and is prepared to shut down.
"You have to believe what you choose to do, whether it's right or wrong, but you have to protect your investment," said Chris.
But even with the measures in place, one thing they can't prepare for is a lack of business.
"The fear factor is definitely there, like this week, you can tell that not a lot of people come down for the baseball game; we've seen a decline in revenue with people eating for lunch," said Chris.
He's not alone. At Crave, though, they didn't board up their windows.
"We do not have boards on our windows just because of how many windows we do have. But we do have security," said Aaron Francis, the general manager at Crave.
They are also dealing with the effects on business.
"So it's cut our business severely over the past time," said Aaron.
Wednesday, they told News 5 they have only seen 15 customers for lunch and are already seeing the impacts on the weekend's reservations; usually, they'll have 230 on the books for Saturday night, but this weekend it's only 40. While they are still determining what will happen next, both businesses hope the effects will be short-term.
"We're just, you know, a mom-and-pop restaurant... we don't have big corporate to help back us up," said Aaron.
"Last year, even though everything has settled down, it still took about six months to say Akron is safe again," said Chris.
Meanwhile, the chief hopes to bring calm back to the community.
"So it has been our mission to get out into the community and listen to the conversation... so far (it's) been very insightful and impactful," Mylett said.
The businesses tell News 5 they are still determining how long they will keep the boards up. They'll take it week by week.
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