As the year anniversary of the Michael Brown shooting approaches, join Courthouse News in this three-part series looking at how the protests have affected Ferguson.
FERGUSON, Mo. (CN) - In business, location is everything.
For nearly 40 years, Andy Wurm's Tire and Wheel, on South Florissant Avenue in Ferguson, has drawn customers from the entire St. Louis region.
Unfortunately, its location across the street from the Police Department and Municipal Court buildings has made it ground zero for the protests sparked by the Michael Brown shooting.
Even with hundreds of angry protesters hanging right outside, Wurm's building was one of the few that was never touched, though he never boarded up his windows that display the latest in valuable rims.
"It's just trying to do right by people," Wurm told Courthouse News. "I don't have a problem with peaceful protest. I have a problem with violence."
But though he suffered no physical damage, Wurm's tire shop has not come through the past year unscathed.
"Our business is down about 50 percent," Wurm said. "We haven't laid anybody off, but everybody is only working four days instead of five."
With Sunday marking the first anniversary of the Brown shooting, Wurm fears the worst, as weekend-long protests throughout the region are planned.
"Just day to day is the only thing you can do and hope you make the right decisions," Wurm said.
"Most of the violence didn't even happen in Ferguson, that's Dellwood and Jennings over there. There's only one little square block and where the kid was killed was in Ferguson, that's why they single out Ferguson."
Wurm isn't the only business owner feeling the tension as Sunday approaches.
Faraci Pizza and many other businesses still have windows boarded up, and others, such as Cose Dolci Bakery, announced on their Facebook pages that they will close early on Saturday.
Dan Bish, Ferguson's community development coordinator, said the effects of the protests have been felt by businesses throughout the city.
"We haven't had as many closures as I think people would have expected to hear, with businesses being down for almost an entire year, but our small business owners are making it work and pushing through," Bish said in an interview.
"Even though some of the stores haven't quite rebounded to where they were last year, some of them have. A number of them are still having difficulty, because even though they have rebounded since last year, they have a significant loss to make up. Even though sales are where they should be, it doesn't change the fact that you had a significant period of loss. That's going to have to be made up over time."
The main problem has been lack of foot traffic.
Businesses like Wurm's draw from all over the region. They have been hurt because people outside of Ferguson are afraid to come.
Bish said Ferguson has regular events designed to bring people back to town. There are free concerts at Plaza 501, in the heart of downtown, a Springfest street festival, a winter tree-lighting, a farmer's market every Saturday and food truck Mondays.