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Businesses Won't Welcome Nazis
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COLUMBIA - Three days and counting, and Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman said he has no intention of welcoming the Nazis with open arms Saturday.

"I think you treat it like the annoying kid in the 4th grade class, you just ignore it, don't give the cry-baby his candy," Jason Robertson, owner of Campus Bar and Grill, said.

Over at city hall, the mood was very similar

"Don't even give them a glass of water," City Council member Almeta Crayton said. "Let them go where they need to go and we're going to stay here and do what we need to do with our community."

Community groups have organized alternative activities to keep citizens, especially younger citizens, away from Saturday's Nazi march.

The events include a gathering at Douglass Park called "Spark in the Park."

Local movie theaters and skating rinks are offering half price youth admission, but some local businesses will have trouble avoiding the protesters.

The intersection of 9th Street and Elm will be closed to traffic on Saturday to make way for the National Socialist Movement march which goes up Elm then loops back around and down 9th Street.

This gives the deck on top of Campus Bar and Grill a birds eye view of a lot of the march. Managers said the deck will remain open but security will be increased.

Despite these worries, Hindman is calling for business as usual.

"If you have business downtown go about your business downtown," Hindman said. "What we don't want is people idly going downtown to confront the parade."

With the plan in place, the city and business owners can only wait until Saturday.

Reported by: Garrett McCaffrey
Edited by: Jennifer Ayres

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