PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — For nearly 30 years, Geneva’s Shear Perfection was the premier barber shop and beauty salon in Portland’s black community.

Many famous people, from athletes to entertainers, have been to the shop on NE Martin Luther King Boulevard. But Geneva’s owner Paul Knauls said the pandemic makes it impossible to keep it feeling like a community.

“The new restriction that they put on salons and beauty shops and businesses, it’s just too much for an old person,” Knauls told KOIN 6 News. “It’s time to go.”

Knauls, who was a longtime nightclub owner, is known at the “Mayor of Northeast Portland.”

On Monday, Ken Boddie will profile Geneva’s in “Where We Live.”