"I'm pissed. I'm on the protesters' side - I don't think that kid should have been killed - but they didn't have to vandalize our store," said Thuyen Tran, whose family has owned Satisfied Nails on 15th Street for 10 years. The store's front window was smashed in Wednesday's riot; it cost the Tran family $600 to replace it. "We shouldn't be taking the hit for this."

More than 300 businesses and hundreds of cars were damaged Wednesday as rioters fanned through downtown Oakland, protesting the New Year's Day fatal shooting of an unarmed man by a BART police officer. The violence ended around 11 p.m. By then, police had arrested 105 people, many of them near the Paramount Theater.

Thursday morning, the sidewalks were strewn with shards of glass and scores of storefronts were boarded up. Oakland public works crews swept downtown streets with brooms and rakes, removing glass that merchants had overlooked. Glass company vans were parked on nearly every block.

Merchants reported almost no thefts, and there were few injuries. But fear was widespread. At Flora, an upscale restaurant on Telegraph Avenue, manager Andee Brown described the scene as rioters tried to break through a locked door while diners were enjoying a late dinner.

"Most of the customers were unaware of what was happening, but we knew the mob was coming toward us," Brown said. "We told the (night) manager to pull in the awnings and be ready to lock the door. She locked the door, but then seconds later they threw a concrete vase through the window."

A customer picked up a chair for protection as rioters began hurling their bodies against the windows and reaching in through the broken glass. The rioters gave up after a few minutes and headed up Telegraph, where they smashed windows at the Turner Construction office, Sears department store and other storefronts.

"We called the police but no one ever came, which was really disheartening," Brown said. "Everyone's just bummed. We all understand why people are so angry, and unfortunately it takes an event like this to get people's attention."

Across the street from Flora, rioters shattered five windows at the recently restored Fox Theater, where children began classes at the Oakland School for the Arts this week. Turner Construction oversaw the $73 million renovation of the Moorish 80-year-old landmark, which is set to officially reopen Feb. 5 after an 11-year restoration process.

The mood at Turner was resigned and frustrated Thursday as they surveyed the damage to the venerable theater as well as to their own office.

"I'm very proud to live in Oakland, but there's this anger just under the surface that's always waiting to bubble over," said Maya Naylor, senior project engineer at Turner. "We're just getting ready to close this office anyway, and now it'll be a bittersweet goodbye."

At McDonald's on 14th Street, managers closed the restaurant four hours early Wednesday when rioters smashed three windows during the dinner rush.

"It's young thugs who wanted to seize an opportunity," said Tony Smith, a security guard at the restaurant. "That shooting was unjustifiable, but what do you get by destroying other people's property? Nothing. You get arrested."

McDonald's patron Attilda Forbes, a business student at Cal State East Bay, said she was disappointed to see so much damage wrought downtown.

"I understand the anger, but these businesses didn't have anything to do with it," she said. "I'm just keeping my fingers crossed we can find an alternative to destroying others' property."

Some store owners spent Wednesday night in their shops, fearful their stores would be looted before the windows could be repaired.

Leemu Tokpa and several family members stayed overnight at Creative African Braids on 14th Street, the hair salon Tokpa started four years ago. Protesters smashed the store windows Wednesday night.

"I understand they were mad because a black man was killed, but I'm a black lady. If they're protesting, why would they come into the store?" Tokpa said Thursday morning.

Asked what she would tell the protesters, she said, "They're stupid."

City employees fanned through downtown Thursday morning, taking inventory of the damage and meeting merchants whose businesses had been vandalized.

The city hopes to help them recoup some of their losses, said Margot Lederer Prado of the city's economic development agency, who stopped by a badly damaged 14th Street pharmacy Thursday morning.

"Where we'll find the funds, God knows," she said. "But we'll find them."

Chronicle staff writer Henry Lee contributed to this report. E-mail Carolyn Jones at carolynjones@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A - 12 of the San Francisco Chronicle