Victoria enterprise proprietor mulls closing downtown store after repeated break-ins – BC

A Victoria enterprise proprietor says he’s critically contemplating closing up store for good, after the second break-in in three months.

Simply after 5 a.m. on Saturday, somebody threw rocks by way of the window of Black Apple Mobile, setting the shop’s alarms off.

Half an hour later, with no police in sight, the thief entered and grabbed a laptop computer, cellphones and different merchandise earlier than lastly fleeing when an worker arrived.

“It simply boils your blood. It actually pi**es you off that this particular person may be very comfortably doing this,” proprietor Mandeep Rana informed International Information.

“They’re fearless. They know there’s no person who’s going to return and catch them immediately.”

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Metropolis of Victoria has highest crime severity index out of all B.C. municipal police companies in 2020

Rana mentioned downtown enterprise operators have gotten more and more anxious that rising crime may value them their livelihoods.

Tourism has not recovered from the pandemic, and now locals are shying away out of concern, he mentioned.

“We wish folks to really feel snug strolling round downtown, purchasing downtown,” he mentioned.

“Proper now … a mum or dad wouldn’t need to ship their child within the evenings to go have enjoyable, {couples} don’t need to step out of their home to go downtown.”

Knowledge from Statistics Canada seems to again up Rana’s issues. In accordance with the company, Victoria had against the law severity index — a metric that measures the quantity and severity of police reported crime — of 148 in 2021.

That’s far above the B.C. common of 93, and the Vancouver’s 90. It’s additionally up considerably from 2017, when town scored slightly below 111.

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Spike in youth violence in downtown Victoria

Jeff Bray, CEO of the Downtown Victoria Enterprise Enchancment Affiliation, mentioned he’s hoping for an “perspective adjustment” from the brand new metropolis council, to be elected on October 15.

Bray mentioned 9 out of 10 companies downtown companies reported crime and road dysfunction as a top-three challenge within the BIA’s most up-to-date survey.

“It’s the perspective of this council that’s going to set the tone of what we settle for in our downtown core,” he mentioned.

“We’re hoping we get a very good steadiness of compassion and caring but additionally enforcement, and in addition that this ought to be secure and welcoming for everybody, not simply these which might be unhoused.”

Bray mentioned he additionally needs to see different municipalities within the capital area pull their weight on social companies, as an alternative of leaving all of them clustered in downtown Victoria.

And he mentioned the province must step in with severe funding for psychological well being and dependancy helps, whereas making “harder selections” about continual and repeat offenders.

Within the meantime, Rana mentioned he’s been left with the troublesome choice about what to do along with his downtown enterprise.

“What’s our selection? Ought to I begin sleeping within the retailer to guard my enterprise?” he requested.

“We’ve got to resolve sooner or later, will we carry on taking these losses or will we simply shut down the enterprise? It shouldn’t be like this. We’ve got been right here for 10 years.”