Downtown Vancouver businesses flag safety concerns in wake of deadly stabbing
Global News
Paul Schmidt, a 37-year-old husband and father, died after being stabbed outside a Starbucks at Granville and Georgia streets Sunday evening.
Businesses in downtown Vancouver are speaking out about their mounting crime and safety concerns, in the wake of a fatal daylight stabbing that has shocked the city.
Paul Schmidt, a 37-year-old husband and father, died after being stabbed outside a Starbucks at Granville and Georgia streets Sunday evening.
Sandeep Alexander, who owns Festal Café on Granville Street said the incident is yet another sign of deteriorating conditions in the downtown core that have driven staff and customers away.
“Almost every other day we have people walking in, threatening our staff, taking money from the tip jars; we had multiple encounters of iPads being stolen, multiple encounters of vandalism. Quite a lot of these places the glass, shopfront — broken,” Alexander said.
Alexander has had to close his downtown restaurant, in the wake of repeated vandalism that he estimates has cost him at least $100,000.
The downtown core, he said, has never fully recovered from COVID, and on top of the mounting costs of inflation he’s now dealing with aggressive street disorder.
“The intent may not be to harm, but we’ve constantly had issues with them confronting our employees, confronting our customers,” Alexander said.
“We’ve had times where they’ve walked in, grabbed food off our customer’s plate and just walked out.”