Our friend Bee had her restaurant, Beezy’s, broken into again. Last night, someone ransacked the place, stealing the safe, and some other items. The good news is, it looks like the police already have an idea as to who did it. According to Bee, warrants for suspects have been issued, and some of the stolen goods have already been retrieved. Unfortunately, though, the cash that was taken will probably never be seen again.
There have apparently been a string of robberies downtown lately. When asked about it, Bee said that at least three other places had been hit, with Beezy’s and one of the others now having been broken into twice. Hopefully, for the sake of our downtown, it was the same individuals involved in each of these robberies, and, now that they’ve been identified, they’ll be taken off the street and dealt with. Regardless, I think think this is a good reminder for us all to remain vigilant. Now, with more people living along the downtown corridor than in recent memory, thanks the rehabilitated lofts along Michigan Avenue, one would hope that incidents such as this would be decreasing. Unfortunately, however, that doesn’t seem to be the case. (And I say “seem” because I haven’t looked at the recent statistics, which could, admittedly, indicate that crime is falling. With that said, though, I cannot remember another period in which we had five break-ins at downtown businesses. If someone would like to analyze the data and leave a comment, I’d appreciate it… Cue Murph and the factcheck squad.)
So, what can be done about it? Bee and her friends are currently brainstorming online. People are talking about everything from guard dogs to metal, roll-down gates, like those that you see in larger cities. I don’t realistically know what can be done, though. With the number of desperate people on the rise, and fewer cops on the street, it seems inevitable that things like this will happen. If you have ideas, though, I’d love to hear them.
As an aside… I wasn’t intending for this to be a post about the city income tax, which is invariably going to be on a ballot before us sometime in the coming year, but I think that this might be a good time to broach the subject. I’m curious to know whether you think that, for a City of our size, we presently have an adequate number of police on the street, and, if not, whether you’d be willing pay more in taxes to see those levels increased.
One last thing about Beezy’s… If anybody out there is planning to get their friends or loved ones a gift card from Beezy’s for the holidays, now would be a great time to do so, as the additional funds would help them cash flow-wise as they wait for insurance claims to be accepted, etc. Also, I’m told that, if you buy Beezy’s gift cards in bulk, you’ll be rewarded with a free gift card of your own, in the amount of 10% of your total gift card purchase. And what could be better than that?
[note: This was shared with Bee’s permission. Furthermore, I think it needs to be noted that these late night property crimes, while bad, are certainly no reason for people to avoid downtown, where, on the whole, very good things are happening.]
