Feelings shift from empathy to frustration among business owners along Richmond Row

Business owners on Richmond Row say they're growing increasingly frustrated with the worsening problems of crime, homelessness and drugs along a commercial strip they say has fallen into decline since the COVID-19 pandemic and made worse by the arrival of homeless shelter services.

It comes after Brown and Dickson Bookstore, a well-known and respected dealer of eclectic books, surprised many when it said it would be closing its Richmond Street store after a decade of doing business. The owners cited safety concerns and the rapidly escalating social problems in the neighbourhood that they say have made doing business unsustainable. 

Many business owners say what started as feelings of empathy when the Ark Aid Mission opened last spring at the First Baptist Church has begun to shift to frustration, built up as crime and acts of anti-social behaviour increased. 

"Mental illness is a big problem, not just drugs," said Mike Ayoub, the owner of Fresh & Fast Food Mart. The convenience store owner has had to replace his storefront windows three times in the last two years at $1,200 a pane. 

Is Richmond Row losing its family-friendly appeal?

"The last one, a mentally ill woman, just threw a rock. We didn't even know her," he said, adding that in the last two years his store also has dealt with armed robberies, more shoplifters and more dirty needles in the parking lot out back. 

He said his compassion has given way to frustration because there's little he can do to stop the deteriorating conditions of the neighbourhood.

"We are human after all," he said. "This is my baby. This is where I eat from, my kids and my family. I have to protect it."

Ayoub said police will often take hours to respond to crimes, and when they get there, officers say there's nothing they can do. 

Businesses say the increased problems in the area has meant Richmond Row no longer has the same family-friendly appeal it had in the past. 

"It's always been an issue, it's just a bigger issue now. You have a family trying to get in for lunch and across there's a guy yelling and screaming and swearing at the top of his lungs or walking around with no pants on," said Adam Winkler, the owner of Wink's Eatery, a downtown destination for the lunch and nighttime crowd for the past 18 years.

"It's hard for families. It's hard for business owners like myself," he said. "There's got to be a way to get everyone what they need without bringing it into a highly populated area." 

"I'm just hoping we can get some help," he said. "It never used to be this way. Let's get it back to way it was. There's gotta be a better place to hand out sandwiches." 

Businesses bearing 'the brunt of it'

CBC News visited the First Baptist Church Monday where staff said the Ark Aid Mission's executive director Sarah Campbell would be available for comment later in the day. She did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

Scott Collyer, the chair of the board for the Downtown Business Improvement Area, said what's happening downtown is the intersection of the city's mental health, homelessness and addiction problems and it's playing out in front of many of the storefront businesses of the city's core. 

"We've obviously been bearing the brunt of it," he said, noting that it was a meeting between businesses and city hall that precipitated the city's health and homelessness summit last summer to come up with a collective solution to the problem. 

"It can't be on the backs of the merchants to solve this," he said. "This is a citywide problem and yeah, right now its localized on Richmond Row, but it really needs a citywide response." 

"Our members are very compassionate, but they have compassion fatigue because of the crisis level issues they're encountering whether its safety and security or drug issues and the anti social behaviours that are happening." 

"Our members are running out of time." 

David Ferreira, the city councillor for ward 13, which includes downtown, did not respond to a request for comment Monday.