Centretown businesses report increased crime

What happened: Ottawa Police have arrested an individual after multiple breaking reports in the Centretown community, but the neighbourhood is still feeling on edge. 

On Saturday evening, both the Red Apron and Arlington Five coffee shops a few blocks down were broken into. At the gourmet food shop on Gladstone Avenue at Kent Street, owner Jennifer Heagle got a call from police stating there was a broken window. Inside, the cash register and computer equipment were smashed, and the space ransacked. 

• “Somebody had been running around the store grabbing what they wanted and took off at some point,” Heagle told the Ottawa Citizen. “It’s never fun to be robbed, and it’s certainly costly. The window has to be repaired and replaced, and we’ve already had someone come and repair it. We’re now trying to do an inventory of what’s been taken. It’s not how I was hoping to spend my Sunday.”

The Red Apron is looking at beefing up security, but that could cost upwards of $12,000 a year. 

At neighbouring Arlington Five, a window that was smashed had also been broken just a few months prior. Inside a suspect was found and apprehended in the basement. 

• “They grabbed close to $1,000. With the cash, we’re probably looking at, I’m told, about $1,200 and then the cost of the window being replaced,” owner Jessie Duffy told CTV. 

Man arrested: Ottawa Police said an unidentified man in his 30s was charged with break-and-enter after the two incidents which law enforcement believes are connected. They said additional charges could be laid and that he appeared in court Tuesday morning. 

Issues aren’t new: Wilf & Ada’s, a diner next door to Arlington Five, has also had a window smashed recently.

The neighbouring Chinatown community has also experienced safety concerns. The local BIA says people have been urinating outside of shop windows, stealing iPads from restaurants, and alcohol from behind bars, reported the Kitchissippi Times. 

Some in the Centretown community believe incidents are climbing because people with social challenges and addictions are being pushed from the ByWard Market into other parts of the city. Somerset Ward Coun. Ariel Trister said she’s hearing the need for more police presence, but also thinks that needs to be matched with support from upper levels of government. 

• “We can’t just be chasing people from neighborhood to neighborhood. People also need places to go and they need more services available to them because we want to stop crime before it starts,” Troster said, according to CTV.  

By the numbers: When the Ontario government announced the nearby Somerset West Community Health Centre would be forced to close its safe consumption site in the spring, it justified the decision by stating crime was up in Centretown by 146 per cent.

According to the Ottawa Police crime map, Centretown has seen 383 cases of theft under $5,000, 82 assaults, and 141 real and enters since the first of this year. During that same period, there were 47 incidents of people uttering threats, 19 thefts over $5,000, 11 cases of theft of a motor vehicle, and 82 incidents of mischief.