OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) – Another business owner in Oakland is frustrated after falling victim to countless crimes. The latest was a burglary over the weekend at a wine bar.
Thieves broke down the door of Snail Bar, stealing all its money and causing thousands of dollars of damage. The owner says he is feeling hopeless and wants more support from the City of Oakland.
Andres Giraldo-Florez says he dreamed of owning a bar, and that dream came true three years ago when Snail Bar opened on 51st Street and Shattuck Avenue in Oakland. But sadly for Giraldo-Florez, he also knows owning a business in this community is dangerous.
"That Walgreens gets robbed at gunpoint once a week, two people have been shot at this gas station on the corner. Multiple car thefts. All of my staff have gotten their cars broken into, and this happens every single day,” he said.
His own wine bar has already been a target of several break-in attempts and vandalism. On Saturday - the place got burglarized.
"So, they stole all our cash, they also broke the backdoor to our cellar,” Giraldo-Florez said. “About $5,000 in damage, which is like the last thing we needed because right now everything is really tough in the restaurant business."
On top of it all, Giraldo-Florez says he received a notice from the city saying they would bill him for their services after they boarded up the broken door.
"It's like kicking me when I'm down,” he said. “I just got robbed. All our cash is gone. Burglarized our whole restaurant and then on top of that I'm getting charged for getting robbed."
While getting his bar repaired, he heard about In-N-Out Burger closing its Oakland location due to ongoing crime. Giraldo-Florez wondered how small businesses like his could survive if a big chain restaurant couldn’t.
Councilmember Treva Reid represents the district where In-N-Out is located. She agrees more needs to be done to protect businesses and hold organized criminals accountable.
”We got to get these new license vehicle readers deployed. We supported them. We lead out with making sure they are a priority and yet we are not seeing them being delivered on the ground,” she said.
Reid also says she’s working on getting the city more state funding for public safety and continuing to have more California Highway Patrol officers patrolling. But if things don't change for the better, Giraldo-Florez says, "There's going to be no restaurants."
Councilmember Reid is hopeful the city can work on safety solutions to convince businesses like In-N-Out to stay.
KRON4 asked her about the invoice Snail Bar received for securing their broken window. She said she’s never heard of that happening. She’s very concerned and plans to talk with the owner as well as the councilmember in that district.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/df6SFVr
No comments:
Post a Comment