Mother’s Bistro & Bar among latest Portland businesses struck by crime

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Mother’s Bistro & Bar is the latest Portland restaurant dealing with broken windows as boarded up businesses in Portland are becoming the norm, even if they’re open.
 
KOIN 6 showed the damage from Tuesday morning in Sellwood, where business owners believe someone shot their store fronts with a bb gun.

KOIN 6 also talked with a toy store that was broken into that same morning.

Mother’s said they also discovered a broken window Tuesday morning.

Police haven’t said if this vandalism is connected, but the owner of Mother’s Bistro said vandals are breaking their windows more frequently and the costs add up.
 
“I actually just did a window broken in September that was $6,000, got another window broken in January that was $2,300, and now this one. I haven’t gotten a quote yet, so, that’s quite a few in a number of months,” Mother’s Bistro & Bar owner Lisa Schroeder said.

Schroeder added “this is a pervasive problem. Vandalism is happening through the city. Why? What changed?”

She said she doesn’t know why people are doing this in Portland or what the solution is, but we need to find some kind of deterrent to stop people from doing this.

KOIN 6 reached out to Portland police who said “we absolutely understand the incredible impact that such crime has on its victims, and our hearts go out to them. But the sad truth is that we have been severely understaffed relative to the demand for our services for a couple of years, and it’s going to continue to get worse before we can ramp up hiring and training to catch up to attrition. We look forward to returning to a time when all of these cases get the investigative attention they deserve.”