PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Burglaries across Portland increased nearly 20% according to the latest numbers from the Portland Police Bureau.
As the glass from broken windows piles up, businesses are fed up with the pattern of break-ins in the Rose City.
For years, Urbanite has been a hub to connect Portlanders with small businesses and artists across Oregon, and for years they’ve been the target of break-ins.
The owner, Raquel Coyote, says she’s lost count of the number of break-ins and claims that the response from city leaders hasn’t changed over the years.
“We have had so many windows broken the last year,” Coyote said, “We had over $50,000 worth of windows broken.”
PPB’s crime map puts Urbanite in the West Buckman Neighborhood, where burglaries have nearly doubled in the past four years.
To cover this latest break-in, Coyote got the help of local muralist Alicia Shultz to brighten up the building. Shultz, with the help of her daughters on winter break, is painting a bouquet of flowers on the large piece of plywood at the SE Grand Ave. entrance of Urbanite.
“I thought this would be perfect for this window and unfortunate situation,” Shultz said.
Coyote’s store has brought dozens of small businesses under Urbanite’s roof from all across Oregon, whether they be furniture makers, authors or artists. This was another chance for her to support another local creator.
“If there is any minute we can use to elevate somebody I’m going to do that and if I have an empty board that’s 16 feet wide, let’s put some art on it,” she said.
From November 2020-’21 to November 2021-’22, the latest statistics available from Portland Police, burglaries across Portland increased from 5,436 to 6,492. In the West Buckman neighborhood where Urbanite resides, it’s nearly doubled from the 103 burglaries reported in November 2018-’19 to 195 in the November 2021-’22 count.
Coyote says, despite the increase, the response has always been the same.
“‘People are looking into it.'” She says she is told, saying she’s heard the same response over 100 times in the past year.
“We need to do something different.”
KOIN 6 News reached out to Commissioner Carmen Rubio’s office, who is in charge of the economic and community development bureaus, including Prosper Portland. She said: “I share the frustration of small-business owners and the Portlanders they serve related to theft and vandalism. We’ve been working hard to hire and retain police officers, and to offer support when small businesses are affected by crime. Since March 2020, a grant program has provided up to $10,000 to local small businesses seeking funding for immediate repairs to their storefronts, whether broken windows, graffiti, or damaged signs. It has already assisted nearly 400 businesses throughout the city, and nearly half of the funding disbursed was granted to BIPOC-owned businesses. I will continue to support those efforts during this challenging time.”