DENVER — Residents and business owners in the Baker neighborhood are fed up with encampments and drug use around the Ross-Broadway Library.
Vesper Holly just opened her new shop called Refillantrophy on East Bayaud Avenue just two doors down from the library and she says the issues are worse than she could have imagined.
“They break windows, they light fires. My door was lit on fire just actually three days ago,” Vesper Holly said.
“On a daily basis you can look out the window and see some drug deals or people that are absolutely under the influence of whatever,” said Heather Farrell, owner of Coco Coquette, a wig shop next to Refillanthropy.
Farrell knows the struggle well.
“There’s a lot of times where people don’t want to walk down this street,” Farrell said. “We see daily trash that includes caps to needles, we get a lot of the burnt foil.”
Both shop owners place the blame squarely on the Ross-Broadway Library next door to them where they say rules don’t seem to apply.
“The library creates these services for people that don’t have shelters and that’s where they hang out,” Farrell said. “And people are not wanting to go to the library because of that.”