Business owners on 23rd Street, between West and Brush Streets, say they don’t feel safe, as they said the encampments and dumping continues to get worse.
Cameron Brian is the owner of Transmission Gallery, located on West Grand Avenue. The back of his building is on 23rd and he’s concerned the recent cleanup of an encampment on Martin Luther King Jr. Way and West Grand may have pushed more people his way.
“We’re compassionate. But at some point the compassion starts to wane and you start to worry for our safety and their safety,” said Brian.
His worries are warranted, saying there have been multiple fires recently.
“This is evidence of one fire,” said Brian. “This is the large fire that you have photographs of.”
One fire happened on Oct. 1, damaging the building across from him. A sign on the burned concrete wall says “Paulette R-I-P”. Brian said she died in a fire a few months ago.
He estimates there have been six fires in the last year, 10 in the last two years. He worries his building could be next.