Bradley Spence is the co-founder of Eevee’s, an electric scooter shop on East Pender Street. His business, like many others in the area, has been plagued by vandalism, but he is hopeful the situation will improve. He says he has noticed more police patrols since Ken Sim was elected mayor.
It’s a problem facing entrepreneurs in Metro Vancouver and urban centres across the province, which is why the official Opposition introduced a private member’s bill Monday that would give financial relief to small businesses targeted by vandals. Some business improvement associations have funding to cover vandalism, but this isn’t consistent across the province, Stone said.
Spence made the news last summer when he personally confronted a vandal who graffitied over a mural at a neighbouring East Pender Street business. Spence’s surveillance cameras captured the vandal with distinctive blue hair defacing the mural and when he saw the man the next day, he called police hoping for an arrest. When a dispatcher refused to send officers, Spence took action himself, confronted the man and captured it on a video that went viral.
“I think that’s a great idea,” said Jordan Eng, the association’s president. The association currently spends $240,000 a year — about half its budget — on private security for Chinatown businesses. But that still doesn’t stop vandals from breaking glass or spraying graffiti, the costs of which are often borne by business owners either through soaring insurance deductibles or fronting the repair costs themselves, he said.
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