Crime and disorder: Vancouver building manager says fed up tenants are leaving downtown

Vancouver -

Ayala Rom has lived in the West End since 2015. For the last three years, she has managed two apartment buildings. She says the state of the neighbourhood has gone downhill since the pandemic began.

“It’s not nice to walk around; it doesn’t feel safe,” Rom said. “As a building manager, I sometimes need to pick up needles and pregnancy tests from my front door and it’s not nice. I don’t want to touch them at all.”

The West End is usually one of the most in-demand locations in Vancouver, but Rom said she has more vacancies than normal and is seeing tenants move out of the neighbourhood out of frustration.

“They’re not happy here anymore, they don’t feel safe, it’s not clean,” she said.

It follows continued reports of crime and street disorder plaguing the downtown core.

In the most recent incident, the Vancouver Police Department released video of a hotel concierge being chased by a man wielding a knife.

There are now growing calls from business owners to hear from Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

John Clerides, owner of Marquis Wine Cellar on Davie Street, says he holds Stewart accountable.

“The primary function of a mayor in a city is to make its citizens feel safe, be safe, make sure they are safe; that’s not happening,” Clerides said. “He’s absolutely sitting on his hands watching Rome burn.”

Stewart’s office said he was not available for an interview, but issued a written statement.

“I know the VPD takes this issue seriously, and their stats show this work is paying off. Every category of crime is down or holding steady compared to before the pandemic,” the statement reads, in part.

In response, VPD spokesperson Const. Tania Visintin said many crimes are “hugely underreported.”

“Thefts from autos did drop significantly due to the pandemic, which resulted in fewer people parking out on the street and fewer out-of-province visitors,” Visintin wrote in a statement.

“What didn’t drop were violent crimes (assaults, assaults with a weapon, domestics, etc.).”

Clerides also disputes the mayor’s claim of crime dropping or holding steady.

“He (Stewart) is out of his mind,” Clerides said. “I’ve never seen so many windows broken on Davie Street in the 44 years I’ve been down here.”

NPA mayoral candidate John Coupar believes Vancouver has a “public safety problem” and citizens are giving up.

“I’m hearing from a lot of people across the city that they don’t feel safe when they go out,” Coupar said. “I think what’s happened is people are not reporting it because they’re just not seeing action.”