Downtown crime hard on businesses, bar owner says
After a series of shootings, stabbings and other acts of crime and violence in downtown Windsor over the last few months, Nicolas Puim is struggling to drum up business.
Puim, the owner of the Dugout Sports Lounge, said someone threw a rock through the bar’s $1,200 tempered-glass patio door around 4:40 a.m. last Wednesday when the place was closed. The individual entered and swiped three bottles of liquor before fleeing. “As a business owner, it’s really difficult for us to make a living when we’re spending extra money on stuff we shouldn’t have to,” said Puim, standing in front of the sheet of plywood currently replacing the missing glass. He’s owned the Dugout for five years, but this is his first break-in.
“It’s frustrating for us,” he said, referring to downtown businesses. “It’s hard to get people to come down here now because they don’t feel safe.”
The Dugout sits in a basement unit on the corner of Ouellette and University Avenue East, a main downtown intersection. Visible from a bar stool is the sidewalk where a 20-year-old man was shot on Aug. 27. That victim later died of his wounds. Puim said Windsor Police investigators pulled out two bullets connected to that killing that were lodged in the wall behind a television inside the Dugout. The day before that, there was a stabbing at the same intersection. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Puim said.
“It seems like every weekend we’re dealing with something different downtown.” Larry Horwitz, chairman of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association, said his organization has asked police to step up foot patrols between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. “People want a downtown that works,” Horwitz said. “We need to all come to the table right now and make this a priority.”