Business owners in Las Vegas Arts District ask for help to deter crime on their properties

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Crime in the Las Vegas Arts District has local businesses wanting law enforcement and the City of Las Vegas to step in to help.

Ocha Thai cuisine owner, Bundit Buaban said he’s not even mad anymore as the vandalism and break-ins near and in the downtown Arts District have become a yearly occurrence.

“We are begging the city to do something,” Buaban told 8 News Now.

Las Vegas Metropolitan police said the same man who vandalized Tacotarian’s storefront is now accused of doing the same thing to Buaban’s Ocha Thai cuisine last week.

“The increase of homelessness on Las Vegas Boulevard has doubled or tripled and countless amounts of times they’ve broken my storefront window and then just casually walk away,” he shared.

Las Vegas City Councilwoman Olivia Diaz is taking notice of so many locally owned businesses hit in recent months.

In response, the city is adding more patroling officers in the area daily to help deter crime.

“Our hope is that with the pop team patrolling regularly and talking to businesses, it will make a tremendous difference in the vandalism that has been going on,” Diaz said.

While more police in the area are what business owners want, many share that they have been told that if they want extra security, they will have to pay for it themselves.

Businesses like ‘Tacotarian’ and ‘Forplay Style House’ disagree, stating that they want the city to take responsibility for the unhoused committing these crimes.

“It would be nice if we could get more support from the city and get more funding when it comes to security,” Tinna Lee Farrell with Forplay Style House told 8 News Now.

“Overall, it does stink that we have to pay for it,” Farrell added.

“Violence and crime have progressively gotten worse and I’ve been asking the city for help for 5 years now,” Kristen Corral, co-founder of Tacotarian said.

“Why should I have to pay for private security? We pay our taxes,” Corral said.

The POP Team which stands for “Problem-Oriented Policing” will start patrolling the Arts District in August. Councilwoman Diaz said there is already a POP team on Fremont Street which was implemented at the beginning of this year.

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