SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A cafe in San Diego's East Village neighborhood has been broken into, had its window smashed and hired a security guard — all because of issues the owners attribute to homelessness in the area.
The owner of Café Alessie, Diego Marquez, located near 15th and Island, says the issues have played out over the past year and have forced significant changes in operations - including scrubbing the sidewalk with Fabuloso and brooms each morning before they open.
The business owner says they paid around $4,000 for a new door, and even more for the security guard. The owners say the situation has hurt their bottom line.
"Due to all of these issues, we've seen a big dip in our sales and people not feeling comfortable," Diego Marquez, the owner of Café Alessie said. "We'll have a lot of homeless people who will heckle our customers."
Diego said the cafe is just beginning to bounce back from the dip in sales.
Normal Records, located right down the street, has experienced the same types of issues.
"We love East Village ... it's hard if we don't get help from the city to clean this place up," Marquez said.
I have asked the mayor about this exact issue before. He says the city has ordinances in place to help and said he is working in the state legislature to create better enforcement opportunities and help create more resources for mental health and substance abuse issues.
"Right now, the only compulsory response is law enforcement," Mayor Todd Gloria explained in an interview at Father Joe's Villages in September. "If you call 9-1-1 we are going to send a response. If you call the mental health line, you don't have any guarantee of response, not is there a legal requirement to respond."
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