Two years ago, Erica Swanson, owner of Tea Bar on Northwest Northrup Street, arrived at her shop to find that someone had shot out two of its 10-foot-tall windows.

Along with a bullet casing and broken glass, the failed break-in attempt left $10,000 worth of damage, a bill that the business had to foot itself. Sadly, the attack was routine. Burglars have tried to break into Tea Bar several times since then. Other merchants tell the same story.

Mary Ellen MacKay, owner of Kanani Pearl Spa on Northwest Marshall Street, says her spa suffered three break-in attempts in 2023. “Up until that point in time, we had no security systems and no problems,” she says. “It’s a sign of the times.”

For more than two decades, times were good in the Pearl, an urban planning gem that turned blocks of disus

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