Downtown business owner feels derelict properties breeding crime
A downtown business owner is voicing concerns about crime and the effect it is having on her operation.
Susan Uiterwijk, owner of Dutchess Manor Retreat and Guesthouse, says crime around her 54 Street location has always been a concern but feels the problem is getting worse, especially with derelict properties nearby.
“Most of the time it’s things disappearing from the yard, you know like gas bottles, firewood, little things like plants, that was sort of the extent of it,” says Uiterwijk. “[It was] nothing to be too concerned about, but recently things have started to escalate.”
She says her business, which she has owned since 1993 and where she and her husband live, has had its sheds broken into, car windows smashed and now a recent house break-in.