City Market using barricades to detour overnight crime and homeless population
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — City Market management has placed barricades outside the building in efforts to detour crime and homeless individuals.
A spokesperson with the facility said the barricades have been in place since last week and there’s been an increase in illegal activity overnight within the last several months.
Nolan Security puts the barricades in place around 6 p.m and takes them down before 7 a.m. on days City Market is open.
“The homeless issue for the last week and a half, the crime issue has gotten better. I know they removed some benches from outside of market street,” said John Mavrikis, owner of Grecian Garden.
However, Mavrikis said visitors are still afraid to come inside City Market as the homeless population has been more prevalent in the downtown area. The owner feels barricades is not a long-term solution to fixing the problem.
“We have witnessed stabbings, multiple people overdosing on drugs, we’ve witnessed drug activity, selling of drugs, fighting,” Mavrikis said. “It’s just not good on the outside.”
Local farmers market vendors have been selling merchandise outside City Market Plaza every Wednesday.
Vendor Leonardo Colon of Leo’s Wellness Bakery told News 8 someone took a donation jar from another vendor earlier Wednesday. He’s also noticed other incidents in the past.
“Someone actually swiped it off her table. Luckily herself and I think a barber that actually works inside of City Market chased the guy and they got it back thankfully,” Colon said.
City Market has had security members patrolling the area to keep the homeless population off property, but it’s not stopping some people from doing day-to-day activities.
“As long as nobody is harming anyone I don’t see a problem with people existing in the same space that might be of a different socio-economic class from one another,” said visitor Allison Maples. “I think that it is what it is; it’s city life.”
City Market management says they’re not “crime stoppers” and continue to look for support from Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and the city for a long-term solution to decreasing crime and detouring homeless individuals.