A Tuscon-area restaurateur criticized President Biden’s soft-on-crime and open-border policies for turning his family neighborhood into a hotbed of crime.
Grant Kreuger, owner of Union Hospitality Group, told Fox News that the Arizona hub’s decline left him “terrified,” and said the change apparently happened when Biden entered the House White.
“We’ve had more crime in my dining establishments in the last four years than in the previous 15 years combined,” he said.
Tuscon saw a 300% increase in unsheltered homeless people between 2018 and 2023, which Kreuger said sparked a crime wave, including an alarming surge in random attacks on his own clients.
Grant Kreuger, owner of Union Hospitality Group, has spoken out about the widespread homelessness and drug use blighting the Tuscon area, leaving him and his clients “terrified.”
Homelessness increased by 60 percent in Tuscon between 2018 and 2023, with homelessness increasing by 300 percent during that period, according to a government report.
The businessman said his restaurant used to be in one of the “nicer parts of town” but rising homelessness and crime caused a sharp decline.
In particular, Kreuger blamed weak border policies that allow drugs to flood Tuscon, and said his own children often face drug use in the open.
“Frankly, it terrifies me for my own children to see this level of drug use and open distribution happening in broad daylight on the streets of our cities,” he said.
Kreuger added that he has personally spent tens of thousands of dollars on security because he says police consistently fail to crack down.
“It’s gotten to the point where we often don’t even report it to the authorities anymore, because we think, frankly, they’re not going to do much,” he said.
“Our municipalities currently don’t enforce many of the laws that are in place when it comes to public camping, when it comes to panhandling… when it comes to public urination, defecation or open consumption of alcohol and drugs.
“And the lack of enforcement of all these laws has made the situation much worse for us here in the desert.
“On top of that, the open border policies we have implemented over the past several years have brought a tremendous amount of fentanyl into our community. »
Tuscon has seen an alarming increase in drug use in recent years, which Kreuger blamed on weak border policies allowing drugs such as fentanyl to flood the city.
A volunteer is seen helping a homeless woman in Tuscon, Arizona, in July 2023.
A government report released in May 2023 reveals that Pima County has seen an alarming increase in homelessness in recent years.
The report reveals that over the five-year period, the number of homeless people – those sleeping on the streets rather than in shelters – increased by 300 per cent. Overall homelessness increased by 60 percent.
Meanwhile, Kreuger said the 100-mile stretch of riverwalk named “The Loop” where his businesses are located has lost its safe, family-friendly appeal.
“These areas of the Loop have become a major area for homeless encampments,” he said.
“At one time, this loop was a huge benefit to both the community and our customers…Today, it’s a place I would be afraid to take my friends and family.
The crisis directly affected Kreuger’s restaurants, he said, as a number of customers were physically assaulted while dining.
“I’m not talking about an attack like verbally asking for change, but a physical assault,” he said, adding that there were also “many, many uncomfortable exchanges” that he had never had. the habit of coping.
Kreuger said his restaurants are in an area called “The Loop” (pictured), which was once one of the “nicer neighborhoods” and he now says he’s “scared” to take his kids there .
Kreuger reportedly claimed that a local anti-crime community initiative was working to reduce the problem, such as adding anti-panhandling signs to intersections where homeless encampments are common, but he said the efforts did not were not up to par.
“There is literally no enforcement,” he said.
“We pay what we call a crime tax, the cost of the city and county’s lack of enforcement of the laws on the books right now is essentially costing business owners like me an awful lot of money.”
“It also creates much less comfortable situations for our customers.
“No one wants to be accosted by homeless people in your parking lot, have your car broken into, or find people living in the bushes or behind various facilities at the various commercial establishments that we have here in Tucson.
“And so, this is really a cost that has been borne by the private sector because of the inability or unwillingness of the public sector to enforce laws that are already in place.”
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