Vandals have damaged at least three businesses along 20th Street in Saskatoon in the last few weeks.
“An individual came by with a barbell or a dumbbell and was arbitrarily smashing windows,” said David Lariviere, artistic director at Paved Arts gallery, located at 424 20th Street W.
The incident he was describing happened on July 5.
“Paved Arts had an opening reception for three artists the day before this tragic event occurred.”
The window gallery was added in 2022 to display projects and has been smashed three times since then, according to the gallery’s Instagram page.
Lariviere said repairs cost around $1,000 each time and result in two months of lost display time for artists.
Paved Arts will use leftover funding for repairs and is fundraising to cover costs.
Derek Sandbeck, gallery co-ordinator at AKA Artist-Run Centre, which is in the same building as Paved, called the vandalism “frustrating,” but expressed empathy for the people responsible.
“We need to support the people that have the least support, because these things usually happen because somebody’s frustrated,” Sanbeck said.
“They’re annoyed and they see businesses and they see people flourishing in this space and they want to react to that.”
He said he’s had conversations with co-workers about moving the gallery, but they chose to stay in the neighbourhood because they want to invest in the community and be accessible to everyone.
“Everything we do is free. All of our programming, all of our exhibitions, they’re free, and sometimes that means we’re just a public washroom where everyone’s welcome, and that’s really important to us.”
Shakhawat Hossain, a contractor renovating a building across the street that is scheduled to be an immigration office, said vandalism is a regular affair. He said a window on the building has been smashed twice in the last month.
He also owns apartment buildings in the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood, which he says have been targeted.
“They broke into four cars and I sent the video to the police and I reported to the police station and I didn’t get any result,” Hossain said. “They broke my camera, I called the police station, but they didn’t do anything. The police never take action.”
Hossain said vandalism discourages newcomers from buying property in the area.
Shakhawat Hossain provided CBC with this video taken outside an apartment building he owns in the Pleasant Hill neighbourhood in Saskatoon. It shows vandals jumping on the hoods of cars.
Saskatoon police said there were 17 reports of mischief and graffiti on 20th Street between Avenue H and Idylwyld Drive in the last month and 75 reports in the first six months of 2024.
“There has been a general increase in graffiti and mischief reports, which is believed to be due to some community organizations increasing their reporting practices,” police said in a statement`.
Kevin Rattlesnake, who runs the Indigenous Artists and Gift Shop and Gallery on 20th with his wife, also recently had a window broken.
“I notice it on a lot of other buildings up and down the street regularly, but this is the first time it’s happened for us,” he said.
He said there’s not much businesses can do about it, especially at night.
“All the stuff happens at night time. So unless [police] are willing to have people here at night to deter people from doing this, nothing’s really going to change,” he said.
Rattlesnake said he tries to help by offering a smudge or water to people passing by, and acknowledging their struggles.
