TACOMA, Wash. — The Tacoma City Council allocated $25,000 to go toward repairing window's on Antique Row, a stretch of businesses on Broadway whose windows were smashed by a hammer in a random act of vandalism.
Around 16 businesses were impacted, with over 50 windows damaged. Repair costs for each of the businesses are estimated to be in the thousands.
Mayor Victoria Woodard submitted the funding request to the city council, which was approved at a meeting on June 11.
"The stretch of Broadway commonly known as Antique Row is filled with small local retailers who have a single location that provides their primary income," Woodard wrote in the council consideration request. "These are the businesses that we want more of in Tacoma broadly and we must show our ability to respond with support when a crisis occurs."
The funding comes alongside online fundraiser donations, American Rescue Plan Act dollars and money raised by the Downtown Tacoma Partnership to help the impacted businesses.
In the past, a business owner told the city council that the broken windows hurt sales, saying, "I lost thousands of dollars in sales because people weren’t sure if I was open or didn’t feel safe stopping by.”
The funding is coming from the Council Contingency Fund, which is intended to cover municipal expenses "which could not have been foreseen or reasonably evaluated at the time of adopting the budget."
Woodard called the vandalism "extraordinary damage" and said the funding for repairs would be in "the interest of public safety and economic activity which benefits the city."
