Fall 2020 - 1736 Magazine

Graffiti and overgrown weeds mark the back of buildings on Broad Street
(visible from Ellis Street) in Augusta.
building and the renovated Miller Theater – diverted
attention away from long-blighted properties.
But then 2020 came. The COVID-19 pandemic emptied
downtown restaurants almost overnight. Bars and restaurants
closed. Downtown office employees began working
from home. Meetings, conventions, sporting events and
trade shows were canceled.
With fewer pedestrians on sidewalks and fewer cars on
the streets, the central business district's always-present
vacancies – market reports say more than 20% of downtown’s
vacant space is not “move-in ready” – brought
blight back into sharp focus.
With a lack of commerce and civic activity, officials
once again find themselves having to convince the general
public downtown is safe.
“If storefront windows are broken out and there's garbage
strewn about, you don't feel real comfortable walking
through there,” said Richmond County Sheriff’s Office
Captain Mike D’Amico. “If broken windows and graffiti
are taken care of the next day and everybody picks up their
trash, then you don't mind walking down that same street
even if there is crime, because it feels more safe.”
to those
in our community
doing the hard work
of running local businesses, and who —
in heroic measure—are navigating
the challengesofthis pandemic:
we seeyou.
we supportyou.
we thankyou.
FACTS AND FIGURES
Facts do not support the public perception of downtown
Augusta as a high-crime neighborhood.
In fact, according to Richmond County Sheriff’s Office
crime statistics, Augusta’s urban core is among the city’s
safest neighborhoods – particularly its central business
district, where most downtown workers, visitors and
tourists congregate.
D’Amico said downtown crime, which primarily consists
of property offenses such as car burglaries, has been
on a steady decline for most of the past five years.
“Its refreshing to see that our downtown area isn’t an
area with our highest prevalence of crime,” D’Amico said.
Using year-to-date figures through Aug. 31, with 2015
as a baseline for comparison, total crime in 2019 had fallen
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