Downside Detected
And in Bay Area news:
Auto glass repair businesses suffer as Oakland break-ins decline.
A decline in car break-ins across Oakland is being welcomed as a public safety win, but it is also contributing to a downturn for some local auto glass repair businesses.
According to Oakland Police Department, car break-ins are down by some 37% from the previous year and significantly lower than the preceding decade, in which reported break-ins, or “bipping,” reached an impressive 30,000 per year, or around 82 break-ins each and every day. With some single blocks reporting 10 such thrilling events occurring daily. And with shattered car glass being dubbed “San Francisco diamonds.”
At Low Price Auto Glass on San Leandro Street in East Oakland, owner Raj Singh said the decrease has directly impacted a once-reliable portion of his business. “There is the door glass repair if there is any break-ins or vandalism — that segment of my business has been down about 30 percent,” Singh said.
Apparently, Bay Area businesses have also been hit by a lamentable reduction in catalytic converter thefts. Happily, however,
Singh said demand for windshield replacements caused by road debris remains steady enough to keep his business operating.
And as someone quips in reply,
Sadly, a fall in gun violence has led to layoffs in the East Bay mortuary business.
Via Kane.
Consider this an open thread.
Frederic Bastiat could not be reached for comment.
An earlier article on the subject, published in the San Francisco Chronicle, referred to the epidemic of car break-ins – again, the highest in the country, rivalled only by Seattle, some 30,000 a year – as “misfortune.”
As if the phenomenon were merely something to which one should be resigned, akin to bad weather. Not human agency.