A weekend topic starting with KIRO in Washington. "Seattle police and fire investigators are searching for a known arson suspect who they believe intentionally started a fire which destroyed an abandoned housing complex in the 5200 block of University Way NE. Squatting, burglary and property crimes have soared in the area, according to neighbors and nearby business owners. Haitham Almaamar, owner of Nathan’s Barbershop across the street, said general crime has spiked here since early June when a nearby unauthorized homeless encampment on Ravenna Ave. was swept by the city after a murder and 70 separate police incidents."

"'Now they have no place to stay so they can break in wherever they want,' said Almaamar. 'They broke into my barbershop a couple of times. When you have nothing to lose, no matter what you do, you’re not losing anything.'"

From KXAN in Texas. "A daycare owner is calling for the city’s help after she was threatened at knifepoint on her business property. Dina Flores said a shirtless man was bathing at a faucet near the school. When she approached, informed him that he was on private property and asked him to leave, he brandished a knife and repeatedly pointed it at her menacingly. She said she reported it to Austin Police, who arrived on scene more than two hours later."

"Flores claims she’s witnessed an increase in crime near Escuelita del Alma on Interstate 35 and East 32nd Street since the city opened up the nearby Days Inn hotel last year to be used as a 'Protective Lodge' for people at high risk of catching COVID-19. The ProLodge was never part of the community’s homeless response system. However, 'most individuals accessing the ProLodges are experiencing homelessness,' the city said last month."

"'In June 2020, I chose to not formally complain to City of Austin officials, because I was informed that the housing at the Days Inn Motel was temporary,' Flores wrote. 'Now I must raise my voice in protest, because someone, somewhere, made a decision that will continue to permanently affect Escuelita del Alma and no one seemed to care.'"

The DC Line in Washington DC. "Will the emergency ever end? That’s probably the question many landlords and utility companies asked as the DC Council took action this week that confirmed the public health emergency will end July 25. However, legislators extended Mayor Muriel Bowser’s authority under a general emergency. Even worse, elected officials continued their myopic recovery response, turning a blind eye to the needs of middle-class residents while almost entirely focusing the majority of assistance on low-income residents."

"So, while some DC homeowners, including those in condominiums, are struggling to meet mortgage payments, District officials apparently have been lollygagging."

From Bisnow New York. "The Big Apple’s hotel industry has been battered and bruised over the past 16 months, and a deluge of supply set to hit the market this year will likely only slow its recovery timeline. Many of the city's hotels are still temporarily shuttered, while the ones that are open are bringing in less than half of the revenue they did in 2019 on average. Some hotels have seen significant drops in value, and some have been sold at nearly half of what they were bought for just a few years ago."

"In the months to come — even amid optimism surrounding an expected tourism bounce back with the return of Broadway — the city will have to overcome another huge hurdle: the thousands of newly constructed hotel rooms that are set to hit the market. More than 8,000 new rooms are expected to open before the end of the year, and almost 22,000 are under construction — the most in the U.S., and more than triple the second-place city, Los Angeles, according to hotel research firm STR."

"Between tax payments, fixed costs and decreased cash flow, no one is making money, Hotel Association of New York City CEO Vijay Dandapani told Bisnow. 'It's not possible for any hotel in the city right now to be profitable,' he said."

The Victorville Daily Press in California. "Buildings are burning in Barstow at an unusually high rate. A chief city firefighter sees decades of economic deterioration and social despair — accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic — as the root cause. Battalion Chief Nick DiNapoli joined the Barstow Fire Protection District nearly 40 years ago and says his team has been stretched thin for much of that time. In 2021, the agency is facing added pressure from an uptick in structure fires: Incidents of residential or commercial buildings burning — a class separate from wildfires, which are also on the rise across the High Desert."

"Barstow’s fire department has responded to 79 structure fires in the last six months, Acting Fire Chief Sid Hultquist said, 'with 14 of them being significant fires that required an extended commitment time.' This half-year total is more than twice the 30 structure fires BFPD responded to in the final six months of last year, and nearly five times the 17 it responded to in the first six months of 2019, according to data the department provided the Daily Press."

"DiNapoli thinks economic desperation and homelessness across the region are making for a dangerous mix. In some cases, he says, homeless people are starting fires to keep warm. In others, people in need of cash are stripping valuable materials from within the structures to sell — and unintentionally leaving fire-prone conditions behind. Both are a high risk for places with high volumes of vacant properties, such as Barstow."

"DiNapoli says a major contributor to vacancies in Barstow is wealthy companies and individuals leaving the city in recent decades and selling off their property to off-site investors 'living in L.A. or Brentwood or wherever the hell they live.' He pointed to the years leading up to and after the financial crisis that exploded in 2008, fueled by faulty mortgage-backed securities in the investment world. 'It’s not an acute problem,' DiNapoli said. 'It’s a chronic problem that’s been going on for a long time.'"

The San Jose Spotlight in California. "Vacant storefronts with 'For Lease' signs fading in the windows. Abandoned strip malls with a sea of empty concrete spaces. Massive corporate offices from a bygone, pre-virtual era, sitting unoccupied, desolate, forgotten."

"Sadly, this is the post-pandemic narrative for many California cities, suburbs and exurbs these days. Along with an unexpected financial collapse and a flight of employees to remote office work, the decades-old urban planning principles that put jobs and parking first – and, correspondingly, housing last – have led to vastly underutilized deserts that we have in our communities today."

From Los Angeles Magazine in California. "How is L.A.’s homelessness crisis affecting the high-end market? Agent Michelle Schwartz: 'That’s driving people away from certain locations. I mean, it’s just major: you come off some of those side streets, and people start scratching their heads and asking, 'How do I own a $10 million house where there’s a homeless encampment down the road?'"

The Los Angeles Times in California. "The town hall meeting was organized by a group of Westside residents passionate about keeping public spaces free of homeless encampments. They were outraged over Councilman Mike Bonin’s proposal to study the feasibility of allowing camping or tiny-home villages in beach parking lots and parks, and they had been sharing their anger for months."

"A lot of them have supported Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who has muscled his way into the homelessness issue by threatening to forcibly remove illegal campers from our beaches and parks, and the virtual town hall was an opportunity to hear from him directly."

"You’d like to think our elected officials would enthusiastically work together on this most pressing problem, but as Villanueva amply demonstrated during Monday’s virtual town hall, his modus operandi is lobbing insults. 'Right now,' he said, 'reality is butting up against the political establishment,' which he accused of having 'sold their souls to the devil.'"

From Global News in Canada. "Businesses in Vancouver’s downtown core are again sounding the alarm on what they say is an increase in property crime and vandalism targeting the region. At Lure Salon on Howe Street, the usually-bright front windows have been boarded over after someone attempting to break in, shattering multiple panes of glass. It’s not the first time someone has tried to get in, owner Lisa Rofasco told Global News, but it’s the boldest attempt yet."

"The cost to replace the glass is in the ballpark of $10,000, and while the salon has insurance it will still have to eat the deductible. 'Coming back from the pandemic it’s a big expense,' she said."

"On top of that, she’s looking at a five-week wait to have the work done, as glass installers have told her they’re overwhelmed with similar work elsewhere. Rofasco said the city is reeling under mental health and drug crises, and that while she’s not angry at people committing crimes to survive, she’s frustrated at the lack of action from government to deal with the root causes."

"About 10 minutes away, the Vancouver Pen Shop on the edge of Gastown is also boarded up, after repeated break-in attempts. 'We’ve had to replace the glass three times. There have been five attempts,' employee Marlon Velez said. 'There have just been so many attempts on that window … just as a precaution, even for the other glass that’s intact we’ve decided to board it up.'"

"About two weeks ago, thieves were actually able to get into the shop and made off with expensive pens, art supplies and even worthless display props. Other times, Velez said it appeared people were just trying to smash the window for the sake of breaking it."