But hiring security personnel and putting antitheft tags on merchandise would strain her already thin profit margins on a street with some of the highest rents in the country, she said.

“[It’s] a burden on small businesses,” she said. “Everything is very tight here, and the rent is very high.”

Her unease is shared by business owners across the city, from the Back Bay to Downtown Crossing to the South End.

According to crime data from the Boston Police Department, incidents of shoplifting this year increased by 11 percent citywide compared with data from this time last year, rising from 3,086 to 3,433.

But arrests for shoplifting related incidents, according to BPD data, are more than double what they were this time last year, from 341 to 712.

Just down the street from Gu’s new boutique, four teenagers allegedly stole more than $6,000 from a Lululemon store Oct. 13, police said, the latest in a string of high value retail thefts in the city.

In response to the problem, BPD has increased the presence of officers on foot, bicycle, and vehicle patrols “to address shoplifting and other quality of life issues” in the city Boston, as part of an ongoing “safe shopping initiative,” said spokesperson Mariellen Burns.

The city launched the initiative in March 2024, a partnership between police, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office, and retail associations with the goal of tracking trends and prosecuting repeat offenders, said Ryan Kearney, vice president and general counsel for the Massachusetts Retail Association.

At a July press conference about the initiative, Police Commissioner Michael Cox said the program is “designed to deter crime, hold perpetrators accountable, and send a clear message that there are consequences for these crimes.”

But a recent rash of high-value shoplifting incidents have raised questions about its effectiveness.

“There’s still a lot of work to be done,” Kearney said. “We’re appreciative of the accommodations and the reallocation of resources to address this problem, but we still think it’s going to be a long time.”

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” he added.

On Sunday, a Boston man on probation for larceny allegedly stole several items from a CVS store on Massachusetts Avenue and threatened an employee with pepper spray before running out, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.

Over the summer, shoplifters targeted a Sunglass Hut in Faneuil Hall at least seven times, making off with over $18,000 worth of merchandise. The Lululemon in the Prudential Center was the target of thieves at least three times last year.

On Oct. 18, three women allegedly stole clothes from an Alo Yoga store in the Prudential Mall after kicking an employee who confronted the group and demanded they return the items, according to a police report.

In that instance, mall security stopped the women and recovered the merchandise before letting them go and calling 911, the report said.

They have still not been arrested, police said Thursday.

At a hearing Oct. 17, Boston city councilors heard from a local community leader and a resident, both of whom offered bleak assessments on the state of shoplifting in the city.

“Small businesses are having a really hard time,” Randi Lathrop, president and chief executive of Lathrop Consulting, which represents small businesses, said at the hearing. “Bottom line is, every time somebody loses something, it hurts their bottom line.”

Citywide statistics from previous years show large jumps in a category of crime called “other larceny,” which includes shoplifting, from 6,631 in 2022 to 7,547 in 2023, an almost 14 percent increase.

In the district that includes Downtown Crossing, reported “other larceny” incidents increased by 126 from 2022 to 2023, from 1,180 to 1,306.

In the district that contains Back Bay, reported incidents of “other larceny” jumped from 1,603 in 2022 to 2,086 in 2023.

In an interview Tuesday, Boston City Councilor Edward M. Flynn said shoplifting in the city is a “major problem,” although he acknowledged that authorities have “made progress.”

“It’s bad for the quality of life and for the city,” Flynn said. “When theft is left unchecked, neighborhoods pay the price.”

Mayor Michelle Wu’s office deferred comment to Boston police Thursday.

Boston City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune said in a statement that “we need to strengthen partnerships between city agencies, public safety including the District Attorney’s office, and local businesses, while also addressing the deeper issues that lead to theft, like addiction and lack of opportunity.”

Officials said enduring high numbers in shoplifting incidents are due in part to increased reporting by business owners.

“We fully anticipated that increased retail-theft enforcement through the Safe Shopping Initiative would result in increased reporting, increased arrests, and increased prosecutions,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “All of these outcomes have occurred. These increases are attributable to enhanced enforcement and reporting, not increases in shoplifting occurrences themselves.”

But in an interview, Lathrop said the city needs to do more to protect small businesses.

“Frankly, I don’t know if people at City Hall really understand small business shoplifting,” she said. “To make this work, you got to go door to door.”

Kearney said store employees are often instructed not to intervene during shoplifts, “because we’ve seen in the past that those types of instances can quickly turn violent,” he said.

He cited an incident from 2019 when a store employee at Giblees Clothing in Danvers tried to stop a group of thieves from stealing expensive Canada Goose jackets.

That employee, a man in his 60s, was knocked to the ground and “lost a couple teeth” in the process, according to Kearney.

“That’s what we’re trying to avoid,” he said.

A large part of the safe shopping initiative, according to Michael Nichols, president of the Downtown Business Alliance, is differentiating between thieves who steal for “need” versus those who steal for “greed,” and prosecuting members of the latter category.

Hayden said his office regularly seeks incarceration and stay-away orders for “repeat offenders and violent offenders.”

“This office routinely prosecutes shoplifters, with a focus on repeat offenders,” Hayden said. “Assertions that shoplifters are not being arrested or prosecuted are inaccurate.”

Rachael Rollins, the Suffolk district attorney before Hayden, said her office would not prosecute 15 of what she described as minor crimes, including shoplifting.

Kearney said that Rollins’ policy sent the “wrong message” to shoplifters, and that the increased number of thefts are the result of “policy decisions that have been made in the past coming home to roost.”

“If you don’t stop somebody when they were a juvenile stealing, they then become a repeat offender,” Kearney said. “If you intervene and hold them accountable early, the hope is that they will learn their lesson and then that will stop.”

Truman Dickerson can be reached at truman.dickerson@globe.com.

Downtown Crossing’s Estella (49 Temple Place) expands to a 250-seat Foxborough space in December (226 Patriot Place), new from owners Lillian and Helder Brandão.

Expect Latin-African fusion: kreyol pasta, branzino, rasta pasta (pappardelle in spicy oxtail cream), and plenty of veggie choices like roasted vegetable vegan ravioli, bang bang cauliflower, and candied-apple Brussels sprouts.

Pair it all with a lychee martini — and a bigger beer selection than at the Boston original, befitting the Gillette-adjacent location.

Chef Sarah Wade (Sloane’s, Stillwater) opens SJ’s in early November (745 Atlantic Ave.). She’s known for comfort food, including outrageous versions of mac and cheese. Her newest spot keeps with that theme. Try shrimp toast on white bread filled with sesame and scallion; a trio of pork rillette macarons; caviar and blinis; and steak frites.

Closings: Birds of Paradise at the Charles River Speedway (525 Western Ave.) pours its final drink on Friday, Oct. 31, confirms Will Isaza, a longtime familiar face behind their bar.

An Instagram post, soundtracked to John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane”— an homage to the golden age of air travel theme — thanked staff, past and present, for “taking part in our journey around the world.”

It opened in 2022, helmed by Ran Duan, then at the top of his career with hot spots such as Baldwin Bar and Blossom Bar.

“The whole concept behind Birds of Paradise is traveling and escapism. The menu is going to be based on plane tickets. Think of Pan Am,” he said at the time. “We thought, especially with the timing of the pandemic, the space, and everything that’s been going on, it was the perfect concept with the perfect timing to get people to travel somewhere they miss.”

Lately, Duan has been in the news after the closure of another Brookline bar, Ivory Pearl, and the departure of several long-term bartenders and a beverage manager amid the personal upheaval chronicled in a September 2025 Globe story.

Isaza continues to run Salsa Shack at the Speedway, serving corn tortilla tacos and corn chowder.

Relocations: James Beard Award finalist Erin Miller will move her Urban Hearth from North Cambridge to a flagship location in Inman Square (1281 Cambridge St.), opening in early 2026. This space will be larger, with a six-seat chef’s counter, a salon area, and a full-service bar. The smaller, original branch (2263 Massachusetts Ave.) will stay open, serving Miller’s local, seasonal menu.

Kara Baskin can be reached at kara.baskin@globe.com. Follow her @kcbaskin.

As autonomous vehicle technology becomes more common around the country, Boston is struggling to determine how driverless cars could fit in on the city’s congested and confusing streets — if it allows them at all.

The City Council postponed a vote Wednesday on an ordinance that would ban commercial autonomous vehicles, which carry passengers similarly to taxis or ride-share services, from operating in Boston until a thorough study is completed on how their introduction would impact the city.

Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, chair of the Committee on Government Operations, said during the weekly council meeting that more work was needed on the ordinance after an hours-long hearing on the matter on Tuesday.

During the hearing, many residents testified passionately on opposite sides of the issue, at times pitting different interest groups against each other.

Much of the worry about commercial autonomous vehicles stems from fears that they could take away jobs from Uber and Lyft drivers and create safety issues on the road.

But disabled residents who spoke said that, on the contrary, it could actually make Boston safer for them.

“I think there is a world in which we can do both,” Councilor Julia Mejia said during Tuesday’s hearing. “There is a way in which we can improve the quality of experience for our disability community while also maintaining the integrity of our workforce and we’re not hurting our low-income workers.”

Earlier this year, Waymo, a leading self-driving car company that operates “robotaxis” in several cities across the country, began deploying its vehicles in Boston to begin mapping the city.

Although the mapping cars were operated by humans and the company has no concrete plans to expand its service to Boston, the initiative sparked conversations at both the city and state levels about how to prepare for the potential impacts of driverless technology.

Members of the union representing ride-share drivers rallied in front of City Hall on Tuesday to oppose Waymo’s plans for Boston, saying it would result in the loss of their jobs and wages that they depend on to support their families, and in turn hurt the local economy.

The brand-new union, which was authorized by a state-wide ballot initiative last year, is still establishing itself, and leaders said autonomous vehicles would do away with all of the progress they had made toward job safety for members.

“We’re not against technology,” App Drivers Union Executive Director Autumn Weintraub said. “We are against technology that benefits billionaires. We need technology that is for the people, that is for workers and that is going to help workers and their families make a better life, not create a dystopian society where people don’t know how to survive.”

• Read more: Driver claims self-driving car didn’t stop for school bus in Mass.

Some drivers said they provide an essential service beyond just driving people around that a driverless car would be unable to perform.

One said he had recently stopped to call an ambulance when he saw someone who had overdosed on the side of the road, while others shared stories of helping riders with bags or simply making a human connection.

Alfred Potter, a ride-share driver for the last 11 years, told MassLive that he drives full-time and it is his main source of income, with which he supports his wife and eight children, four of whom live with him.

He said on a recent ride, he picked up a senior couple at Lawrence General Hospital, getting out of the car to take their belongings and help the couple — one using a walker and the other using a cane — into the vehicle.

During the hour-long drive, the man said he needed to use the bathroom. There wasn’t a rest stop nearby, but Potter pulled over somewhere secluded and helped the man to the woods to relieve himself.

“They were very thankful. I did it because I firmly believe it is the least I would expect if anyone in my family had that need,” Potter said. “I don’t believe any autonomous vehicle I know of would be able to do that.”

Matt Walsh, Waymo’s regional head of state and public policy, said that in other cities where the company has launched, they have not seen any impact on jobs or wages.

He said that in San Francisco in 2024, the number working for taxi and limousine companies grew by 7% and wages in the industry rose by 14%.

“You see a Waymo vehicle without a driver and you automatically equate it with a one-for-one job loss for people that are driving for a living,” Walsh said. “The reality is that a service like Waymo requires a tremendous amount of hardworking people to make that work. Vehicle technicians, dispatchers, fleet managers, people working in our offices cleaning the vehicles. We are very excited about the job growth that we are going to create.”

He added that Waymo is working on partnerships with organizations like the Ben Franklin Institute of Technology and the Clubhouse Network, an after-school STEM program in Roxbury, to develop jobs programs in Boston.

The City Council chamber was packed during Tuesday’s hearing, with most of those present coming directly inside from the labor rally.

But a strong contingent from the disability community also came out to oppose limitations on autonomous vehicles, which they said could provide unprecedented opportunities for freedom and independence.

• Read more: Waymo’s driverless taxis will face some unique obstacles in Boston

Bay State Council of the Blind Director Nora Nagle, who is legally blind and uses a guide dog, said she had often been refused rides by Uber or Lyft drivers who didn’t want a dog in their car, despite laws requiring them to accommodate service animals.

“I’ve been refused politely, I’ve been refused rudely. Some just drive away, some drivers give me excuses,” she said. “Where’s the humanity in leaving a blind person standing in the dark in the rain with no way to get home? … If I could take a safe autonomous car, it would mean that I wouldn’t have to worry about being refused two, three and four times in a row.”

Walsh said Waymo has already introduced features specifically aimed at helping visually impaired riders in response to customer feedback, including cars playing a melody so riders know they are getting into the correct vehicle and audio narration that tells riders what streets they are on as they travel.

The ordinance requiring an impact study, which was originally filed by Councilors Erin Murphy and Henry Santana, was sent back to committee for further discussion.