ST. LOUIS — Windows are still boarded up in downtown St. Louis following the July 4th mass shooting.
It's been nearly one week since gunfire hospitalized seven people and damaged businesses along with it.
The crime plaguing the heart of our city continues to be top of mind for business owners and city leaders.
There's a lot of conversations happening right now between the police chief, city officials and people who call downtown home.
Just two days ago, 5 On Your Side spoke with downtown business owner Matt Ratz, whose restaurant was damaged during the violence. Due to that story, a meeting between Ratz and city leaders is now in the works.
"You need the St. Louis region to prosper. A downtown is the lifeline of that, and you need downtown, you need tourism, you need conventions, you need businesses, you need all that. This affects that," he said.
Ratz has been a loyal part of that lifeline. His restaurant Ukraft Cafe and Catering has proudly served the streets of downtown St. Louis for four years and he's continuing that loyalty as his restaurant expands.
"We're moving into a much bigger space, we're tripling our square footage, just around the block right on Kiener Plaza," he said.
Just weeks away from opening though, Ratz new shop now has an eyesore. The windows are boarded up from the July 4th mass shooting.
"Just pretty upset. Judging by the eyewitness accounts, there wasn't enough police presence, as we felt there should have been," he said.
St. Louis Metropolitan Police Director of Public Affairs and Information Division Mitch McCoy said police were there. According to him, the department had day and night details in place with officers in uniform and in plain clothes.
"I understand the feeling that they may not have seen an officer, I promise you, the officers were there. The officers were being seen by many, but you were probably passing an officer and you didn't even know it was an officer," he said.
McCoy said discussions of patrols downtown are happening now.
"We are looking at where we are seeing an increase of violence, and we adjust our patrol strategy related to what those trends tell us," he said.
One of those discussions will soon be with Ratz, who said he got a call from the Mayor's Chief of Staff to discuss safety plans moving forward.
"I'm glad that there is some communication going and hopefully we can all work together," he said. "I think we should all be working together to get this situation rectified."
For Ratz, he's going into the meeting with an open mind.
"I just want to see a plan and stick to the plan and not just talk, let's have some actions behind it," he said. "Again, it comes down to police presence, we have to have more. I mean, it's just plain and simple, that's what we need."
It's actions that Ratz hopes improves the area he's committed to staying loyal to.
"We can't have conventions down here — they're not going to come if they know there's a crime risk, they're not going to come because there's a lack of restaurants," he said. "There's a lack of restaurants because no one will come down here and eat, so yes, it is extremely important for the whole entire region that we get this safety fixed."
Ratz mentioned if the curfew was still in place in the city. 5 On Your Side asked McCoy who said there is still a curfew and over the weekend, police called parents to come pick up their kids.