A series of violent incidents downtown has stakeholders blaming transplants displaced from other neighborhoods, with few solutions in sight.

The end of August was punctuated with several high-profile violent crimes, including a stabbing in Downtown Crossing that left a man hospitalized on August 14 and another just six days later when a man chased pedestrians with a seven-inch hunting knife near the Common and Public Garden.

Both led to the arrest of the suspects in question, and to stakeholders reexamining public safety downtown. George Coorssen, longtime resident says he’s noticed a change himself and heard from local businesses that crime is becoming an issue.

“Back in the day it was just people drinking too much and some regular homeless. Then came the drug dealers and now you’ve got drugs, the homeless and people who are mentally ill. I just had a long chat with a woman who works for the Freedom Trail who gave me an earful about all the things she sees, it’s not good for our image as safe for tourists,” he said.

Whether the numbers back up that perception of decreasing safety, however, is less clear. Boston has historically been an extremely safe city and data from the police department shows almost no change in non-domestic aggravated assaults.

“When you look at the stats for Downtown Crossing and the Common combined there is little change year to date. There is an increase of robberies, which has been an area of focus. 37% of those were in commercial entities and 10 incidents involved shoplifting that escalated to robbery. It’s an issue we have focused on with the business community and the District Attorney with our task force on safe shopping,” said the police department.

That increase in burglaries could explain why businesses are feeling a squeeze. The perception of safety has its own value as well according to Michael Nichols, president of the Downtown Business Improvement District.

“I don’t know about an uptick, but we certainly do hear from people whenever there’s a one-off issue, and that’s what these are. The reality is that Boston is the safest major city in America with the safest central business district in America. But that doesn’t mean everybody perceives that safety, and that’s something we’re working on.”

Nichols independently drew the same sharp distinction as Coorssen between the neighborhood's longtime homeless residents and new arrivals from elsewhere, who he blamed for the bulk of downtown criminal activity.

The pair also both drew a connection between the arrival of that demographic and the police crackdown at Mass and Cass almost a year ago. The enforcement of the tent ordinance and clearing of Atkinson Street did disperse some of the crowd, but today the same issues have reared their head once more both in the South End and, as civic groups warned at the time, in surrounding neighborhoods.

“Summer weather coupled with some of the changes at Mass and Cass has led to the spikes and then declines that people have observed. There are two populations of people on the street, those who are lawless, involved in drug dealing and other criminal activity. We all agree the book should be thrown at them. But then there are those who are just homeless because they’re struggling with mental health and substance abuse, and those people are worthy of our support as a society, “ he said.

It’s unclear at this point what the city might do to combat these problems. Officials like Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, head of the Boston Public Health Commission, acknowledged their existence months ago alongside the need for new strategies. The new strategies themselves, however, are yet to appear.

City Councilor Ed Flynn has long called for increased support of law enforcement and wasted no time calling for a moratorium on events around the Common. He led a walkthrough with local stakeholders on August 22 to talk about public safety and hear their concerns.

“We continue to receive reports from residents on the blatant drug dealing, drug use, and illegal activities along Tremont Street. Since the violent stabbing incident, many have also written to my office about concerns for their safety. We need to significantly increase police presence in this area, arrest those who are committing crimes, and ensure they aren’t released in short order to prey on those same communities,” Flynn said in a statement.

City Councilor Sharon Durkan, whose district also contains parts of the Common and Downtown, did not respond to a request for comment on this article.