Nov. 29—The corner of 24th and F streets can be a great place to do business, as was evident Wednesday afternoon in the way Andy Taylor was busy jumping from one customer to the next at the stand-alone espresso shop he and his father own at the intersection's northeast corner.

At the same time, it's also a tough location to own a shop, especially late at night, when Taylor said thieves and vandals damage the place — or worse. He counted at least 16 times the business's windows were broken. Once they stole a credit card machine from inside the small building.

But help is on the way in the form of a city of Bakersfield program that recently approved grants providing close to a quarter million dollars to local businesses looking to upgrade their security.

At Taylor's business, called The Filling Station, a $22,800 city grant will reimburse the shop for the cost of putting strong screens over the windows and a gatelike door that will allow him to resume walk-up service apart from the business's drive-thru lanes.

"You just can't afford to keep repairing everything," Taylor said.

One of his customers that afternoon, small-business owner Ted Ott, said that if the circumstances are right, he supports the idea of taxpayer money going toward business owners getting slammed by crime.

"As long as it's small business and it's local," he said. "I'm for it."

The city's Business Security Improvements Grant Program recently finished dedicating $240,000 to dozens of businesses in certain areas, mostly in central Bakersfield but also extending into eastern and southern parts of town.