Pubdate: Tue, 03 Jul 2007
Source: Parksville Qualicum Beach News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Parksville Qualicum Beach News
Contact:  http://www.pqbnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1361
Author: Tom Fletcher
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

SUMMER IN THE CITY, NOT SO PRETTY: MANY PROJECTS JUST NOT WORKING

The honour system has finally been abandoned on the  Greater 
Vancouver buses. The establishment of fare paid  zones beyond the 
driver's seat and at least the  theoretical appearance of someone to 
check tickets is  an effort to stem the problem of people refusing to 
pay  and assaulting drivers who remind them the ride isn't  quite free.

It seems once a city reaches a certain size, it doesn't  have enough 
honour left for honour systems. Surveys  indicated that Ottawa 
doesn't yet have bus anarchy, but  Toronto does.

A relieved Vancouver bus driver interviewed on TV said  being spit on 
wasn't the worst of it. He's also been  punched, kicked and pulled 
from his seat while the bus  was moving.

Here in Victoria the Canada Day fireworks has been  known for a 
finale involving drunken brawls on the  upper deck of those 
London-style buses. (No reports yet  of fights breaking out in 
horsedrawn carriages or  rickshaws, but with international soccer 
matches in  town I'm not ruling it out.)

Victoria's just reaching the critical mass where such  night-time 
public events are surrendered and the  downtown streets given over to 
purveyors of the nightly  buffet of blood, pee and pavement pizza.

Then there is the illegal drug problem. Victoria's  mayor still 
believes in something called a safe  injection site, as the city 
looks for a new home for  its blight of a needle exchange program.

Nanaimo's pilot project to hand out crack pipes has  sputtered out 
like a spent Bic lighter, due to threats  from ungrateful recipients.

The Capital Regional District, which still can't keep  its emergency 
radio system working, is right on the  ball. They've just instituted 
a crackdown, not on  crack, but on outdoor patio smoking. New 
provincial regulations are being worked out now to bar 
smoking  around doorways and windows as of next year, but that's  not 
far or fast enough for some.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is offering a bit of fresh  air on the 
drug problems that plague his city. Give the  hardcore addicts legal 
pills that approximate the ups  and downs of cocaine and heroin, he 
suggests, and at  least they have a hope of getting off the mean streets.

The most sensible strategy is coming from  Vancouver-Burrard MLA 
Lorne Mayencourt. He has been  touring the province to promote the 
model of the San  Patrignano treatment community in Italy, a remote 
self-contained rural facility where people can check in  and stay for 
three to five years, drug-free and working  at a real job.

Mayencourt has identified a preferred location, a  former radar 
station southwest of Prince George. It  offers a dormitory, mobile 
home pads, welding and  woodworking shops, a bowling alley, curling 
rink and  gym.

Prince George already has its share of big-city  problems, but it too 
could benefit from this refreshing  approach to the low-level crime, 
panhandling and  prostitution that is intertwined with drugs in urban centres.

There are other remote locations around the province  that could take 
a similar approach.

It seems like a better idea than waiting for Vancouver  or Victoria 
to develop something that actually has a  chance of working.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom