BAD FOR BUSINESS

Whalley is bad for business, according to the owner of a small commercial
building there who says he wants out.

Kris Kalstad has owned a two-storey building in the 10600-block of 135A
Street for nearly 20 years. There is about 4,000 sq. ft. of office space on
the ground floor and six residential suites upstairs. It used to be a good
source of income, Kalstad said, but things have changed.

The drug dealers, addicts and prostitutes who hang out on the street are
scaring business away, he said.

"People don't want to come here. They don't want to have to live with this.
I can't do business here."

Most of his building is unoccupied now and Kalstad said his revenues are
down by $60,000 per year. The Burnaby resident would like to sell the
place, but good offers are few.

There are a number of social agencies offering services to addicts, street
people, the mentally ill and indigent residents, but Kalstad points his
finger at the South Fraser Community Services Society which operates a
centre just down the street. The society runs a free medical clinic there
which offers a needle exchange program for addicts and a wet/cold weather
shelter for the homeless, among other services.

"I don't understand why we've got that building here. That's what made it
really bad here," Kalstad maintains.

He wants the city to shut down the exchange and shelter and boost the
area's police presence.

"He's right," Mayor Doug McCallum said. "There's too many services in that
building and it's attracting people who are affecting business. We need the
services, no doubt about that, but we need to spread them out."

McCallum said the society refused a city request to relocate the needle
exchange.

Society spokesman Jim Bennett argued the exchange hasn't caused the
problems Kalstad is complaining about. The 3,000 addicts who use it,
Bennett said, come and go quickly and don't hang around the area. The
people buying and selling drugs on the street are dealing in crack cocaine,
he said, a drug that's smoked, not injected, so no needles are involved.

"If everybody stopped using needles tomorrow, there's still going to be
drugs there," Bennett said. "They were doing that a long time before we
opened a needle exchange."

McCallum said the city has increased police patrols in the area and will be
making improvements to street lighting and the roadway.