EAST SIDE PRIDE WORKING TO RECLAIM NEIGHBOURHOOD

East side Chatham residents can expect to see regular patrols by a
citizens' group watching for illegal activities such as drug dealing and
prostitution.

East Side Pride took part in their first "Community Stroll" on April 6,
through a neighbourhood the group says has been taken over by drug dealers,
drug addicts and prostitution.

East Side Price co-chair Marjorie Crew said the purpose of the community
strolls is to be a visible deterrent in a non-violent, non-confrontational
manner. She said the group is simply "just being out here to tell people
we're not going to allow that unwanted behaviour."

Crew said the course of action is to document any incidents East Side Pride
observes and contact the proper authorities. She added that members of East
Side Pride are also willing to act as witnesses in court cases, if need be.
"We just want people to know we're out here looking at you, instead of you
looking at us, and we're watching you."

But not everyone who has been watching East Side Pride has been impressed
by what they've seen.

Leslie Reycraft was among a group of neighbourhood residents sitting on the
porch of a Park Street home when members of East Side Pride strolled by
along with members of the Chatham-Kent Police Service, Councillor Bill
Weaver and members of the When asked if she's noticed a change in the
neighbourhood since East Side Pride was formed in July 1999, Reycraft said,
"Things haven't changed much ... there's still drugs all over." She said
the J.G. Taylor Park is still a popular place for people to do drugs. A
teenager who was among the group also didn't seem to have any faith that
East Side Pride will be able to make a difference. "This area is the ghetto
man, it will always be that way," he said, while Chatham This Week spoke
with Reycraft about the neighbourhood.

Another East side resident, Chester Baylis, doesn't believe the drug
situation is as bad as East Side Pride is making out to be. He'd like to
see the police focus more attention on the motor vehicles that she says
routinely speed along Park Street.

But there are East side residents who are glad to see the citizens' group
patrolling the streets. Betty Lane, who has raised six children over the
last 42 years in her Park Street home, told Chatham This Week, "I agree
with (the community strolls), I want my neighbourhood back."

Lane said she knows a number of neighbours who would like to see the
neighbourhood "back to where it was before, where it was safe to walk the
streets without seeing drug dealers and prostitutes."

She said she knows of a family who moved from the area when their teenage
son was approached by a drug dealer in the middle of the afternoon.
"They're very defiant, really."

Crew said she has received positive feedback, but knows there will be some
"yeas and nays" to the community strolls. And it doesn't appear any
detractors will be deterring East Side Pride from its goal.

"We'll do it as long as it takes, and we'll keep doing it to maintain it
once we've achieved the goal," says Crew. Chatham-Kent Police Services
Const. Dave Bakker applauds the efforts of East Side Pride's plan to
increase their presence in the community. "I feel it's a good idea because
they're taking responsibility for what's happening in their community,
rather thanjust calling the police constantly ... That way the people in
the area start making a change and making a difference in their own community."

Const. Bakker, whose responsibility as a member of the Community Priority
Action Team has been working with East Side Pride, knows first-hand that
this kind of visible presence can work. When he started as a police officer
in 1987, he worked with the Parkdale Action Committee, a citizens' group
that was successful in cleaning up one of the worst neighbourhoods in
Toronto, where drugs, prostitution and alcoholic vagrants ran wild.

Const. Bakker said the citizens of that neighbourhood took to the streets
every night, rain or shine, carrying signs and lights, and made the johns,
prostitutes and those involved in drugs know they were unwelcome.

"They just made pests of themselves to everybody walking the streets and
eventually they cleaned the whole area of Parkdale up," said Const. Bakker.

He says it's a shame a park like J.G. Taylor is not used more by the
residents. If East Side Pride can reclaim areas like the park, hopefully
other residents will begin using it again. "Once (residents) start coming
back then they've won."