TAKING IT TO THE STREET

You can't have a community unless people are talking to each other. So
we applaud the move of Vanier residents on Emond Street for creating a
Neighbourhood Watch and taking that first step.

The problems of Vanier are extensive. The neighbourhood has
difficulties with drugs and prostitution. Before the Neighbourhood
Watch event to be held in Emond Park, city workers were sent to ensure
the greenspace was safe.

It took a crackhouse killing last year to get residents moving on a
Neighbourhood Watch. In the best of areas, it is difficult to get a
Watch program started. People are busy or don't care. In Vanier where
you can add economic problems and the transient nature of renters to
the mix, bringing people together is just that much more arduous.

However, an influx of young families is creating security
consciousness in the area. These folks want their children kept safe
from bad influences and sharp needles. Perhaps the parents have been
talking around the play equipment at Emond Park.

Neighbourhood Watch works when there is good co-operation between
residents and with them and the police. Drug dealers and prostitutes
are not people with whom civilians should be dealing. That's the job
of police. But residents can point out the problems.

Nevertheless, policing is only part of the job of cleaning up a
neighbourhood. Were it as easy as simply arresting drug pushers and
other criminals and throwing them in jail, cleaning up communities
would already be completed.

But arrests and jail mean that people in the drug trade just take a
break from their usual pursuits. These people need help from
counsellors plus health and psychological experts to solve their
personal demons. It's probably safe to say that there are more
addicts, pimps and prostitutes than there are resources to help them
- -- if they want help at all.

But if Vanier gets so well organized that it forces its criminal
element out, that poses problems for other neighbourhoods. In
Manhattan, people walk the streets amazed at how safe they've become.
A huge, active police presence drove out most of the criminals.
However, ask the residents of some of New York's boroughs how much
they are enjoying the arrival of unseemly elements from Manhattan. One
wonders how the residents of the Glebe or New Edinburgh might enjoy
their new street people if the problem is just shifted.

There are no easy answers to crime. If there were, crime would be
eliminated. Arresting people and throwing them in jail just postpones
their return. Social services can get some of them off the street but
that process is long, arduous and expensive.

If the residents of Vanier, and we wish them the best of luck, can at
least control their crime problems, they will have done well.