SAFE STREETS PROJECT

I've always considered myself a diehard urbanite.

I've lived in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa and called some pretty
gritty areas home.

So I know what it's like to find people sleeping in the foyer in the
morning, to be harassed by panhandlers, to feel threatened walking
home at night. But I've taken it in stride as part of the urban
experience and I thought I'd seen it all.

Then I moved to Vancouver.

Before I came here in 2003, I had never seen anyone openly shoot drugs
into their arm in broad daylight in front of a busy market. I had
never seen anyone pass out on a main street on a sunny day fully
exposed to passersby after urinating down the centre of the sidewalk.
And I had certainly never seen anyone out of their mind on crystal
meth slash themselves across the chest, screaming obscenities and
bleeding on cars until subdued by police wearing rubber gloves.

But I've seen all these things and more in the past year -- nowhere
near the Downtown Eastside, as many might assume, but in Vancouver's
West End. In the past few years, I've watched my neighbourhood devolve
from a pleasant home into an urban war zone.

As drugs, street life and petty crime spread, there are many more
communities across the Lower Mainland like this one, communities under
siege.

Making our neighbourhoods safe again will take more than increased
policing, tougher bylaws, more stringent drug policy, improved
services for the homeless, drug addicted and mentally ill. It will
require all of these things, but it will also take community
leadership and local initiative.

Many communities are already working together to take back their
streets. Over the next few months, The Province's Safe Streets Project
aims to outline their challenges, celebrate their successes, and
inspire others to find solutions.