BOOTING THEM OUT IS NOT THE ANSWER

There's not much to admire in a city park where drunks, bums and
addicts outnumber the blades of grass.

Stepping around panhandlers clustered downtown and sharing sidewalk
space with undesirables doesn't make for a pleasant stroll, either.
Indeed, let's clean up the city, boot out the bums, arrest the
miscreants and shuffle the addicts and hookers where the good people
of Calgary don't have to see them or worse, deal with them.

There. Let's all clap our hands for a job well done. We've cleaned up
Calgary. Who deserves the civic pride award?

There's only one problem with this scenario. We've now turned this
city into something false and superficial along the lines of Disney World.

There, a small-town America that never really existed except in the
imagination of dreamers has been made real. In that fantasy world,
all the houses are cozy and all the people are clean, well fed and
prosperous, and all the children obedient.

Of course that's not possible. The price of living in a real city is
acknowledging the underbelly.

The quicker we reject the silly notion that the solution to cleaning
up downtown is ridding public spaces of citizens we don't like, the
sooner the urban problem of homelessness will be addressed seriously.

It is a sop to voters for Calgary city council to believe fining
beggars and enlisting the police to boot the homeless out of city
parks is the answer to creating a livable city.

Meanwhile, the downtown business association promotes the notion that
giving money to panhandlers is the wrong action, because they'll just
go and spend it on drugs or booze. As Richard White, director of the
business association said three years ago: "If nobody gave, there
would be no panhandling."

That really worked as a solution, didn't it? The poor, the drunk and
the indigent are still with us. So are the mentally unstable and
street kids. So, unfortunately, is the underlying myth that
homelessness and despair, mental illness and drunkenness can be
addressed by blaming the victim.

Fear is usually trotted out as a reason for any crackdown. Yet any
Calgarian, male or female, who feels afraid downtown after dark must,
then, be afraid everywhere in the city.

Crime is present not only downtown. For those Calgarians who just
don't want to be bothered by the sight of a homeless or intoxicated
person, the advice is simple: Turn away if the sight of need or
hopelessness offends you.

For those who are outraged that squeegee kids or panhandlers can
approach anyone on the street for a few coins, try saying "no." If
you can say no to charities who come to your door, to carpet or
furnace-duct cleaners who call at dinnertime, refusing a beggar should be easy.

But it's not that, is it?

It's the thought that we can't just banish these people from our
comfortable, middle-class lives.

So, how about first realizing the price we pay for a booming city
includes unsavoury characters.

And instead of blaming them for living, look upon any money donated
to beggars as being good for your own soul. Be grateful this isn't
Mexico City or Moscow or Rome.

Be thankful (and embarrassed) that winter usually solves the problem
for at least five months of the year. At the very least, stop blaming
needy people for being a blot on the landscape.

Better still, support the men and women in Calgary who realize
low-cost housing and group homes for the unstable and mentally
disturbed -- who were dumped on the streets all over Alberta when the
institutions which looked after them were closed -- aren't a blight
on the city's landscape, but part of urban life.

And while you're turning your nose up at the flotsam and jetsam who
have nowhere else to go but the streets, try writing a honking big
cheque to morally and spiritually pay for your own comfortable life.

There are some answers to make life in this city better for all of
us. They including badgering and rightfully embarrassing the
provincial government to ensure the Alberta Advantage reaches every
Albertan. None of our cities can afford to do it alone.

There are simple steps to start the process: one-stop access to
social services, outreach teams to co-ordinate services and
individuals, legal advocates and transitional housing, subsidized
public transportation -- none of these will, individually, solve the problem.

But all are a positive start.