SUPPLY AND DEMAND DRAW DEALERS, ADDICTS

Arrests Outside Downtown Eastside Area Have Tripled

Robson

- - "There's been a doubling in the amount of street people and they're
younger and more confrontational."

Blair Wilson, director of the Robson Street Business Improvement Association

Wilson has worked on Robson Street for about nine years and, until
recently, he new most of the neighbourhood's street people by name.

In the last two months, the number of street people has doubled, he says.
Instead of the mainly alcoholic panhandlers and dumpster-divers who used to
frequent the area, Wilson is seeing more young, aggressive drug-addicts.

"It hasn't affected our tourist business yet, but it soon will," says
Wilson. He has no doubt this is a direct result of the police action in the
Downtown Eastside.

The Robson Street business improvement area is one of several that, in a
couple of round-table meetings with Mayor Larry Campbell, have been less
than enthusiastic about the Downtown Eastside police initiative continuing.

Robson businesses would like to see more police walking the beat on Robson.
And they're thinking of instituting an "ambassador" program in their own
area, similar to the program exists east of Burrard, where uniformed people
patrol the streets helping tourists, watching for problems, and intervening
if panhandlers get too aggressive.

Central Business District

- - "This is not solving the problem, it's just relocating it."

Gabriella Moro, director of an English-as-a-second language school at
Seymour and Dunsmuir streets

Moro says she's baffled because the police action doesn't seem to be doing
anything to the drug problem except move it around.

"What's needed is a more multi-pronged approach. If people want to shake
the problem, are there places to go?"

Businesses from the Bay to the Hi Fi Centre to the St. Regis Hotel on
Seymour have been alarmed by the dramatic increase in drug trafficking and
using in the past two months.

More is trying to get someone to take action on the drug scene that has set
up shop along Seymour and Dunsmuir. Her concern is her 500, somewhat naive,
foreign students who think that any Canadian they meet is nice.

"I'm worried it's going to blow up in our face."

Jennifer Shackleford, who runs Toscani's Grill with her husband, David, on
the same corner as Moro's school, has had to start closing early and hire
two men to work with her in the evenings so she feels safe.

"I have had six or seven dealers out there at a time. I spend half my time
at night asking them not to stand in the doorway."

The result, she says, is that dealers give her the finger and taunt her.

At the Hi Fi Centre, just north of the corner, owner Igor Krivistky says
the area has turned into "East L.A."

"The back alley has turned into a flea market. Their over-all presence is
crazy."

Other businesses report increased shoplifting and people doing drug deals
right in front of their windows.

They have differing assessments of police response to their concerns. Moro
says police come every time they're called, Shackleford says they don't do
much and the same faces reappear every day.

But Moro says she's most distressed by the city. She's been e-mailing on
behalf of her neighbourhood for the last two weeks, describing the problem.

The only response she's had so far: A representative from city hall has
visited once and written two letters to inform her that there have been
complaints about her students congregating on the sidewalk.

1000 Block Of Granville Street

- - "We think maybe we should hire security guards to help out, but maybe the
police will come back and help us."

Sam Asam, Granville Cash and Carry Book store at the 1000 block of
Granville Street.

Working in a downtown business that opens early and stays open late, staff
at Granville Cash and Carry Book store are used to the occasional person
loitering in front of their store and shoplifters.

"Just the normal stuff, but not like this," says Asam, who works at the
store. "It has become very noticeable and we're seeing more all the time."

Since the police crackdown in the Downtown Eastside three months ago, Asam
says the area has seen a steady increase in the number of drug dealers and
drug users.

"It's quite a bit more. They're selling drugs, causing trouble. We had some
problems before, but this has become a big problem."

Asam says more policing is needed in the area around the 900 to 1100-block
of Granville.

"They have come here and we're having to deal with it now."

Yaletown

- - "My first thought when we heard what the police were doing in that area:
the transients are going to have to go somewhere. They're probably coming
here."

Terry Li, property manager of Rancho Management in Yaletown.

Rancho Management, which manages hundreds of rental apartments in Yaletown,
hired more security when the company learned about the police crackdown in
the Downtown Eastside.

"It's something we wanted to do for the residents, adding security will
improve their sense of safety," says Li. "There are definitely more
transients going through the recycling and going through the security gates."

There have been more break-ins in June and property managers began removing
all the glass from exterior doors and adding more secure door handles.

Extra bike patrol service is also in place between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. "We
have people cycling around the buildings and notifying the police when they
see something suspicious," Li says. "We figured since they started doing
what they're doing, we should do this before it becomes a bigger problem."

Gastown

- - "This has been a shot in the arm for us, a real morale-booster. We've
been waiting for this for a long long time."

Dale Johnson, Gastown business owner, resident

Johnson, owner of the Games People, is seeing a lot of old customers coming
in again to his Gastown business. "For the longest time, I was just seeing
customers go and never come back. They didn't want to be down here. But
they're coming back again. Bringing new people, too."

Johnson's store, on Water Street, is just down the street from where he
lives. "I live and work here. I have a right to live and work in a place
where I can walk without fear," Johnson proclaims. "I'm going down
alleyways again."

The trickle effect of dealers dispersing from the Downtown Eastside to
Gastown has been noticeable, but Johnson says the difference is the dealers
are not staying in one spot.

"We still see them here, but why it's not a big deal is because they're not
staying here. They may stay a few hours or at most a day or two and then
eventually they move on."

Chinatown

- - "The streets have pedestrian traffic again. The parkades are filled with
cars now. People don't have to be confronted by the sight of users shooting
up right in front of their face."

Albert Fok, chairman of the Vancouver Chinatown Merchants Association

Fok runs a medicinal, natural health store on Keefer Street started by his
father 25 years ago and he says the last decade has been the toughest on
Chinatown. A growing number of drug users on Hastings and Main were visible
near Chinatown's stores, restaurants and bakeries. But the police crackdown
three months ago has revitalized the area.

"People are coming back to Chinatown. There's been a steady increase in
foot traffic. Business is improving," he says.

The police have done a good job in restoring ordinary, everyday activities
to the area, Fok says. "People can actually come down here from Citygate
and other places to shop again. It's a great thing."

Fok has heard concerns from surrounding areas, merchants who have noticed
newcomers arriving on their doorstep.

"Vancouverites outside this area are now getting a sense of what we've been
suffering for the last decade. Hopefully this will motivate people to
collectively find permanent solutions," Fok says. "Before they could just
ignore what was going on here."

Commercial Drive

- - "We can't handle this kind of volume."

Michelle Ziebart, president of the Grandview-Woodlands community policing
office board

When Grandview-Woodlands listed community policing stats for the last month
at a recent board meeting, the number of major incidents hit an all-time
high. The office took reports on 292 complaints in June, compared to the
usual 130 to 160 per month.

Community policing office manager Janine Gates had to deal with kids coming
in to tell her there was a woman passed out in the Grandview Park bathroom
with a needle in her arm, people were smoking crack in the park, someone
trashed the little Florida Market convenience store and dope-dealing were
working on the steps of the post office on Sixth Avenue.

That's just in the official reports. Others are noticing a change in the
drug dealers they used to see regularly on the streets. New drug dealers
are displacing the usual suspects, said board member Eileen Mosca.

Like some other communities, people along Commercial Drive don't see any
benefit from the Downtown Eastside crackdown. All it has done for them is
take police out of their area and increase the number of dealers and users
they see on the streets.

By the end of the board meeting, the group resolved to make a presentation
to police.

"They've done enough, they've done their little trial run," said Linda Chinn.

Collingwood (Joyce And Kingsway)

- - "I haven't figure out the positives of this police crackdown. I have
never seen so many homeless people in our area and our problem is, we have
no policemen now."

Chris Taulu, Collingwood community police office

Here's Taulu's advice to people who come to her community policing office
these days, complaining about assaults, prostitutes in their alleys,
homeless people sleeping on the back porches of their businesses: "You want
a policeman, go down to Hastings Street and you'll find one."

She is not enthusiastic about the police crackdown because she sees it
doing no more than every other attempt to clean up Main and Hastings -- it
drives an extremely mobile crowd around the city and the minute police
relax their efforts, it goes back down to the Downtown Eastside.

In the meantime, the city's most veteran community policing advocate feels
as though her neighbourhood now has no police and, as a result, homeless
people are moving up from the Downtown Eastside to Collingwood because it
feels safe. (They still go downtown by SkyTrain to deal or buy drugs.)

As a result, residents are getting angry and ready to take their own action.

"We had one incident where a guy chased a prostitute down the street with a
baseball bat."