SURREY DRUG BARRICADE DISMANTLED

Mayor Plans To Turn Drug-dealing Street Into One-way Route

The main barricade in Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum's "War in Whalley" was
quietly removed yesterday -- 72 days after it was erected.

The roadblock in the 10600-block 135A Street was the start of McCallum's
"street-by-street" fight to clean up downtown Surrey.

Located near the needle exchange, food bank and a homeless shelter, it was
meant to discourage drive-by drug traffickers and show the city was getting
tough on crime.

But Thomas Nguyen of the nearby Surrey Bottle Depot said he didn't think it
"made any difference."

"You still see people loitering around. The police come and take down
names, but they're back in a few minutes," he said.

Nguyen threatened to sue the city if the blockade wasn't removed and
flow-through traffic restored.

"Business was dropping off, $5,000 less per month than normal," he said.

City crews dismantled the concrete blocks and began erasing the street's
centre paint lines, in preparation for making it a one-way, southbound route.

"We talked to all the businesses and most of them liked it the way it was,
all except one," said McCallum.

"I always said we would have some type of traffic calming and making it one
way would be the answer to having proper controls.

"The street only runs two blocks so police can block it off at either end,"
he said.

"We're a little past the starting line in our cleanup but we still have a
ways to go. It's working exceptionally well so far."