PARKADE 'HELL' LAST STRAW FOR BUSINESS OWNER

Junkies and their druggie droppings -- excrement and injection trash-- have
turned a downtown parkade into a filthy hell, complains the owner of an
adjacent business.

Denyce Burrows, the owner of Old Fashioned Flowers, 738 Johnson St., said
the parkade beside her business has become such a hellhole she wants to
start a petition to demand the city do something. It's either that or
Burrows will consider leaving downtown altogether.

There's the human dung. There are the used needles and bloody tissues, the
wrappers from the alcohol swabs and the little plastic bottles that once
contained sterile water. And there are the condoms filled with everything
from sexual leavings to urine and blood.

Finally there are the junkies themselves, she said. They are asleep in the
parkade most mornings, and troop in to shoot up in the afternoon.

Once, Burrows said, she locked a group of junkies outside in an alleyway.
They pressed against the bars of the gate, hands and arms reaching through,
clutching at the air begging "please, we want to get in, we want to get in."

"It was like a nightmare horror movie," she said.

Larry Gives, the security guard who works at the Johnson Street parkade,
said the number of junkies in the parkade seems to have quadrupled since
September. Gives said he and the other security guards came to know and
recognize the addicts before that. They even gave them nicknames. Now there
is a new addict every other day, he said, and they are dangerous.

"I've had needles thrown at me. I've been spat on. I've had needles with
blood in them squirted on me," he said.

Burrows said she has complained repeatedly to city officials. Last month
she even called on Mayor Alan Lowe and presented him with a box of that
day's pickings of refuse.

"They all say the same thing 'we know, we know, but there is nothing we can
do,'" said Burrows.

Now, she never walks to her car without calling for the security guard as
an escort. Despite a 20-year history in her downtown location, Burrows is
considering leaving, perhaps to Langford.

Her landlord wants her to sign a five-year lease but she isn't sure.

"This is no way to live,' she said.

Police say they are not giving up on enforcement, and politicians say their
commitment to downtown remains firm.

"I take Denyce's concerns very seriously. She has been there for 20 years
and I've gotten to know her," said Lowe. "I don't want her to leave."

Lowe said he has instructed the staff members to look into Burrows's
concerns and see if they can come up with some solutions.

Victor Van den Boomen, Victoria manager of parking services, said the city
is considering better lighting, better locks and better positioning of
security cameras.

Deputy police chief Geoff Varley said nobody should think police have given
up on the downtown, "One hundred per cent, absolutely not." On Friday, for
example, three people were arrested for drug trafficking in the area, he said.

On most days, downtown will have eight to 10 beat officers walking or on
bicycles.

Katrina Jensen, manager of health promotions at AIDS Vancouver Island which
runs the needle exchange, said people like Burrows can call on her group to
help dispose of needles.

"We are trying to be good neighbours," said Jensen.

She said it might be hard to believe, but most drug addicts are responsible
and do bring their needles back. The exchange collects 104 needles for
every 100 it passes out, she said.

Jensen said she hopes people like Burrows aren't too quick to move out of
downtown Victoria, and they should not hesitate to call for any support to
deal with the issue.

"We are working to find community solutions to this problem," she said.