MARCH FOR A SAFER CITY

West-End Residents Hit The Street 'Disgusted With The Hookers, Pimps
And Crackheads'

A small but ardent band of west-end residents marched defiantly
through their neighbourhood with police yesterday in a show of
solidarity against petty street crime blighting the area.

"I'm tired of cleaning up condoms I haven't had the pleasure of using
myself," said accountant Alec Wright, a member of the Dupont
Improvement Group: Improving Neighbourhoods, or DIG IN.

"We're disgusted with the hookers, pimps and crackheads."

Police Commanders

The Junction-area march, which had about 50 people -- including the
commanders of both 11 and 14 Toronto Police divisions, local city
Councillor Adam Giambrone and mayoral challenger Jane Pitfield --
left from Campbell Park and wound around the Dupont and Lansdowne Aves. area.

Jack Fava organized the event and said it was all about creating
safe, clean, healthy neighbourhoods.

"There's safety in numbers," Fava said. "It's only when we come
together that we can make changes."

Drugs -- and the prostitution and burglaries associated with the
trade -- are the most common complaint.

And while the area has avoided the kind of pitched gun battles and
high body counts of the city's most notorious neighbourhoods, Fava
said the daily burglaries, street robberies and loitering "are the
stuff that gets under your nails."

"People here fear going down to Lansdowne and Bloor," he said.

A Long Decline

Katie Kwaczek, a mother of a 2-year-old, said she was born in the
Symington Ave. area and just recently bought a home there.

"Drugs, definitely drugs" are the biggest problem, she said.

Over her 32 years in the neighbourhood, she said she's seen a long
decline, with single-family homes turned into rental properties for
tenants with fewer roots and less commitment to the area.

Staff-Insp. Brodie Smollett, of 11 Division, said police and
residents must work together if things are to improve.

"We're going to need everybody -- all hands on deck -- to solve these
problems," he said.