WAGING WAR ON YONGE ST.

Isabella St. neighbourhood blames rave club for area's drug problem

Jonathan Dixit gives the crack smokers gathered in the back stairs of his
downtown pub fair warning. He swings open the back door, a bucket of water
in his hands, waits a second or two, then lets them have it.

Those who don't run get wet and are gone for at least the length of time it
takes to change or get dry somewhere warm.

After being doused for the past couple of months, the addicts seem to have
got the message, but just around the corner, the problem remains.

Dixit, co-owner of the Duke of Gloucester on Yonge St., just north of
Isabella St., and other business owners and residents in the inner-city
neighbourhood are waging a war on a cafe and all-night rave club they say
are attracting drug dealers and causing constant traffic problems and noise.

The two establishments are housed under one roof on Isabella.

Over the past few weeks, an increased police presence has helped, Dixit
said, but he and others in the neighbourhood feel nothing will really change
unless the city manages to shut down both businesses.

"I just took things in my own hands," Dixit said of his cold-water
deterrent.

"I thought, why don't we try that and see how it goes. I'd give them fair
warning and then chuck it at them."

City Councillor Kyle Rae (Downtown) says the building has been a
long-standing problem and there is now a push to shut down the rave club.

"It's a chronic problem that we've had for about seven years," Rae said. "It
gets bad and then it disappears, and then it gets bad again. And right now
it's very bad.

"People who live along Isabella and along Gloucester (St.), they're fed up
with it. They see people hanging out and dealing drugs and they fear the
violence."

Rae said the city is making sure no liquor licence applications are
approved.

"We've got the police who are watching the location and we've got the
licensing commission trying to deal with the business," he said.

Last month, a 17-year-old girl attending an all-night rave at the club was
rushed to hospital after a suspected Ecstasy overdose.

The club, called Spincat, an underground dance club, does not serve liquor.
It's open five nights a week, from Wednesday to Sunday. The doors open
before midnight and close as late as 9 a.m.

The kind of crowd frequenting the cafe, called Cafe Isabella, differs
dramatically from the club's clientele, but both have drugs in common,
neighbours say.

"We have very stringent rules, . . . zero tolerance for drugs," said Roger
Reynolds of Cafe Isabella, just off Yonge St.

"We work with police," he said.

Recently, Reynolds said he sent police a letter asking for help to clean up
the area.

During the day, crack cocaine is the drug of choice at the cafe. At night,
when the club is open, Ecstasy and other rave drugs are consumed.

"I've had crack pushed on me, I've had meth pushed on me. I'm scared," said
one person who works nearby and asked not to be named.

Neighbours have complained that drug dealers are using the cafe below the
club to do business, Rae said. But he admits there's little that can be
done.

During the summer, Toronto police targeted the area and it seemed to clear
things up, Rae said.

"But for every dealer you get rid of, there's another waiting to take his
place. That's why it feels like you never get anywhere. It's really
frustrating."

Paul Burford has two prime locations from which to take in the ebb and flow
of dealers and revellers. He owns the House of Lords hairstyling shop across
the street from the cafe and club, and lives above his shop.

"We're seeing an increased amount of drug trade, and I don't mean just a few
dealers," Burford said.

"A lot. It's just constant."

Lately, he's been worrying not only about the noise and traffic tie-ups
caused by a steady stream of drug buyers and sellers, but also about the
state of the kids he sees coming out of the club.

Burford, who grew up in an era where it was all sex, booze, drugs and rock
'n' roll, isn't familiar with raves and the drugs associated with them.

He sees kids coming out of the club in nothing but T-shirts, clutching
bottles of water and looking dazed.

The upper floors of the building, where the dance club operates, was once a
gay disco but became a haven for cocaine users in the early 1990s, Rae said.

"We have interfered with the operator's ability to have a liquor licence,"
he said. "In fact, the liquor licence was surrendered and we have fought
every time they come back for a liquor licence.

"So, everybody who tries to get in there with a liquor licence has been
denied."

Those moves, however, opened the door for all-night rave and dance club
operators. They don't need a liquor licence, since no liquor is sold.

That's when drug dealers move in, Rae said.