RAILROADED TO BROADWAY

David Cadman says drug crackdowns by Vancouver police in the downtown
eastside have pushed a street drug-dealing problem to the Broadway SkyTrain
station.

"I've been told police have been ordered to move drug dealers from the
downtown eastside and it's OK if they're in other neighbourhoods," said
Cadman, the COPE/Green candidate for mayor in tomorrow's civic election.

"The problem's definitely gotten a whole lot worse in the last year since
the push on the downtown eastside."

Cadman says Mayor Philip Owen and the NPA's one-party city council do not
care about the Grandview-Woodlands neighbourhood because it's on the east side.

"Let me put it this way. I can guarantee if this (open drug dealing) was
occurring in Shaughnessy, Owen and the NPA council would be responding,"
said Cadman in reference to the mayor's wealthy neighbourhood.

"I think basically what happened here is they had a lot of pressure from
Chinatown and Gastown merchants to move the drug dealers on. And basically
they just didn't care too much where they went. They just wanted to get
them out of that area."

Police acknowledge that relocating drug dealers is a problem and note that
pushers turned up at Broadway and Commercial after mass arrests in the
downtown eastside during Project Scoop in October 1998.

In January there were more mass arrests in the downtown eastside from
Operation Crackdown, sending even more drug dealers to Broadway and Commercial.

"The way it is right now is that when you're down at the Broadway SkyTrain
there are drug dealers around there all the time," said Cadman. "It
started really within the last year, year-and-a-half."

Mounting complaints have led Vancouver police to act in recent days after
street drug-dealing calls to 911 were not acted upon, said Cadman.

"We have had an increased level of enforcement in the Broadway and
Commercial and Broadway and Fraser area," Const. Anne Drennan said
yesterday. "We had arrests for selling cocaine and numerous people were
checked and told to move on. This high level of enforcement by police will
continue until further notice in those areas."

SkyTrain users at the Broadway station are appalled by the drug dealing.

"There's always Latino drug dealers there," said Kathy, a middle-aged
hospital worker who didn't want her last name used. "It's very common for
me to see at least two drug transactions by the time I walk the four blocks
from SkyTrain to my house.

"A couple of years ago it was not a common sight at all. But in the past
year it's become very common."

Owen and the entire NPA council slate did not attend an all-candidates
meeting at Britannia high school Nov. 8 and Cadman says that shows the
disdain they have for the east side.

"They've cut back on garbage collection in street bins," said Cadman,
referring to overflowing garbage baskets. "It's ultimately the city council
that is responsible for the level of service that is achieved in that
neighbourhood."

Owen was unavailable for comment yesterday.

SQUEEZE PLAY

Drug-dealing crackdowns by Vancouver police in the downtown eastside in the
last 13 months have pushed drug dealers to the area around the Broadway
SkyTrain station at East Broadway and Commercial Drive.

Crack cocaine dealers started arriving after two major crackdowns in the
downtown eastside, Project Scoop in October 1998 and Operation Crackdown
last January.

"What we are attempting to do is a dispersal," said Insp. Gary Greer last
January. "It is a concern because we don't want to displace a drug problem
into another community."

COPE/Green mayoral candidate David Cadman is among Grandview-Woodlands
residents incensed that many dealers have relocated to Broadway and Commercial.

"You squeeze drug dealers one place and they go somewhere else," said
Cadman. "But the net consequence of that has been basically we've become
now a regional centre for drug dealers. People come in on the SkyTrain and
buy their drugs.

"And it's effectively been a green light to say to drug dealers you can
operate in this area (because) when people here call 911 (police) don't
respond."