DRUG SCENE NOW RULES AT BROADWAY SKYTRAIN STATION

Numerous people have called or e-mailed me after Saturday's column about the
increasing panhandling, drug-dealing and prostitution in other
neighbourhoods as a result of a civic crackdown in the Downtown Eastside.

Let's remember, drug dealers aren't stupid. If the city focuses on one area,
they move to another. The problem is especially acute around the Broadway
SkyTrain station, with open drug trafficking occurring nearly 24-hours a day.

"We've got a lot of seniors who are members," said Beverly Boyd, of the
Royal Canadian Legion Branch 179 on the 2200-block of Commercial, "and when
we came out the other night it was really scary.

"There were two young Hispanic men who were refusing to move aside. The
hookers were using our alcove exit on Sixth Avenue. The police say there's
not much they can do. They said if we were scared to call 911 and they'd
come, but it doesn't make you feel comfortable."

Joel Silverman, who has lived in the area since 1995, said for him the
magnitude of the trafficking and public drug consumption is worse than in
any previous year and the neighbourhood is in serious decline as a result.

He's written to city hall and has been lobbying the Vancouver police, who
have made some arrests recently, he noted thankfully when we spoke Monday.

"There is little my neighbours and I can do that we are not already doing to
defend our community from this problem," he explained. "The police effort
is, at best, hit and miss."

He thinks more beat cops would help and in his letter to council he wrote:
"I was very concerned that when the mayor announced that more officers would
be dedicated to the Downtown Eastside, the dealing and fixing problems would
find its way to Commercial Drive. We are seeing the manifestation of this
now. The mayor's program is successful in moving the problem around, but
certainly not for solving it."

Duncan MacPherson, a senior city planner involved in the Downtown Eastside
strategy, acknowledged the flaw and added that he hoped Vancouver wasn't
repeating Frankfurt's experience when it tried to get a handle on its
addiction epidemic and urban blight.

"They did this, they chased it around the city for five years before they
developed a response that actually worked," said MacPherson, who travelled
to Europe this spring and prepared a report to council on efforts there to
revitalize drug-plagued neighbourhoods. "When we talk coordinated response,
I'm not sure what we're talking about. Coordinating moving it around the city?"

He agreed that if it isn't dealt with properly, the problem will get worse
when the new SkyTrain line arrives, creating a major transit point that will
be perfect for dealing drugs. "It's fascinating to watch this happening,"
MacPherson added.

Indeed. I took a tour of the Drive this spring with Sergeant Cash Heed, one
of the key community policing officers. He pointed out the pawnshops that
were becoming more active with police targeting their competitors downtown.
He noted the increasing number of 24-hour stores, the needle exchange outlet
and the ever-busy Money Mart, the poor people's bank.

"This is the infrastructure drug dealers and users love," he said prophetically.

The city understands this and passed a 24-hour bylaw to close the unsavoury
convenience stores in the Eastside. Licence inspectors also began focusing
on problem businesses downtown. Similar measures may now be required on the
Drive and elsewhere.

"We can go anywhere in the city, but we started Downtown," MacPherson said
of the bylaw's reach. "We have the ability to move with it, but that takes
time and I guess that's what we'll have to do until the entire city is shut
down. But it does take time; you have to consult with merchants and residents."

Fortunately, the vice scene on the Drive in my experience has been seasonal:
picking up in the warm summer months and all but disappearing in the rainy
season. Residents are hoping it's the same this year.