DRUGS END TOY JOY

A COLLINGWOOD toy museum has been forced to close because of Smith St's
notorious drug trade.

Fed up with the crime and grime in Melbourne's main heroin thoroughfare,
the Australian Toy Museum has shut.

Owner Jean Jacques Lale-Demoz said yesterday Smith St was a mess and
families no longer wanted to visit.

"After every weekend there is vomit on the footpath, graffiti, broken
windows," he said. "It's just not on."

"People have got knives. It goes on and on and on."

Mr Lale-Demoz, former restaurateur of Jean Jacques by the Sea, ran the
museum for five years.

"When we bought the building there were far less problems," he said.

"There are now a lot of social problems in the street. Drugs is just one of
them.

"People just don't come to Smith St.

"We waited for it to get better but now we'll just move on."

Mr Lale-Demoz said efforts to clean up the strip by police, the local
council and traders had not worked and the situation was getting worse.

He said he was looking for a new home for his collection of thousands of
toys from the 1880s to the 1990s.

"I have been a toy collector for more than 26 years," he said.

"My parents collected toys and I would go with them toy collecting."

The museum's toys from around the world were popular with children,
particularly school groups, and nostalgic adults.

Smith St was dubbed "Heroin St" this year after a study found a heroin hit
was recorded on the strip every 12 minutes.

Last month, the Smith St Community Action Group was set up by traders and
residents.

The group's first meeting called for more police, funding for social
workers and better street cleaning.

A public safety group has been set up in Footscray by residents angry at
the alleged lack of government support to make their community safe.