ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES FORCING MORE AND MORE BUSINESSES OUT OF DOWNTOWN

A second business is leaving the 500 block of Third Street downtown
due to unsavoury behavior outside Tim Hortons coffee shop.

Shear Waves Hair Design's last day downtown is November 30.

"It has to get better because it can't get any worse," Shear Waves
co-owner Sheila Parsons says. "It's crazy; just disgusting."

Youth smoke marijuana outside her business and female staff and
customers are harassed when they walk past Tim Hortons, where a
handful of regulars spend the entire day loitering on the city
benches, Parsons said.

A massage therapist recently vacated her storefront on Third Street
for the same reasons, Parsons added.

The crowds outside Tim Hortons form as the weather warms in March and
stay until October.

"The issue is not loitering in itself, but it's the criminal activity
stemming from it," City Centre Development Agency (CCDA) Chair Eric
Solberg said. "There's too much loitering in one specific area and
then people start getting used to that and then issues happen:
there's people being intimidated, there's sexual harassment, there's
spitting, littering -- there's all kinds of issues that stem from loitering."

Medicine Hat Police Service officials met with Parsons at her
business Thursday.

Police explained to Parsons that part of her role in remedying the
issue includes notifying police of criminal activity when it happens.

"I didn't know who to phone when there were problems," Parson
explained in an interview. "I hate to be the complainer all the time,
but the officer said I need to phone in when things happen."

Both Chief Norm Boucher and Insp. Murray Morton discussed the issue
at length during Thursday night's Police Commission meeting.

Perhaps the greatest challenge police face is the fact no loitering
bylaw exists to give them enforcement powers, Boucher explained.

Boucher also noted that energizing downtown with people is a priority
with city council and the CCDA.

"It appears to me that there's been a lot of effort to make it
welcoming downtown, to have benches where people can sit and relax. I
think with Tim Hortons moving in... people who drink coffee do sit
down and talk."

Police identified the problem last year, Morton said. Bike patrol
members and officers in patrol cars are now frequenting the area on
foot and interacting with both merchants and the crowd in front of
Tim's, he added.

However, because there is no loitering bylaw, police are "very, very
limited in what we can do in asking people to move," he said.

As such, it's a delicate balance for officers, who don't want to
appear heavy handed, Morton added.

"They've (bike patrol officers) got them moderately of the impression
that they need to move on, and some are very resistant and as long as
we haven't caught them doing anything wrong, they are staying and
they're not going to listen to the pleasant prodding," he told Police
Commission.

Meanwhile, Parsons and her business partner are continuing their
search for a new storefront.

"Downtown is absolutely beautiful," she said. "I guess because we've
been her for 12 years, we're a bit scared to move uptown."

Different focus needed

Is it fair to colour all of downtown with the same coffee cup?

Not all merchants feel the same way about some Tim Hortons customers
who hang outside the coffee shop's Third Street Southeast location.

In fact, the owner of the storefront adjacent to soon-departing Shear
Waves Hair Design is leaving downtown also.

But Dot's Discount Designer Clothing's departure has nothing to do
with the Tim's crowd.

"Parking is our issue more than anything," owner Shelley Roll explained Friday.

Roll has spent 15 years working downtown, both as a window painter
and retailer. She has never felt uncomfortable, unsafe or intimidated
downtown, she said.

"I've never heard of any of my customers come in and say they're
scared," she said. "I've never heard of anything go wrong."

Dot's is relocating next to Booster Juice on Dunmore Avenue this
fall, primarily due to increased parking. Roll will pay a higher
price for retail space but it's a business move she's confident will pay off.

CCDA chair Eric Solberg concurs with Roll's assessment of downtown.

"I don't think this is a downtown problem," he said. "I think there's
some isolated sections where that kind of behavior is occurring and
that's where we need to focus on."