PETITION TO CLEAN UP NEIGHBOURHOOD

District, Police Aren't Being Tough Enough

Residents of a downtown Maple Ridge neighbourhood plagued by crime,
drugs and prostitutes plan to take a petition to council because
complaints to the district have fallen on deaf ears.

Jim Osler, who manages a block of apartments near 224th Street and
North Avenue, is leading the charge and appealing to the district to
make the neighbourhood safer.

He said a pipe bomb went off at 2 a.m. on Monday. The previous week,
the streets were rocked by gun shots.

After dark until the wee hours of the morning, sex trade workers and
drug peddlers take over the block.

"People in Maple Ridge should think twice about who they are
re-electing," said Osler, who points to a townhouse complex nearby as
the root of all problems.

The run-down complex called Northumberland Court has been the target
of countless projects by the district, fire department and police.

But Osler claims the district and police aren't being tough enough. He
said the bylaws department promised to clean graffiti painted on the
buildings last month.

More than 30 days later, the fences and walls are still tagged. For
the past three weeks, a mattress, couch, cooking appliances and a
washing machine have lined a burned-out building.

Osler wants the bylaw department to crack down and treat the complex
strata like every other property owner in Maple Ridge who are given
seven days to complete the task.

He wants the police to patrol the townhome complex at night, instead
of parking outside when nothing's happening during the day.

"Somebody is going to get killed down there before they do something,"
Osler said.

Although he lost two more tenants this month, Osler isn't the only
person to feel the repercussion of a degenerating neighbourhood.

A group of doctors who have clinic in the Haney Professional Building
and the B.C. Biomedical Laboratories are planning to leave.

A receptionist for Dr. Ward Tinney, Dr. Dennis Chapman, Dr. Hannah
Surgenor and Dr. Kenneth Burns, confirmed all four will leave 224th
Street and North Avenue by next spring.

She said the doctors don't want to leave, but need a larger clinic
that's safer, where patients don't fall victim to crime.

On Oct. 12, 67-year-old woman who was a patient at the clinic had her
purse snatched as she left a nearby bank.

Ryan Kjaer-Kinsella, who had just been released from prison on
Vancouver Island, has been charged with the robbery.

The receptionist said several patients have left the doctors because
of the crime.

"It's not safe," she said.

"[The neighbourhood] is not a nice place."

But the District of Maple Ridge claims its doing its best to change
the south Lougheed area.

Gordy Robson, who is seeking his second term as Maple Ridge mayor,
said the municipality has used every resource legally available to
it.

They've cracked down on other crack houses in downtown Maple Ridge -
22 in total.

Police began focusing a more aggressive spotlight on the neighbourhood
around the Fraser Street townhouse complex at the beginning of August.

There are aerial maps of Northumberland Court and neighbouring problem
houses as well as a cell phone labelled Northumberland handed to a
constable on each of the four watches who is assigned to patrol the
south Lougheed neighbourhood.

But Robson said dealing with a problem landlord who owns 16 units at
Northumberland Court hasn't been easy.

Bylaws has been trying, Robson added. The district has also asked
Income Assistance to stop issuing rent cheque to people who live in
the complex. The ministry responsible has refused.

"We are all fed up," said Robson.

"We just don't have a final solution. I won't rest until we get rid of
this cancer in our downtown."