CLOSE-UP -- UNDER SIEGE

There's a war on in Kelowna and the battleground is an upscale
residential neighbourhood. As partiers, drug users and thieves invaded
the Abbott Street corridor in record numbers this summer, the
neighbours decided they had had enough.

Capital News reporter Shelley Nicholl looks at how, with a determined,
united front, the residents are fighting to get their neighbourhood
back.

When Paddy Hall heard some noises in her front yard this summer, she
went outside in the night to investigate. What she discovered was a
couple having sex on her lawn and in no mood to leave. In fact, they
felt it was their right to be there.

It wasn't the first time she'd been awakened by rude behaviour and
rowdy, drunk and stoned partiers.

Over the summer, Hall believes there were only a handful of times when
she slept through the night.

She was on the phone to the police so often, she had their number on
her speed dial--cell and home phone.

One of her neighbours discovered several syringes stuffed in a beer
bottle and left on the doorstep--at a home where there are young children.

Drug deals are made, while the neighbours, including seniors and
children, watch.

Mobs of young people, some with bikes and most dressed in black, hang
out in intimidating numbers on the streets in the evening. Tourists
literally turn away.

People camp out in the residents' backyards and just beyond, complete
with tarps and blankets, leaving their feces behind.

Houses are broken into, tires are slashed and motorcycles zoom by at
all hours, pushing the decibel limit.

A crack cocaine and crystal meth operation down the street was finally
shut down in August.

Sound like a surly, east side Vancouver neighbourhood?

Guess again. It's one of the quaint residential areas of Kelowna,
where elegant, waterfront homes can run upwards of $2 million.

The Abbott Street corridor, from south of the highway to Kelowna
General Hospital, is where the city upgraded part of the street,
adding decorative street lamps, brick-lined walkways and picturesque
trees to frame the street. Grand homes there would fit right into the
pages of Better Homes and Gardens.

But, the residents are comparing their neighbourhood to a war zone.
They are feeling besieged.

"I believe we do have a crisis," said Hall.

She's not alone in that opinion.

At a residents meeting Oct. 27, organized by the Friends and Residents
of the Abbott Street Heritage Conservation Area Society, a steady
stream of people vented their frustration at what their neighbourhood
has become.

Their meeting in September to organize a Neighbourhood Watch program
was even more volatile.

"All summer long, it was absolute, pure hell," said resident Virginia
Anthony, who has lived in the area 12 years.

"They spent $13.8 million on Abbott Street making it attractive. Our
street is very attractive...attractive to a lot of undesirable
people," she said.

Twelve-year resident Rita Whitehall said she now discourages families
from moving into the area because it's become too rough.

Hall, who grew up in Kelowna, said, "I'd never have believed my
Kelowna was like this until we moved down here."

Another resident, who only wanted to be referred to as J.C., said,
"Last year, we hardly noticed anything. This year, we were
overwhelmed. I don't know where they're coming from. We've never
experienced anything like that before."

She added emphatically, "Two years ago it was the fires. Last year it
was this. We can't handle a third summer of disaster, which is exactly
what this is. It's a disaster."

Crime statistics back up what the residents say. Kelowna RCMP
superintendent Bill McKinnon said that area, extending to downtown,
has seen a 146 per cent increase in drug crimes over last year.
Vandalism and property damage charges went up by 23 per cent and break
and entering and theft were up 39 per cent.

"These are unprecedented numbers," he said.

The city bylaw officers have seen a jump in calls by 500 per
cent.

The parks department security has also been challenged by incidents in
the parks and along the beach accesses.

"The problems are five times greater than they were last year," said
city parks manager Joe Creron. "It's really put us back on our heels."

The neighbourhood is bubbling with exasperation. It wants
solutions.

"The problem is going to grow, unless something is done quickly," said
J.C. "It's not going to solve itself."

But, rather than just vent, blame others or put up "for sale" signs on
their property, many residents are prepared to roll up their sleeves,
get organized and clean up their neighbourhood.

The past two neighbourhood meetings were the first in several years
and brought out 60 to 80 people each, the highest turnout ever.

And that is when the mood started to change--with a united community
effort.

As the residents shared their common gripes, they become more
unified.

Neighbours spoke to neighbours and started looking out for each
other.

Word of a break-in and descriptions of suspicious people and possible
crime schemes would pass through the homes quickly.

Hall said, "The best thing is that neighbours are talking to each
other. There's a lot of things that need to be looked at from multiple
perspectives. That's how we find the best solutions."

Indeed, the problems facing the neighbourhood span a range of issues.
At the top of the list is drugs.

McKinnon said one of the reasons the area has seen such a dramatic
increase in drug crimes is because of the growth of Kelowna in
general. With more people, there are more clients and users.

Kelowna now has several organized crime rings to handle the
demand.

Most local trafficking involves cocaine, hashish, marijuana and
crystal meth.

While dealing is often done downtown, it spills out into the outlying
areas and the Abbott Street corridor is the next in line.

With crystal meth and crack cocaine, users can be combative, with
little regard for right or wrong.

"Addicts lack the capacity to be considerate of others," said
community policing officer Garth Letcher. "They do compromise the
safety of the neighbourhood."

With the goal of getting more drugs, addicts will use whatever means
to get money to pay for them.

As a result, they head into the closest neighbourhood and break into
cars and homes.

As well, dealers have moved into the neighbourhood, away from the
prying eyes of the cops downtown.

Neighbours see the deals, take down licence plate numbers and provide
descriptions, but there's little the police can do with that, McKinnon
said.

There is a success story in the neighbourhood, however.

Last year, people living in an condominium complex on Boyce Crescent
were getting frustrated about a crack house being run out of their
building by a senior who'd lived there 23 years without incident.

Drug buyers were coming and going at all hours and weren't easy to
deal with.

Resident Debbie Fleming said there were more than 400 complaints to
the police about it.

"It was horrible. There were people shooting up in my parking spot
when I got home from work. What do you do?" she said.

One time, she walked past a woman carrying a knife.

Another time, when some addicts took residents' clothes out of the
laundry room, a few residents tried to stop them before the police
arrived. It got ugly and somebody got hurt.

"It can be really scary," said Fleming. "You never know when someone
is going to turn on you."

Still, the residents decided to fight the problem rather than
move.

The final downfall of the crack operation was a public appeal through
the media in August.

The man's children, not knowing what was going on, stepped in to
help.

With a hand from the RCMP, the man closed shop and went into
rehab.

"It was a collaborative effort in the true sense," said
Letcher.

He believes, working one step at a time, the same efforts can be
extended to the other problems in the Abbott Street corridor.

"It's frustrating," he admitted. "There's no overnight
solution."

Fleming agrees. She said residents have to know it's a long hard
battle and you never really win it. But, they can't give up.

"Somebody has to take a stand. Someone has to have a voice. We can't
keep hiding in the sand and hope it goes away," she said.

She warns other neighbourhoods to be wary because, if one
neighbourhood forces the criminals out, they'll move along into another.

She said the whole city has to take responsibility for this. Answers
are needed all the way down the line from more rehab programs and
better outreach once addicts finish the programs up to the courts
handing out sentences that get offenders off the streets.

Police can make arrests, but if there's no meat behind it, the person
charged is right back on the streets.

Residents are frustrated because they keep calling the police, but it
doesn't seem to help.

McKinnon said they should keep calling, but he's getting frustrated,
too. Without the manpower to handle the calls, he can't dent the crime
stats.

McKinnon wants more beat officers and police on bikes. That makes it
easier for the RCMP to know the residents as well as the regular criminals.

Residents support the bike cops and wanted McKinnon to add
more.

He said more were put on during the summer months, but with a zero
tolerance policy, they were making so many arrests, they were often
off the streets for hours at a time.

McKinnon has a request before City Hall now to put more officers into
the budget. In Kelowna, there are 121 officers functioning on an
annual budget of about $12 million. It's been five years since new
cops were added.

City council is aware of the issue. Last month, J.C. easily collected
50 letters from residents, stating their concerns, and handed them to
Mayor Walter Gray.

She and a few others had an hour-long chat with him.

Fleming said Couns. Sharon Shepherd and Ron Cannon as well as the
police have backed them. That has made a difference.

Some things, though, are beyond the police and politicians.

Geographically, the Abbott Street neighbourhood is really a public
place with traffic coming from all over the city.

"During the summer, the population swells and many of those people are
partying non-residents so they don't care what they do," said McKinnon.

"We're so vulnerable here because we're downtown and people can go
through our neighbourhood," added J.C.

The parks department starts with cutting back bushes and putting in
more lighting to increase safety.

Closing off the beach accesses is an option, but, said Creron, they
want that only as a last resort, since not everyone likes them blocked
off. As well, the gates are costly.

Still, closing them down at a set time has been effective in some
places as has been closing off the tunnel to City Park at night.

The RCMP is helping the residents organize a Neighbourhood Watch
program and also encourages them to join the citizen's patrol.

Corp. Reg Burgess said the patrols, run through the community policing
offices, have a mandate to observe and report.

Right now, there are about 100 people throughout Kelowna who volunteer
their time for it, usually on weekend evenings.

"They're very effective for minor nuisances and mischief. People will
leave. The patrols move things along," said Burgess.

While many residents have beefed up their security systems, added more
locks and fences and trimmed hedges so perpetrators can't hide, they
don't want to live in an armed camp.

Some people have moved and others are contemplating it, but many say
it's not fair they have to change their lives because of what others
are doing.

Ironically, their lives have changed--but not to accommodate the
dealers and partiers. Residents are getting active, armed with
information and a common goal to find solutions.

"This is our neighbourhood and we're taking it back," said
J.C.

"We like our neighbourhood. We like our neighbours. We want to stay.
We want to know what to do to make it better."

Said Hall, "A lot of residents want to be part of the solution. We all
have to take ownership and not look for others to solve the problem."

Fortunately, they have others on their side.

"Our expectation is we're going to solve it," said
Creron.

Said Letcher, "It does take a cooperative effort with tenacity and
perseverance. But we will solve it."

J.C. isn't quite as confident, although she and the residents are
going to give it their best efforts.

"I don't know if there's a solution, but I have hope," J.C. said.