COPS FLAG OPPENHEIMER

Civility prevailed in the Downtown Eastside's notorious Oppenheimer
Park for a few hours on Monday afternoon.

There were about 50 school children in the park -which is between
Dunlevy and Jackson streets and Powell and East Cordova-hot dogs and
pop were being served and an adult-versus-kids flag football match was
underway.

The park is used by drug dealers, who reside in nearby single-room
accommodation hotels, and frequented by addicts who rely on the social
services provided in the area, including directly across the road at
the Carnegie Centre's Dunlevy Street outreach office.

The afternoon event was organized by the Strathcona Business
Improvement Association, the Vancouver Police Department and the
Strathcona, Seymour and Renfrew elementary schools.

Insp. Bob Chapman said the event was aimed at reclaiming the park for
youth.

Chapman pointed to three heritage homes opposite the park on Dunlevy
Street and to the empty kids play area in the park's north-east section.

"There are nine kids in those three houses and they don't use the
park. The dealers and addicts have taken over the park, that's why
we're trying to get it back, for the kids to use," Chapman said. "If
it's safe for kids it's safe for anybody and that's the position we're
taking on it."

Oppenheimer Park was once called the Powell Street grounds and was
used by baseball teams, including the Asahis, a Japanese team that
gained fame when it played prior to World War II.

During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, the park was still used by
families. However, with the emergence of crack cocaine on city streets
in the late 1980s, the park became a dangerous and unpredictable place
and children stopped coming.

Chapman said there was a shooting in the park last summer that was
related to a drug gang turf war over the park. During the afternoon
football game, a man slept in the middle of the field, uninterrupted
by the police and kids.

The man had not overdosed and was left alone by police.

"I wish I could sleep like that," Chapman joked.

The city pays for two full-time activity coordinators at the park and
the federal government pays for five part-time summer student workers
to help out. Most of the illegal activity occurs near the washrooms on
the Powell Street side of the park. On this Monday afternoon, there
were adults playing board games and using the computer provided in the
common area alongside the change rooms.

Another group was using the baseball pitch at the northwest corner of
the park, albeit without a batter. The pitcher, who appeared to be a
drug user, had a great throwing arm and was curving the ball perfectly
into the catcher's mitt. Another man in a wheelchair retrieved the
stray balls.

Police chief Jamie Graham, among the dozen or so police officers in
the park, which included mounted and motorcycle cops, was glad to see
kids playing there.

"A lot of these kids have never been here before, even though there
school is only two blocks away," Graham said. "You never win or lose
in these situations, but the whole area is certainly better than it
was a couple of years ago."

The police now have two officers that regularly patrol the park as
part of the crackdown on illegal activity in the Downtown Eastside.

Chapman said that as a result of the flag football event in the park
the police received reports of more drug activity on Hastings Street
and in McLean Park in Strathcona.

"We know that we are just displacing the problem, but we have to keep
chipping away," he said.