FOOTSCRAY: GIVING A DOG AN ILL-DESERVED BAD NAME

Footscray gets a bashing - again. From reading "Drugs crackdown" (The
Age, 5/3) one might be forgiven for thinking that central Footscray
has become an urban no-go zone, Melbourne's very own Bronx. Drugs,
knives, hold-ups, "streets littered with cigarette butts", undercover
sting operations - there goes the neighbourhood! Apparently, central
Footscray is so dangerous that "people think twice about getting into
the car and driving to the market".

The trouble is, for the life of me, I can't reconcile this "badlands"
image with the Footscray where I live and run a small business. When I
step out from my house or shop, I see a bustling and dynamic
community. When I stroll through the Nicholson Street mall, the gangs
I notice are the clusters of elderly Greek and Vietnamese people
meeting to chat and soak up the street, or the mobs of little kids
running about.

Forty per cent of Footscray's residents were born outside Australia,
hailing from 135 countries and speaking more than 80 languages. This
incredible diversity has fostered a vital street culture like no other
in Melbourne. Yes, Footscray has its share of social problems. And
yes, if you look for it, you will see drug dealing in central
Footscray. But illicit drugs are traded in all suburbs - and locations
of recent gangland killings suggest that the really big deals are more
likely to be going down in leafy South Yarra and Brighton.

In tackling the issue of drug use in Footscray, the Maribyrnong City
Council should be congratulated for adopting a harm-minimisation
approach. The recent police sweep, like those before it, will do
nothing to solve the problem. A sustained program of real community
policing would be more productive than news-grabbing blitzes.

The relentless media caricatures of Footscray are nothing new. For
those who accept these portrayals as accurate, you don't know what
you're missing! However, if the views I hear across the shop counter
are anything to go by, there's no shortage of people who see Footscray
for what it is - a fantastic place to live, work and visit.

Nick Fahey,

Footscray