SUMMER IN THE CITY, NOT SO PRETTY

VICTORIA -- The "honour system" has finally been abandoned on the
Greater Vancouver buses. The establishment of "fare paid zones"
beyond the driver's seat and at least the theoretical appearance of
someone to check tickets is an effort to stem the problem of people
refusing to pay and assaulting drivers who remind them the ride isn't
quite free.

It seems that once a city reaches a certain size, it doesn't have
enough honour left for honour systems. Surveys indicated that Ottawa
doesn't yet have bus anarchy, but Toronto does.

A relieved Vancouver bus driver interviewed on TV said being spit on
wasn't the worst of it. He's also been punched, kicked and pulled
from his seat while the bus was moving.

Here in Victoria the Canada Day fireworks has been known for a finale
involving drunken brawls on the upper deck of those London-style
buses. (No reports yet of fights breaking out in horsedrawn carriages
or rickshaws, but with international soccer matches in town I'm not
ruling it out.) Victoria's just reaching the critical mass where such
night-time public events are surrendered and the downtown streets
given over to purveyors of the nightly buffet of blood, pee and pavement pizza.

Then there is the illegal drug problem. Victoria's mayor still
believes in something called a "safe injection site," as the city
looks for a new home for its blight of a "needle exchange program."
Nanaimo's pilot project to hand out crack pipes has sputtered out
like a spent Bic lighter, due to threats from ungrateful recipients.

The Capital Regional District, which still can't keep its emergency
radio system working, is right on the ball. They've just instituted a
crackdown, not on crack, but on outdoor patio smoking. New provincial
regulations are being worked out now to bar smoking around doorways
and windows as of next year, but that's not far or fast enough for
some urban social engineers.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is offering a bit of fresh air on the
drug problems that plague his city. He's moving on from the "safe
injection" and "needle exchange" stopgaps that promote continued
abuse. Give the hardcore addicts legal pills that approximate the ups
and downs of cocaine and heroin, he suggests, and at least they have
a hope of getting off the mean streets.

But the most sensible strategy is coming from Vancouver-Burrard MLA
Lorne Mayencourt, who earlier pioneered the radical notion that
pedestrians, like bus drivers, shouldn't have to put up with being
threatened or assaulted. He has been touring the province to promote
the model of the San Patrignano treatment community in Italy, a
remote self-contained rural facility where people can check in and
stay for three to five years, drug-free and working at a real job. It
has more than 2,000 people in voluntary attendance, and claims a 75
per cent success rate.

Mayencourt has identified a preferred location, a former radar
station called Baldy Hughes located 30 km southwest of Prince George.
It offers a dormitory, mobile home pads, welding and woodworking
shops, a bowling alley, curling rink and gym.

Prince George already has its share of big-city problems, being a
service centre for the medical, social and penal needs of the
province's north. But it too could benefit from this refreshing
approach to the low-level crime, panhandling and prostitution that is
intertwined with drugs in urban centres.

There are other remote locations around the province that could take
a similar approach. It seems like a better idea than waiting for
Vancouver or Victoria to develop something that actually has a chance
of working.

Vancouver is the site of another pilot project, a community court.
Attorney General Wally Oppal has high hopes for this project, which
has hearings underway led by provincial court judge Thomas Gove.

The court will deal with the break-ins and other low-level offences
that form the revolving door for drug addicted repeat offenders. The
idea is to direct offenders to treatment, housing and employment
services to break the cycle of crime and drugs. If it's successful,
community courts would be established in other B.C. centres.

While this approach has had some successes in the United States, the
U.K and Australia, I have to wonder how effective it will be if it
keeps people in and around Vancouver, or New Westminster or Surrey.

Perhaps a solution lies in combining the community court or drug
court model with Mayencourt's suggested retreat. Getting people away
from the open drug and sex bazaar that is tolerated in major urban
areas, and doing it for a period of years, might make the difference.