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 have 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
horse-drawn 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 nighttime 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.

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 B.C.'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.