SUMMER IN THE CITY IS NOT ALWAYS 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.