SUMMER IN THE CITY, NOT SO PRETTY

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.