SUMMER IN THE CITY, NOT SO PRETTY: MANY PROJECTS JUST NOT WORKING

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 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.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan is offering a bit of fresh air on the
drug problems that plague his city. 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.

The most sensible strategy is coming from Vancouver-Burrard MLA
Lorne Mayencourt. 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.

Mayencourt has identified a preferred location, a former radar
station 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, 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.