'DON'T WANT TO WAIT UNTIL A CHILD KILLED'

Residents of crime-infested community around Bloor St. and Lansdowne
Ave. take to streets to tell politicians to pay attention to what's
happening

Eleven-year-old Monique Mota doesn't want to see "druggies just
roaming the streets" in her neighbourhood near Bloor St. and Lansdowne
Ave. any more.

"It makes me feel sad for them. I want them to stop using drugs," she
said as she and two cousins led several dozen residents in a community
march along Bloor St. W. yesterday.

Although the area has a long history of drug dealing, prostitution and
other crimes, march organizer Jack Fava said residents are frustrated
by the lack of political action. This month's shooting deaths and gang
arrests in the city's north and northwest have raised anxiety in his
downtown neighbourhood.

"We know the crime in our community isn't as bad as Jane and Finch,"
Fava, 45, said. "But what is it going to take for our politicians to
pay attention to what's happening here? We don't want to wait until a
child gets killed."

Fava, whose 12-year-old son was playing in a park last year when he
heard gunshots and saw a young man with a bleeding bullet wound to his
arm run past, said neighbourhood children walk a daily gauntlet of
drug addicts, dealers and prostitutes on their way to school.

Women in the area are harassed by johns, and residents' homes and
garages are broken into by crack addicts looking for valuables they
can trade for drugs, he said.

Virginia Novak, 58, said her garage has been broken into four times in
the past few years. The last time, her lawn mower was stolen. "It's
getting ridiculous. It never used to be like this when I grew up."

Teacher Edward Clark, who has lived in the area since 1993, said
residents are weary of being ignored.

Tony Ruprecht, Liberal MPP for Davenport, said he wrote then-police
chief Julian Fantino three years ago asking for more foot patrols and
to use surplus TTC land on Lansdowne Ave. for a new police station.
Counselling and treatment for addicts and prostitutes would also help,
added Ruprecht, who was among the marchers.

But it wasn't until a chance meeting with Councillor Adam Giambrone
(Ward 18, Davenport), who was attending an event along the route, that
the two agreed to meet formally with residents to discuss possible
solutions.

More police could help in the short term, Giambrone told marchers. But
since most criminals come from outside the community, the problem
won't be solved until governments weed out root causes of crime. The
city is working on that longer-term goal by beefing up early childhood
education, recreation for teens and jobs for youth in at-risk
neighbourhoods, he added.