CRACKDOWN SHIFTS PROBLEM A FEW BLOCKS

There are fewer street people hanging out on 135A Street since Surrey's
mayor ordered a crackdown on crime in Whalley early this year, but many of
them haven't moved very far away.

The two-block stretch of 135A Street, between 106th and 108th avenues, has
been the focus of Mayor Doug McCallum's anti-crime campaign. Aggressive
police patrols have made the strip too hot for many of the prostitutes and
drug dealers who used to make it their place of business, so they've moved on.

Some have left the city altogether and others have moved to Guildford,
Cedar Hills and Newton, but a lot of street people have just shifted a
couple of blocks in one direction or another to avoid the 135A Street
crackdown.

The Gateway office tower at 108th Avenue and West Whalley Ring Road is a
case in point. It's home to a bank, the local federal government passport
office, other businesses and a SkyTrain station.

It's also on the front line in the confrontation between straight society
and street people.

The sparkling glass and steel edifice looms over the general squalor of
Whalley's business district and sits in its own little park complete with a
fountain, trees and benches where office workers sit to eat their lunches
on sunny days.

The private park is also popular with street people. They use it to buy and
sell drugs, as a place to hang out with friends, and fire up a pipeful of
crack or just somewhere to rest.

Gordie, whose street name is "Troll," is one of the latter. He was born 49
years ago in Newfoundland and described himself as "a slow learner" who
never got past the third grade.

Gordie lives on welfare disability benefits.

"Yeah, I know. You're gonna ask me am I on dope. Yeah, I used to do dope -
crack - but I don't do it no more. I do pills because I've got a brain
tumour and I get seizures and the pills help with that."

Gordie has just come from a nearby food bank where he picked up a couple of
small bags of food. He said he'd like to work but his health isn't good and
he's not trained for anything.

"In Calgary, I had a job. Eight bucks an hour. I was happy, I had food to
eat, I had an apartment. Here, I got nothing."

Nowadays, he pays rent to live in an old camper set up behind a nearby
business. His hair is long and unkempt, his hands are dirty and he's
missing a lot of teeth. And he's mad.

"I can't come over here and relax anymore. Nothing. The security guards
come and tell us to move and if we don't, he's on the phone, calling the
cops," Gordie said.

Since Mayor Doug McCallum ordered the get-tough campaign in Whalley, Gordie
said, there's nowhere he can go without being stopped and searched by
police or getting tickets for jaywalking or littering.

"Tell those guys to get these cops off everybody's back. It's harassment.
They tell us to go to the park, so you go to the park and they chase you
outta there. "One cop told me to go to the beach. How am I going to go to
the beach?"

Even so, Gordie said he's not going anywhere. Whalley is his home and he's
really got nowhere else to go.

With people like Gordie prepared to dig in and resist the pressure to get
out, it could be a long time before McCallum's promised crime-free Whalley
becomes a reality.