COPS IN LIMBO AFTER COUNCIL REJECTS REQUEST FOR CASH

Was that budget cutting or knee-capping?

When city council, without discussion, refused to ante up the $2.3 million
the police had requested to continue the drug crackdown in the Downtown
Eastside, it sent a message. But what was it?

Does council want to wait and see whether such policing reduces drug
dealing on the streets or merely moves it somewhere else? Is it saying that
enforcement should not be seriously undertaken until the other three
pillars are in place? Is it telling the police to make do with what they've
got?

Or, no matter what, council doesn't believe policing will help solve the
drug problem and the resources should be funneled into safe-injection sites
and treatment - none of which the city has said it will pay for.

So far we've seen no serious implementation of two pillars (treatment and
harm reduction), token recognition of the third (education), refusal of
funding for the fourth (enforcement) and no discussion of the fifth
(legalization), which may be the next pillar the advocates have on their
agenda.

Given the lack of debate, council has an obligation to be clear about what
it wants from the police. It has to be explicit about what constitutes
success. And it really should come to grips with the implications of the
four-pillar strategy.

Specifically, who is expected to supply the drugs, particularly crack? The
dealers or the government? What behaviour will be tolerated? Is it OK to
inject and smoke drugs in public? Will other distribution points evolve
into Main and Hastings? (Is that what is happening now at Seymour and
Helmcken and at Dunsmuir and Seymour?)

If the object is to get drugs off the streets, will the police be expected
to allow the deals to take place inside bars and hotels, at marijuana
cafes, by dial-a-dope? Or will dealers be allowed to supply users inside
the safe-injection sites?

If none of the above, then what are the police expected to accept and what
do they enforce?

It's unfair and dangerous to leave the police uncertain about their role. I
saw what happened when the rules evaporated around street prostitution in
the early 1980s.

The police effectively gave up and neighbourhoods were expected to fend for
themselves.

Public officials, by refusing to act, said essentially they were no longer
in the business of peace, order and good government.

That's not a viable long-term strategy, particularly when you're expecting
to play host to the world.

Don't forget two other factors. The mayor is committed to an inquiry into
the missing-women investigation, where no doubt the police will be under
excruciating examination.

They may not be overly inclined to cooperate with city hall's low-cost
wish-list. And given the possibility of marijuana decriminalization, we can
expect even more widespread distribution and public use of drugs, and even
more money flowing through this expanding part of the economy.

To allow the rules to be set by the drug users and dealers themselves, with
the police left without specific instructions or adequate resources, is
inviting trouble. Price tags

With all the new development in Downtown South (or, as the realtors prefer,
Upper Yaletown), we're finally getting some good mid-rise buildings in
among the towers: Architect Bryce Rositch's Beresford at Davie and Homer,
Foad Rafii's sloped-roof annex for the Domus further up Homer at Helmcken
and Wiens-Suzuki's eccentricity at Drake and Richards.

If you want to get a sense of the emerging character of Vancouver's newest
neighbourhood, do a quick comparison of the 1200-blocks of Homer and
Richards streets. You'll see from the former the value of serendipity, of
having a few leftover buildings from previous eras to add a little
variation to the streetscape.

- - On the other side of the peninsula, developer Bruce Langereis and
architect Jim Hancock should be rightfully proud of the Carina, standing
proudly above the new water-filled piazza at Harbour Green Park. It's a new
Vancouver icon, with its full-sail facade, muted colours (not green!) and
the lively rhythm of its townhouses. It may be the best tower in a decade.

- - Acknowledgment, as well, to a new and nifty outdoor advertising campaign.
Carat Canada created the "Seven Stages" - from Ritual to Renewal (via
Despair) - for the Adidas Vancouver International Marathon seen on bus
shelters and banners. Clever. But what was MacLaren McCann West thinking
when it created GM's ad that characterized transit users as "Creeps and
Weirdos"?

- - Speaking of grass, the non-smokable kind, it's nice to see it being
planted on the boulevards of the new high-density districts. It says, hey,
this is a residential neighbourhood! But in some cases, they're getting a
little muddy. Neighbouring buildings might want to be, well, more
neighbourly by laying down a few slabs of slate or granite as stepping
stones, while still keeping the green relief, the permeable soil and the
opportunity to do some special landscaping in the future. That's what gives
Vancouver its special character.

Correction On Congestion

It's Week Six since London introduced congestion charging and things
continue to go better than even the advocates expected. Traffic has been
reduced by 20 per cent and delays cut by nearly 30 per cent. Delays to
buses caused by congestion are down by half. As a result, bus passenger
numbers are up by 14 per cent. The only problem: the system is not making
as much money as expected because volumes aren't as high as anticipated.

I made a mistake in my last column when I noted that the cameras used in
London were made by a Richmond firm. Not so: they come from Extreme CCTV
Inc., based in Burnaby. Which raises the question: If the system works so
well and the technology is locally developed, why aren't we considering it
here?