I’d really like to know what’s going on at this corner. While great strides have been made downtown, we’ve also seen some ugly developments. Downtown lately seems to have striated. There are safe streets, and there are not quite so safe streets, and in Saskatoon they’re meters apart. Islands of “ick” have sprung up here and there, attracting a certain demographic class. In between are “normal” people, the downtown workers and tourists.
One such island can be found on the north-east corner of the intersection of 2nd Avenue and 22nd Street. For some reason, all kinds of street people seem to have declared this their turf. The benches in front of the McDonald’s are ones you want to avoid. Every day you see lowlifes congregating here, crowding nervous citizens off the sidewalk. A half-dozen times or more, I’ve seen the police in attendance.
It's not just the corner itself, exactly. On sunny days, I take a stroll during afternoon tea, and I’ve noticed quite a few things. There’s a great deal of foot traffic in the alleys between Second and Third Avenues, just north of 22nd. Scruffy-looking people go in, and hand things to one another. It’s not unusual to see people lying amongst the dumpsters, feeling the effects of whatever they’ve taken. Disagreements and fights are common. I used to cut through there after work on my bike, but now I’ve had to stop.
One fine weekday afternoon this summer, all hell finally broke loose in the form of an all-out turf war. I was taking coffee in an empty lot, my face turned toward the sun. I ignored the yelling across the street behind me…nothing new, after all. Suddenly, there was a lot of yelling. I turned, and saw tourists and citizens up and down the street stopping to do the same. Everywhere, street people were running to and fro, or standing and shouting at others. Was it my imagination, or were some wearing a certain colour? And those ones over there…were they wearing a different colour? I reached for my cell to call the police.
“Thank you for your call. We are currently experiencing a higher-than-normal volume of calls. Please continue to hold…” Good grief—it reminded me of an American sitcom I’d seen, back in the 70s.
“Come on!” Across the street, a skinhead with a Mohawk haircut screamed for his friends to follow. He charged up the sidewalk, tourists diving for cover, a long metal bar in his hand. He and his posse raced into an alley even as others raced the hell out.
“Thank you for your call. We are currently experiencing a higher-than-normal volume of calls….”
Finally, I got through, and the dispatcher already knew. “Can you see the police yet?” she asked.
“Just the one so far,” I answered. “He’s looking lonely, though. He’s standing by some unconscious guy laying in the middle of Second Avenue, completely surrounded by…concerned citizens.” By now, though, you could hear the sirens. The bike cops were first to arrive, zipping into the alley.
Not much else to report, really...except that whatever’s going on at this corner seems to be getting worse. Not sure why, unless it’s related to the transit mall at the north end of the block - or maybe the Welfare department half a block south?
My humble suggestion for improvement is Baroque or New Age music, piped through speakers from the McDonald’s. Done properly, this actually works. Done improperly, it does not. (Witness the transit mall experiment. Note to city workers: No, Shania Twain doth not Baroque music make.)
Still, that’s really only a bandage. Fixing whatever’s going on here will need a whole lot more than Mozart.
[Update, 4 October: It appears that the city has removed the benches from the northeast corner of this intersection, the corner in question. There are still questionable characters hanging about, but perhaps fewer than before. The ones who are left are content to sit on the landscaping dividers, or even directly on the sidewalk, while some have crossed the street to get to the other side. It remains to be seen what the long-term result will be.]
