In December, I blogged about a corner on Second Avenue in Saskatoon that seemed to gather more than its share of questionable characters. I’ve since seen two more arrests just while passing by. Now, it seems, the problem is getting worse.
At the beginning of this month, a group of six merchants in the immediate area spoke up: they’d finally had enough. According to them, the alleyways on this block have become a cesspool of human depravity: urination, defecation, drug use, loitering, etc, etc. These businesses are being held up, on one occasion by a 13-year-old. (Saskatoon Police never responded to that one, probably because they are overwhelmed by everything else happening in this town.) On one occasion, a street person attempted to go to sleep on the furniture in one store.
I find I have a personal connection to this group of businesses, since I once worked at a gift shop that occupied one of these buildings. That was back in the early 1990s, and it was no picnic even then. It wasn’t unusual to be tossing out drunks, even ones that found their way into the children’s area.
Now, however, these businesses are in danger of losing their customers. It’s not always safe on this street by day—see my entry for 14 December—and can be downright dangerous by night. I used to cut through an alley in this block on my bike in summer on my way home from work, but stopped when I routinely spotted people lying on the ground next to the dumpsters. Just lying there, chatting with one another—like it was a normal thing to do. As you can see from the photo, these lanes are barely clean enough for the rats.
That might be part of the problem. Maybe the city should sweep these areas clean daily, lose the garbage and the tossed-out furniture, etc. And pipe the appropriate music through the entire area. (Never mind the baroque, I’d recommend the new age mysticism of Robert Haig Coxon’s Cristal Silence series. Call me elitist, but I have seen it clear an area of everyone below a certain level of…well, let’s say ambition.)
I’ve been watching the area daily for a couple of years now, because I’m genuinely concerned about the way things are going. When the article came out in the newspaper (1 March), I was optimistic that things would get better. Surely this would strengthen efforts to clean the area up. What I’ve seen happening in the past two weeks, though, has not been encouraging.
Groups of unsavoury characters are larger, meaner looking, and more common. Second Avenue’s 100 block north seems increasingly to be home to these, to the point where the problem is spilling over. While snapping shots for this blog (from the safety of our vehicle), Maya and I noticed a young couple walking through the alley between 1st and 2nd Avenues—just out for a Sunday stroll, only doing it for some reason of their own in a questionable back alley. Five minutes after that, we encountered them in the alleys between 2nd and 3rd. It appears that the downtown alleyways have become the streets of the Shadow People. It’s as if they are actively rebelling against efforts to keep the streets safe.
If the problem continues to worsen, some innocent person is going to get killed. Short of vigilantism, however, the average citizen has limited resources for dealing with it. One place to start might be the desk of the one person around who says he “most definitely” feels safe in the area: city councillor Darren Hill, who’s ward contains the neighbourhood in question. “Safety,” he told the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, “is an individual person’s perception of an area or certain persons around them.”
Um, no...no, it isn't. I can walk down any street with the perception that it's the safest in the world, but if the reality is far different, sooner or later I'm gonna get hurt. And it appears that six individual retailers lined up in a row all share a very different perception from Councillor Hill’s. Man, I am getting tired of seeing that kind of difference in this little town.
The public is not interested in perceptions, we are concerned about is the reality of what is going on. Mr. Hill needs to promote whatever action he can, quickly, to deal with this situation. (That is, after all, what we are paying him for.) He did also mention in the news that panhandling needs to be brought under control. That’s well and good, but there's bigger issues here.
Anyone else concerned about the situation? Let’s let Councillor Hill know about it:
Email: darren.hill@saskatoon.ca
Home Phone: (306) 384-9273
Cell Phone: (306) 227-4322
Home Fax: (306) 249-4469
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