Monday, October 29, 2007

What have you done for us lately?



Again....yet again. What did this neighbourhood do to this town? How did we do something so egregious(and when did we do it?) that the powers-that-be just keep adding insult to injury? It is definitely beginning to feel personal.

Business people from downtown, City Social Planner John Horn, some council members all met behind closed doors in a secret meeting denying access to our neighbourhood residents. In fact, John Horn told our neighbourhood liason to these such meetings only HOURS before there would be no meetings at all for the next couple of weeks. Blatant lie. Hey, Council....will you do anything about the BLATANT LIE?

Suprised? Nope. Not down here we're not. We're pretty well used to it by now.

The meeting is to establish another drop in centre in this neighbourhood. Another high impact social service...don't kid yourselves. It is high impact. It was here last year, too. They told us then it would be a temporary measure(four months?) because, after all, the No Hope Centre...er, dammit, the New Hope Centre would soon be opening and part of the main reason for developing the No Hope Centre, er, dammit, the New Hope Centre, was to develop these services. I mean, they did get millions of dollars just to do that, right? I am right, right? Six or eight months later, the centre did close...so that was just a little White Lie, eh?

Now, apparently, the Salvation Army has their fancy new No Hope Centre, er dammit, New Hope Centre! And they don't want to support the drop in centre. And in this Behind-Closed-Doors-Secret-Society-Meeting, Rick Hyne who owns/manages this piece of shit building down the street has offered it up again for the service of drop-in centre. You see, he's helped drive out all his decent tenants by keeping his building a piece of shit. So he can't rent his spaces out and complains that it's the neighbourhood, the crackheads, the criminal elements(his words, not mine) and then opens up more and more spaces in that building to HIGH IMPACT social services thereby completing the ghetto-ization of the neighbourhood . He doesn't see the forest for the trees...if he invested some damn money, made his building secure, beautified in any way, shape or form, treated his tenants with any iota of decency(or his neighbours, little rat fink), maybe he could be part of what helps turn this neighbourhood around. But in fact, he is one of the main reasons this neighbourhood is shutting down, I believe.

He had that drop-in centre in that building last year. When it opened, when he was getting his rent paid by my tax dollars, he was providing a service for the "homeless." When these same people broke into his building, creating thousands of dollars in damages and theft, they were no longer simply "homeless," but criminal, addicts, etc. We, who live here, already knew that because it was hellacious around here when that centre was here last year. It's hellacious around here right now and they want to put in a drop-in centre on TOP of that? How about getting some kind of handle on the problems already here first before creating more?

Yesterday, three dealers/pushers/pimps followed and intimidated this poor older woman up the road. I guess she must have walked on THEIR side of the street. They followed her back and forth across the street up the block until I saw them. Then they proceeded up the block to try and intimidate me, too. Came right up(I could touch any of them) to me before scattering. Poor woman was scared...I drove her home. She said hadn't walked downtown in a long time and wouldn't do it again now. Good God, we live one block from downtown and we have to drive? Crackheads get to swarm and intimidate little old ladies in the street. Hey, guess where this happened? Exactly where they want to put this drop-in centre. Genius. Aren't they brilliant? I mean, c'mon, aren't they?

And before anyone calls NIMBYism on me....come down here to my street, park your car a while and watch the happenings. Then, if you feel brave enough, get out of your car and walk my neighbourhood. Then, do it at night. Then, come try and get a good night's sleep down here. Try it. I'll put you up. Hell, I 'll bake you those chocolate chunk cookies !

The RCMP have had a marked presence around here lately, and we do notice it and appreciate it, but it isn't enough. Do you hear that Council? John Horn? Downtown Nanaimo Partnership? You helped create this...time to take some responsibility for it...and hey? Sally Ann? Can you give back all the money you took in order to create your multi-million dollar space to house these services if you are not going to, in fact, house these services?!? It is only fair...it is the ethical thing to do, right?

Am I right?

*The views in expressed in this blog post are merely my opinion....can I get sued for my opinion? Maybe since I live in this neighbourhood, eh? I mean, it's obvious that we did something wrong by living down here...maybe I will get sued. Dammit. Oh well. And, Asshats and Ratfink really are terms of endearment, right? Am I right?

14 comments:

Olly said...

I think you should send this post in as a letter to the newspaper. Local and otherwise. The time to take it big is now.

I too was disgusted to read about the meeting in this mornings paper. I was even more disgusted to read last week how the RCMP are still in the heyday of their cash grab dressing up in hospital scrubs nailing those horrible people not wearing their seat belts. I don't want to read how overworked and understaffed they are when shit like the stuff you are dealing with is going down.

NIMBYism? Please. That is just a lame excuse to keep it out of THEIR backyards.

Heidi the Hick said...

good god, what a mess.

When did places that were supposed to help people fix their lives turn into enabling systems? Drop in centre? Sounds like a nice safe place to hang and keep on doing what they''re doing.

REally shocked at the Sally Ann. that' not cool.

And DISGUSTED that the city is actually actively ignoring these problems.

How is anybody supposed to improve their lot in life with this crap happening???

Michael Colvin said...

I don't know what to say. I'm sorry that life is such a mess over there.

Coffeypot said...

If they had walked up on my wife like that I would have to pop a cap in their asses. Maybe two or three – just to make sure. Protection of family against threats of violence is lawful. And if everyone in the hood did the same thing, maybe the powers that be would realize you are serious.

Anonymous said...

Coffeypot, not in Canada my friend. We don't have the right to defend ourselves from a perceived threat like you folks do. Someone has to actually assault you first, we are not allowed to be proactive and we have absolutely no right to defend property.

Anonymous said...

I live right around the corner from you (up on Hecate) and make a point of walking my dog in your neighborhood as much as I can (mostly it's laziness, not fear that keeps me from doing it most days). It's such a shame that cities totally ignore the parts of the city that will be the most valuable in a few years - trust me on this, I grew up in an area of Toronto that went from being the worst to one of the best in about ten years.

Can we start a website to post photos of Johns and their license plates taken from your window with a long lens? Or maybe a shame the johns campaign? Or maybe just a lot of public letters to the editor in the papers? I was just reading that the way the west end of Vancouver got rid of it's hooker problem was to use an injunction - might be worth a shot, eh?

Heidi the Hick said...

Well, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and voice my opinion, me being that dangerous combination of Canadian and Mennonite/ pacifist...

I'm glad I live in a country where we aren't all walking around armed. I can't see that causing anything more than chaos and mass murder.

But I can't help but think that shame and embarrassment are powerful weapons.

Drug dealers and hookers can't operate without clients, right? Make it public. Do the crime, do the time- a picture is worth a thousand slaps on the wrist?

CindyDianne said...

I got nothin'

.:.KC.:. the brown eyed girl said...

I don't know what to say.
It sounds like a big mess.

dilling said...

It is a mess and there are lots of angry people. I have been here a while now, and there is a definite change in the anger/frustration. It feels very tense around these parts...on that level, I am thankful that we are not all armed citizens. Early in the wee hours this morning, when I was awoken for the fourth time by crackheads in the street(and somewhere next to my house, I think), I surely was wishing for a bazooka.
But supposedly, as of last night, the idea of putting the drop-in centre was nixed anyway...at least in that building. I am not holding my breath over that nor does it excuse the secret meetings without neighoburhood delegates. So effing tired all the time. The constant EFFORT to live here...sigh.

emily said...

Good lord.

Nanaimo sucks. I mean really, when little old ladies are being hassled on the street and so are the kind neighbours who try to help them, there is something really wrong. REALLY wrong.

When I was worried that Aethan was going to slice his foot open on broken crackpipes in the park...and those crackpipes were given free to crackheads for "harm reduction", there's something wrong.

When I read a post like this and I'm not suprised, there is something wrong.

Nanaimo is losing good people. That neighbourhood is losing good people. And soon no one will be there to fight for it.

Sell your house, move outta there and don't look back. I hate how this is affecting you guys, it hurts me to see it.

dilling said...

Em, we just gotta have the right plan...and of course, who'll buy the house at what it's worth with 20 crackheads on the corner? You know, in the states, I could probably sue whoever is paying those private security guards(and Mr. Paul Saroya of Spanglish) for what they've done to property values here.

emily said...

Like, hello! we should just win the lottery and move to Rabbit Island!

dilling said...

dammit! you're right, of course! *smacks self on forehead with heel of hand*