dealing with politicians is a lot like walking at the Abyss

This is the Abyss here in Nanaimo...and much like our city politicians, doesn't look too very scary. Not really. But it's deceptive...kind of like politicians, the social service industries and city officials...

" Look over here at the pretty things we have for you...like these succulents...or like curbs and street trees and some grass seed....and maybe even a little money for your tiny park, we can take that out of the tulip budget over at Beban Park or something where it couldn't possibly be missed..we just won't plant any yellow tulips in the "nice" park this year....."

But look closer. You see that? No? Nobody knows how deep that is and if you are a "little guy," you may never see the bottom coming at you.....maybe there is no bottom. That's what it's beginning to feel like to me, anyway.

Walk carefully....watch your footing.

Because around the Abyss of city politics is also an obstacle course. It's a little rickety and nobody is really sure who made it or who maintains it...and if you fall and hurt yourself out here, I am not really sure who's going to come help you, either.

And always, just out of reach, are the numerous agencies in question, all talking at the same time, all making their own agendas without consulting each other or anyone they may impact, never learning to work with anyone, always creating animosity....chattering on and on, saying the same damn things and not really meaning a word of it, so busy making a louder noise then those next to them that they can't even hear you...or you... or you, either.

Dear Mayor and Council, City Staff, Vancouver Island Health Authority, Media and Fellow Nanaimo residents,
The idea of a drop box in Nob Hill Park is a crying shame. After all the time and effort the residents of Nob Hill have invested making that park a neighbourhood and family friendly park, a plan to now make it another city sanctioned hangout for addicts is quite a low blow. We believed our increased presence with weekly Neighbourhood walks, less-organized but more frequent friendly group strolls and the advent of the Red Zones, that the message we were sending is that drug use would not be tolerated in the park near our children and our homes. It would seem the City disagrees.
Three needle drop boxes within a two-minute walk of the VIHA’s needle exchange? Now we can’t even “impose” on addicts to cross the street from the Cavan Street stairs to the Needle Exchange? Isn’t that the slightest bit ridiculous? It’s literally just across the street. This seems more of non-verbal statement that this is the part of town where substance abusers are to come and stay and yet another step for Nanaimo in establishing it’s very own Downtown Eastside.
Once again, where is that Decentralization Strategy that most unbiased studies show is the only true solution?
I walk in Nob Hill Park every morning, every afternoon. I rarely find a needle. What I find there now is children playing in the park and neighbours working hard to take back what is ours. With (coming soon) new playground equipment, a three stage beautification process beginning this summer, and ground-breaking on a new 60-unit retirement residence going in across the street, we see a bright future for our wonderfully historic neighbourhood park.
I also walk in Bowen Park at least once a week. More often than not, I find numerous needles, rigs, and saline tubes scattered among the benches there. It seems to me, there might be a greater call for needle drop-boxes to be further from, not closer to, the Needle Exchange. Drug abuse is not only a downtown problem. It’s about time our City Council, City Social Planner and our local Social Service industry started to acknowledge that and act accordingly instead of continuing on this course of ghettoization in an area they just spent millions on to revitalize.


dilling

Victoria Road.