Downtown Victoria Business Association: more cops on beat
#41
Posted 19 October 2006 - 04:37 PM
-City of Victoria website, 2009
#42
Posted 19 October 2006 - 06:18 PM
#43
Posted 19 October 2006 - 06:51 PM
-City of Victoria website, 2009
#44
Posted 19 October 2006 - 08:27 PM
In the last ten years our store has had an armed robbery, three smashed windows, and I was stabbed by a junkie with his needle. On a daily basis we encounter people shooting up, passed out, or vomit on the streets when we walk our dogs in the morning or at night.
Sorry, but I lived and worked in the Byward Market in Ottawa for ten years, and never saw anything like what's being allowed to fester in downtown Victoria.
I was on the Chamber of Commerce Street Issues Commitee, and we basically got shut out from making any policy statements, so most of us quit. I've pretty much moved to Edmonton at this point.
Council spends way too much time discussing how to help the homeless.
Here's a free clue. If you encourage business, our taxes will pay for the services that the homeless need. If you cater to the homeless to the point that businesses are closing, or leaving town because the business climate sucks, then the tax base shrinks, and it's a downward spiral from there.
We're about one incident away from closing the doors...
#45
Posted 19 October 2006 - 08:41 PM
-City of Victoria website, 2009
#46
Posted 19 October 2006 - 08:44 PM
Not much will change in any of the cities in BC unless the provincial government puts more funding into drug treatment and social housing.
#47
Posted 19 October 2006 - 09:12 PM
Reinstate mental health programs that have been decimated over the last few years.
Actually ****ing enforce the no-go zones that are typically inserted into parole and probation orders for the criminals. Hell, actually go after the heroin and crack dealers that are openly operating all over downtown.
Actively encourage street activity in the downtown. Stupid crap like not fining late night pizza places because of fights instead of putting out a call for more so that the crowd gets spread out more.
Tax incentives for live/work buildings. Hell, give a 10% tax discount to any business whose owners actually live in Victoria as opposed to Saanich or Esquimalt or Toronto.
Instead, what I get is the joy of listening to everybody at City Council tell me how wonderful Al Tysick is. Yes Al is a great guy. He's done a lot for Victoria. So have the Jawl's. So has Clive Piercy. So has my family. So have dozens of developers, land owners and business people who have paid millions in taxes, and have donated money, time and effort into making Victoria a liveable place. But they get treated like **** by City Council, and Al and the rest of the social service providers get treated with kid gloves.
Compare for a moment the treatment of the Open Door to the treatment of the pizza place in where Cross' butcher shop was... Why do you think the pizza place was pilloried. Profit perhaps? Because they had the effrontery to actually try to make a profit in this city?
I'm not trying to attack the social service providers. All of them with the exception of TAPS are quite functional and doing essential services. No, I'm attacking the attitude that city council seems to have that the government is there to provide services for the poor, and that business exists solely to be milked for taxes for that purpose. My attitude is that government is there to create an environment where businesses and people can flourish. One of the things that makes business flourish is a community where the poor are looked after and given a hand up . It's a subtle difference, but it makes for totally different approaches to finding solutions.
#48
Posted 19 October 2006 - 09:38 PM
Its ironic that many of the homeless on our streets are actually out of towners, but when out of towners choose to purchase units in our condos and our homes they're described as a problem.
Monkeyman, have you written council about your take on this issue?
Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.
#49
Posted 19 October 2006 - 09:44 PM
Monkeyman, have you written council about your take on this issue?
I'm a poor writer. I'm much better when I address council in person, or one on one. :oops:
#50
Posted 19 October 2006 - 09:51 PM
Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.
#51
Posted 19 October 2006 - 10:41 PM
* I do carry a concealed handgun from 12am - 5am if I'm not drinking.
Mind if I ask how you got an ATC?
#52
Posted 23 October 2006 - 07:04 PM
I will admit that the homeless problem is getting bigger every year...the drug problem too.
I have not seen an officer of the law (or a pair of them) on the walk in years and, if my mine serves me well, the last time was an early Saturday morning some years back. At night you will see them riding their non indentified black cars or SUV's and if any problem arise three or four vehicles will show up in no time.
I would think that regular presence of police officers, on the beat, would be a deterrent to many downtown woes. Imagine seeing them greeting anyone they would come accross, being seen day to day, chatting with bus riders waiting for a bus, a single officer consuming coffee at the local coffee shop, etc...
At this years Symphony Splash I saw a group of officers standing in a circle talking to each others and none ever said a simple "hello" to anyone walking by them. They looked like they were shy to be among the general population.
Doc Sage
#53
Posted 24 October 2006 - 07:12 PM
Its ironic that many of the homeless on our streets are actually out of towners
I describe this is as being a dilletante derelict. I work full-time and I get paid pretty well. Nevetheless, I can't afford to summer out of town. Yet, our population of homeless people balloons when the sun comes out. How can they travel? Where are they getting their money from? How can I tap into this travel bonanza?
How can our homeless population climb in the summer?
Here are some things that traditionally spark an upswing in poverty and homeless:
Economic downturn - no cash
Disaster - no homes
Large spike in population - more people = more homeless people-- the numer of homeless clim
Fast drop in housing availability - yes, this has happened, but not in step with the homeless rise
Do any of these factors describe Victoria? We're awash in Help Wanted signs. A&W has a hiring bonus. A hiring bonus! We're being scammed by out-of-towners. They're sapping our social services and our pocket change. When that isn't good enough, they're breaking into our cars and our houses.
This problem is easy to fix. When police did a sweep of the recreationally poor and ran criminal record checks they found alot of outstanding warrants. If you arrest criminals and deport them to where they are wanted, the problem has, in effect, been shipped off.
Web developer & Internet Marketer
#54
Posted 24 October 2006 - 08:12 PM
You can't really make a judgement call on some of these people. True, some are too lazy to work, or reject the system however, some are truly at the end of their rope through no fault of their own. In between that are a hundred variations.
-City of Victoria website, 2009
#55
Posted 24 October 2006 - 09:02 PM
They'll make it, make something for themselves in the west; this ideology combined with the similar ideology in the sixties that American's felt for San Fran.
Or they won't make it.
All too often, they don't and end up on the street.
Sorry if that sounded discombobulated...
#56
Posted 08 November 2006 - 07:29 AM
Lowe's response was that the average case load for Victoria cops is 90, the average for Saanich is 50 and Oak Bay cops only have 40 cases at any one time.
BTW, you know of course, the average Oak Bay case isn't necessarily the same as the average Victoria case. (All available units! Homeowner using a leafblower at 6:30 A.M. on Monterey Avenue! All units respond!)
-City of Victoria website, 2009
#57
Posted 08 November 2006 - 08:17 AM
Does Leonard think he is making friends here?
#58
Posted 13 November 2006 - 01:13 AM
$1-2 every 5-10 minutes apparently leads to big time yearly earnings. Hah, I always thought excessively soft people were weak and easilly taken advantage of.
#59
Posted 13 November 2006 - 10:54 AM
Don't the rest of you know that some so called homeless people are not poor and destitute? I hear some are professional beggars with fancy houses, nice cars, cell phones, etc. They just dress crappy to beg for money from naive soft tourists and then they close up business and go home. Sometimes police tell them to go away because they are onto their fake scam..
Urban Legend.
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