The CoV should never have made it a mission to purposely introduce new isolated spaces to do drugs, or commit crimes or vandalism, or provide sexual services, or have privacy while sleeping, or whatever else. Heck, the push for these passages went into overdrive right around the same time there was that brouhaha about people relieving themselves downtown. Where was the sense in any of it?
At the time this was happening criticizing these walkways was seen as being anti-pedestrian and anti-urbanist. They've always been sketchy, and they've been problematic, and they've eventually become places to avoid, but that didn't stop the City from pushing for them. And now we have public amenities that are closed to the public, or half-block spaces for walkways that never lined up with projects on the other side of the block and eventually got walled off, like at The Metropolitan.