Crime, Supervised Injection Site, transition housing, etc.

Throughout the past months, the issues related to drug dealing, drug using, supervised (safe) injection sites, shelters, transitional or supervised housing units, a proposed parole office, and the impact on the rest of the community, have been visited a number of times on this blog. Recall the supervised injection site focus group. Recall the impact of shelters like Shepards of Good Hope or Union Mission on adjacent neighborhoods. The parole office issue. Recall there is another proposal coming forward for supervised transitional housing units on Booth Street, perhaps with a shelter element, we don’t know yet. Dalhousie is still a … Continue reading Crime, Supervised Injection Site, transition housing, etc.

Exercise and Drugs

While cycling home from the Parkdale Market the other day I tried to avoid both West Wellington and Scott due to the construction. This took me through the centre of Hintonburg, past a fireplace store. I came accross one guy on a bike, the other on roller blades. Cyclist had a pager. Roller blader: puff puff, “He wasn’t there.”Cyclist: “he must be, he just called five minutes ago” (holds up pager).Roller blader: “want me to go back?”Cyclist: “naw, gotta another call” (cites address).Blader skates off madly down another street.Cyclist: checks pager, heads west at a fast clip. Now what these … Continue reading Exercise and Drugs

Safe Injection Site (revised*)

Some of the Toronto and Ottawa papers have had stories about a proposed safe injection site. I was part of a focus group for that study. I was “representing” neighborhood citizens from the Dalhousie catchment area. Most people who watch the news or read about current affairs will be familair with the distressful situation in Vancouver’s downtown east side (DTE). There, hundreds if not thousands of drug addicts congreate and shoot up in public, buying the drugs openly. It is a miserable scenario. As part of government actions concerning this (I say concerning, because helping and other words are value … Continue reading Safe Injection Site (revised*)