Commitment from City Needed: Forum

By 250 News

Prince George, B.C. - In a room full of politicians from the School Board, the Municipal Level, as well as from the Provincial and Federal Governments, issues of Security and Homelessness were brought to the table at Saturday Afternoon's 'after rally forum.'

Sandra Rendek, who works in the Downtown Core, spoke about how many women she knows feel unsafe in the area. She also talked about how Tourists often return to their hotel rooms when they see what happens in the Downtown.

The RCMP's performance also came under fire; Rendek said not enough police officers enforce, especially given the amount of drug activity she sees. Downtown Prince George Resident—also a homeless person—Bill Baker echoed the same sentiment.

“The down here will never change until people get a backbone,” said Baker. “We need this needle exchange because there are a lot of drug addicts, but I think they should move the needle exchange and move it closer to the new police station where they can monitor it.”

He said the streets are becoming a hazard. “There's needles and pipes lying around, making it dangerous for children—anyone who thinks the Needle Exchange is helping prevent disease is wrong.”

Despite Baker's remarks, Olive Godwin, the Primary Care Coordinator with the Central Interior Native Health Society says 'the homeless' were not represented. “We knew it had not been organized to be responsive in that level,” she says.

“Our goal was to embrace the people who are normally there—but that didn't happen because they were quickly moved out.” However, Godwin committed to putting together a committee to ensure that voice is heard.

“I believe that people will be more thoughtful about how to include the voices of the people who are down here who are being identified as 'the' problems,” said Godwin. “Maybe they're not going to come to a room like this, but there's lots of different ways to encourage people to say what they have to say.”

Downtown Prince George President Shari Green spoke of a downtown Ambassador program that could assist Tourists. “They would be full time, highly paid people,” said Green. Though she said the program is still in the development stages, she says it could see mobile ambassadors on the street.

Deputy Premier and Prince George Mount Robson Liberal MLA Shirley Bond said change cannot happen in 24 hours. “It's important to consider how much we would take at one time,” said Bond. “We need to look for a long term solution [and] I would support and promote a mix of housing.”

Density is need

Phil Boname, who authored a report seven years ago on how to revitalize the downtown said he's seen change already. “In my experience, it's both bottom up and top down—and we saw the bottom up [at the rally],” said Boname.

“Now, we need some sort of strong direction from the Mayor and council—there's no question, that from a financial standpoint alone, you've got a lot of land that's way below assessment value; and that's criminal.”

“The question is: Where do you bring land values down to a point where the private capital says yes, the risk is sufficiently low that we can make a return on our investment,” said Boname. He says Homelessness is a Global issue, but he points to what happened in Gastown in Downtown Vancouver.

“We call it the rebirth of a community,” said Boname. “It went downhill for 20 years, partly because of the social stigma,” but “we installed a whole series of initiatives that were sufficiently high enough and attractive enough to cause private capital to [build].”

Former BC Premier Mike Harcourt spoke about the Community Court System implemented in Downtown Vancouver. He said long jail terms are necessary. “There are 30 to 40 real Gangsters here—it takes patience and resources to grind them down through surveillance,” said Harcourt.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us