Pubdate: Wed, 02 Apr 2008 Source: National Post (Canada) Copyright: 2008 Southam Inc. Contact: http://www.nationalpost.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286 Author: Natalie Alcoba Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids) SWEEP JUST A 'BAND-AID' Moss Park Bust It was unusually quiet along the sidewalks that circle Moss Park yesterday afternoon, part of a sad pocket of downtown where drug pushers and prostitutes peddle to a largely transient community that is crawling with addicts. Deals are made on the corners, drugs are consumed in the open, and needles and condoms are found in the public sandbox where children play. Days ago, police concluded an intensive sweep of the area, bound by Gerrard, Queen, Church and Parliament streets, that rounded up some of its shady elements. Officers arrested 75 people for drug trafficking and 21 people involved in prostitution. Altogether they face 192 criminal charges. The police project may explain the relative peace, but residents do not expect it to last. "It's a Band-Aid," said Eva Curlanis-Bart, who leads the local Garden District Residents' Association. She blames the neighbourhood's state of affairs partly on the hyper-concentration of shelters, rooming houses and drug-treatment centres. She says the worst stretch, by far, is the north end of George Street, where the 580-bed shelter for men called Sea-ton House looms. "This part of the street is off limits. I don't use George Street except when I take the media on a tour," said Ms. Curlanis-Bart, who has lived in the area for 10 years. "I don't want to be screamed at, and I really don't want to look at guys vomiting or relieving themselves on the street. I don't want to look at people who are drugged out of their mind. This is a human zoo, in the worst sense of the word, so you avoid it because you don't want to be exposed to it." This community, within eyesight of Dundas Square, should be a vibrant, alluring part of downtown, argues Ms. Curlanis-Bart. But historic houses that would fetch a mint in another part of the city have been carved up into cheap rental units, converted into crack dens or are slowly falling apart. "Even squatters don't want to live in a roofless building," she lamented about what was surely a stately home decades ago. Some parts of Church Street have been renewed, and a Ryerson University building is a positive addition, but more must be done to improve this area, said Ms. Curlanis-Bart, who planted a row of thorny rose bushes on her street to keep out men who urinate in public. "I don't feel threatened, but it's not nice to see," said Mina Park, 33, who often sees addicts smoking crack on the corner of Sherbourne and Shuter streets. She and her husband will move to High Park before the year is up. "If I was a student, or single, I would mind my own business, but I have a baby to think about." It was at the insistence of residents, who were keen to "address quality-of-life issues," that police devised "Project Revival," a six-week pitch to clean up the neighbourhood. Undercover officers focused on street-level drug dealers, prostitutes and their pimps, while uniform units busted alleged crack houses and rounded up aggressive panhandlers. The vast majority of the 96 accused had been arrested before -- some numerous times. Detective Sergeant Howie Page said his officers also "left no stone unturned" as they tracked down 188 alleged violent offenders who had breached their bail conditions. He points to qualitative indicators as a measure of the project's success -- at the start, it took undercover officers about 30 seconds to purchase drugs off the street. "By Week 6, it would take an hour, if we were even able to buy drugs at all," he said. Of the 96 arrests, only 23 lived in the area, he said, which highlights "the community's concerns that many drug traffickers come to the community to prey on individuals with drug dependencies." Forty of the accused had no fixed address. Indeed, Ms. Curlanis-Bart believes dealers and prostitutes come for the "captive audience." By her count, half of the city's shelters are located around this area; 17 agencies operate along Pembrooke Street. Such a concentration of needy, destitute individuals is a recipe for a dead end -- businesses don't want to set up shop here and families move out, if they can. "What we need is some balance," she said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom