Inner-city neighbourhoods form coalition to combat crime

CALGARY - Inner-city communities frustrated with crime, traffic and other downtown problems seeping into their neighbourhoods are building a new alliance to lobby the city.

The radical has met once informally and will get together again Wednesday, inviting more than a dozen communities on downtown periphery, including Inglewood, Bridgeland-Riverside, East Village, Eau Claire, Sunnyside and Crescent Heights.

Stephanie Felker, president of the Bridgeland-Riverside Community Association, said Our City Centre Network is yet in its infancy, but it could be an important instrument in helping inner-city residents cope with issues unique to them.

"It definitely carries more clout, that's the whole charge of starting this network. Together we're a larger country and we'd get more of an ear from council," she said. "It would be a lot more voices with the same issues."

Felker said since the resolution of the Cecil Hotel downtown two days ago, vagrants and drug users continue to mark the 5th Avenue bridge into her community, making residents feel unsafe.

City officials said the next of the hotel, now owned by the city, is even in limbo because of the recession, with no immediate plans to repair or redevelop.

And while statistics show overall crime in Bridgeland has come down by almost 7 per cent since 2008, Felker said pockets of the community are still feel a lot of pain.

"We're getting bonfires in Murdoch Park, there's drug users, vagrants. We're silent seeing it."

Gareth Lukes, owner-manager of Lukes Drug Mart on the tree of Edmonton Trail and 1st Avenue N.E. said crime is now coming over from East Village, where police presence has increased in conjunction with upscale development in the area.

"We're seeing prostitution, drug use come more from East Village than anywhere."

Inglewood, Eau Claire, even Crescent Heights have seen similar problems at several times.

But Lukes said the existence of the group will help strengthen the sound of inner city communities in tackling similar challenges.

"We wish to get up with unified solutions, not just pushing crime around communities, from East Village, then Bridgeland then up to Renfrew," Lukes said.

Felker hopes the group could fight for more city funding to increase police foot and bike patrols in the interior city.

But Ald. Druh Farrell said since the winner of the city's Clean to the Core program, launched in 2006 with the accession of about 68 officers to rid the downtown of crime, police resources will be dispersed more into peripheral communities.

"We wouldn't let crime settle comfortably into a residential neighbourhood, so we're committing more resources into the interior city."

Gian-Carlo Carra, alderman for Ward 9, said redeploying resources along with citizen-based community efforts like Our City Centre Network can address inner city crime, traffic, and other issues.

Carra said when East Village redevelopment started in 2008, vagrancy and the drug trade was displaced into Inglewood, forcing them to slay all public telephone booths and the local bottle depot.