TC editorial: Inching closer to a urinal

Inching closer to a urinal

Times ColonistJune 12, 2009

It shouldn’t have taken three years, a cascade of council debates and uncounted sums of taxpayers’ money and city staff time to create a place for people to pee downtown.

The tortuous, expensive road to a decision on downtown urinals should embarrass councillors. Staff compiled lengthy reports on urinal options. The city called for tenders on high-tech, pop-up urinals that rose from the pavement at night then, like Batman, disappeared when daylight broke.

And then abandoned the idea. Portable urinals, hauled away at the end of the night, were tried, abandoned, tried again. And councillors talked and talked.

Now a decision has been made, almost, to spend $40,000 on what looks like a simple, relatively attractive way to deal with the main problem of men urinating late at night in doorways, alleys and anywhere else that takes their besotted fancies. Almost, because council still isn’t sure just where the urinals should go. Based on performance so far on this issue, that could consume another three years.

Or not. Mayor Dean Fortin and the new council have shown a welcome focus on getting things done and tackling a limited number of issues at a time.

The urinals appear useful, especially if their use is encouraged with aggressive ticketing for those who still insist on using the streets for bathrooms instead. They won’t be much help for women, but they aren’t the big problem anyway.

The solution isn’t cheap. Plan on spending $40,000 for the urinal — a semi-open affair that screens users’ bodies while leaving a clear view of heads and feet — and $40,000 in annual operating costs. That’s still reasonable compared with the alternative of dumping clean-up costs on downtown businesses and residents.

But is it reasonable that all taxpayers should be paying for the urinals? The successful experiment with portable toilets saw them used Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, a recognition that the problems resulted from crowds at downtown bars.

As this whole process limped forward in 2006, then-councillor Fortin suggested a five per cent beer tax to cover the costs. That might be unfair to responsible drinkers, but shifting the cost to bar owners would be fair — and it would be an incentive for them to look hard at ways of reducing excessive drinking and disorder.

We’ll offer congratulations to council for taking this useful step — once the urinal is in place and ready to go.
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

I weigh in on public urination and the opinions flow.

I was asked about the revised urinal idea on C-FAX today (it’s also today’s poll), specifically if I thought it discriminated against women.

I said first that there are devices that would allow women to use a urinal but really it is the fratboy/lager lout crowd that is primarily responsible for the unacceptable behaviour downtown. I was also asked whether this was catering to law-breakers (Murray Langdon’s editorial) but I pointed out that in daytime there are many washroom opportunities but practically nothing at night, so it’s a needed service.

Phillipe Lucas appeared via phone and he thought public toilets should take into account the disabled and parents with babies (but that adds another level of complication in my mind). I don’t think you need any special apparatus to change a baby in public and I seriously doubt any parent would take a baby into a urinal even if it came equipped with a change table.

Globe discussion on SALOME project

Globe & Mail follow-up to yesterday`s story on giving heroin to addicts.

The Globe on Vancouver’s new heroin for addicts plan

Trial to give free heroin to hard-core addicts in Vancouver and Montreal

It’s known as the SALOME trial, and it follows on the heels of the NAOMI study.

The NAOMI trial was criticized by some addictions physicians but drew no comment from the federal government, which paid more than $8-million for the research.

“It’s been disappointing,” said Martin Schechter, who led NAOMI and is also working on SALOME. Dr. Schechter said European health authorities are very interested in the work, but Canadian authorities will not acknowledge it.

“There’s a lot invested in NAOMI. We did everything we could to translate the information for decision-makers to make them understand what it meant,” he said.

Dr. Krausz, a leading addictions researcher, has conducted another heroin trial in Germany, the largest such randomized clinical trial in Europe.

The Canadian research aims to determine if medically prescribed heroin is a safe and effective treatment and if users will accept the drug in pill form instead of injecting it.. It will also measure whether a licenced narcotic, Hydromorphone, can be used instead of heroin.

His team is now recruiting about 200 severe heroin addicts who have failed to respond to existing treatments and they expect to have the clinics in Vancouver and Montreal open by this fall.

Last week, Dr. Krausz’s medical team sat down with Vancouver philanthropists asking for additional support for the clinics that will distribute both heroin and a legal narcotic substitute to hard-core addicts. Organizers say one business leader immediately offered a cheque for $100,000.

Can this work? Only if detox and effective addictions treatment are close behind, just as it should be with a needle exchange or supervised injection site. I fear too many carrots and not enough sticks are being offered. All the programs targeted for addicts must have as their end goal the elimination or reduction of the drug use that shatters the body, brain and spirit.

Updates?

Sorry, I haven’t been updating. I’m on a short-term job working in the art department for a TV movie being shot here in Victoria and spare time to blog has been in short supply. I did manage to give a brief update on one of the most popular posts on this blog according to search engine results: the Centennial Square redesign.

Taylor report update

City Hall released the executive summary of the Taylor report, along with their recommendations on implementing some of the ideas found in it. I’ll comment later when I’ve had time to digest it.

Rob on C-FAX

Thursday, April 9 from 12:30 to 1 p.m., I’ll be a panelist on the Ryan Price show on C-FAX 1070 AM talking about random Downtown things. Click the link to listen live.

Battle of the United Nations over Victoria harm reduction!

An article in today’s Times Colonist berates Victoria for not having a needle exchange, claiming it goes against United Nations health guidelines. Says health researcher Thomas Kerr:

“I think British Columbians should be very concerned about the fact that a relatively wealthy place like Victoria is not adhering to international guidelines regarding HIV prevention,” Kerr said.

“It’s an embarrassment and I wouldn’t be surprised if the UN Human Rights Commission pronounced that the city of Victoria is violating essential rights by not providing those services,” he said.

All is well then, right? Except that another United Nations body, the International Narcotics Control Board says that safe consumption sites and distribution of crack cocaine kits contravene the UN convention against traffic in illicit drugs.

…as they are facilities where persons can abuse with impunity drugs acquired on the illicit market, [safe consumption sites] contravene the most fundamental principle of the international drug control treaties: drugs should be only used for medical or scientific purposes.

So the UN is mad at us either way. What will the effect be for Victoria? From the health perspective it bolsters the argument for harm reduction but as far as the illicit drug angle goes, the INCB’s opinion doesn’t count for much around here.

Social issues meeting follow-up

UPDATE April 2, 2009: More impressions by Yule Heibel and Davin Greenwell

Our Monday night event, On The Front Lines: Community Solutions for Homelessness and Social Issues, was a great success. A good sized crowd attended to hear the latest on policing, justice and social issues from Police Chief Jamie Graham, Councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe, GV Coalition to End Homelessness director Jill Clements and the DVBA’s Ken Kelly.

Ken gave us an update on Downtown initiatives from the business standpoint, including the Clean Team, Con-Air, Retail C.O.P. and the Clean and Safe Committee. Charlayne and Jill got us up to speed with the Mayor’s Task Force and the Coalition including how they’ve reached the first year goal of housing 200 people.

But it was Chief Graham who received the most interest, with residents wanting answers on a diverse range of topics including jaywalking, camping in parks, open drug use and calling 911.

On the latter topic, Graham was clear: don’t hesitate to call 911 if you see something illegal or you feel someone’s safety is in question. It’s true your call will be queued and you might not get an immediate response, especially if it’s a busy time. But you need to call because this information is needed to track crime hotspots. And the Chief said, even if he were to be driving by the area by chance when the call came in he wouldn’t hesitate to investigate it himself.

Graham gave no opinion on the topic of safe injection sites, saying he would let politicians decide and he will enforce whatever law is in place.

The Times Colonist follows up on our meeting here “Police Chief: Victoria’s Drug Problem Not as Big as Some Say“:

“From experts in the field that go undercover, and trust me they are undercover to try to buy drugs, they are not there in the kind of volume you might think. When over a period of two weeks or so we end up with only 12 or 15 arrests, those numbers are really small,” Graham said.

Overall, Graham said, Victoria has a small group of hard-core drug users.

“It’s not widespread. It’s small. They’re disruptive and we know they create difficulties.”

The Times Colonist further expands on Graham’s comments in this editorial “The Real Downtown Problem“:

“Many of the issues our officers are sent to, they act almost as referees,” Graham said, adding the most common calls city police respond to are reports of alcohol-related disorder — people yelling or screaming, arguments, doors being slammed or pushing and shoving.

By comparison, a recently completed undercover operation in Victoria was hard-pressed to turn up any drugs or arrests at all. Over the course of two weeks, police made only about a dozen arrests, and undercover officers reported surprise at how difficult it was to buy illegal drugs.

This is not to downplay the need to deal with the illegal drug trade in downtown Victoria: One need only look at the numbers from needle exchanges and social agencies to be assured the problem is very real. And those addicted to illegal drugs should have every opportunity to seek help and get the treatment they need.

But alcohol is just a different kind of drug — the only difference is that it’s legal. That doesn’t make the fallout from its abuse any less harmful to individuals, families and communities.

The DRA is happy to have sponsored this talk which has spurred some thoughtful dialogue in the community. We look forward to talking to our guests in the future and look forward to hearing about more progress.U

TC: Urban Safety on Town Hall Agenda

Urban safety on town-hall agenda

Times Colonist
March 30, 2009

Victoria police Chief Jamie Graham will address the forum, which will also include representatives from city council, the Downtown Victoria Business Association and the Coalition to End Homelessness. “We’re going to have an opportunity for these people to get up … and just talk about what the issues are and how they’re handling them,” said Robert Randall, chair of the Downtown Residents Association.

Victoria’s downtown is much like a huge “dysfunctional” family with many competing interests, Randall said.

“It’s really complex. In some ways it’s getting a lot better. We’re seeing a lot of really positive work from some of angles. We’re seeing more residents in the downtown and lot of good businesses opening up so a lot of the dead parts of downtown that you really didn’t want to go to are now walkable.

“The needle exchange is gone, so Cormorant Street is now a place you no longer avoid, but at the same time, Pandora’s getting a bit dicey although it’s still safe,” Randall said.

On the down side, Randall said, the downtown is beginning to see the emergence of a new breed of more aggressive drug dealers.

“That’s a bit worrying. So [the downtown] is going in both directions,” he said. “Overall I’m optimistic but I’m troubled about these continuing trends.