Heavy traffic, heavy drugs

>> Is the Parc avenue bus lane to blame for crackhouses and after-hours bars?

by PHILIP PREVILLE

Two weeks ago, police from Station 36 in Mile-End raided a Parc avenue apartment between Fairmount and St-Viateur and emerged with 400 marijuana plants, each measuring between seven and eight feet tall.

Few people in the neighbourhood batted an eye. The incident was far less remarkable than some other recent busts. Last October, for example, police raided Harry's Bar, formerly known as Larry's Bar, on Parc just north of St-Viateur. The establishment was equipped with bunker-style fortification: clients had to ring to get in, and a doorstep camera allowed Harry/Larry to identify visitors before they were allowed to enter. The windows and doors had steel bars whose bolts were soldered in place, making them impossible to remove.

"We had to gas the place to make the bust," says Station 36 director Sgt. Robert Sauvé. "The gas forced them out, and that's what allowed us to get in." Inside, Sauvé explains, police found large quantities of marijuana and "white powder." The business was promptly shut down.

A public transit problem

While Mile-Enders have become used to this kind of thing, that doesn't mean they've come to like it. Since the marijuana bust, the recently created Parc avenue Merchants and Professionals Association (PAMPA) has been circulating a petition, decrying the street's status as a "common locale for clandestine bars, crackhouses and drug trafficking," and calling for more active political intervention. Most businesses in the area have a copy of the petition at the register. No one has tallied the signatures as yet, but the pages are filling up fast and many local merchants can't replace them fast enough.

It may seem odd to find such a problem on Parc avenue, a street sandwiched between bourgeois Outremont on one side and rapidly gentrifying Mile-End on the other. The neighbourhood has a history of strong, vocal citizens' committees and community action. They've been trying to revitalize the area for years and managed to rebuild the old YMCA building at Parc and St-Viateur in 1996, and it has since become one of the busiest Ys in the city. Why can't they solve the drug problem?

Ask any merchant in the area and they'll tell you the same story they've been telling for years: it's the bus lane, stupid.

"When they created those bus lanes in 1992, they turned Parc into an urban highway," says Jean Carignan, owner of the local Rona hardware store and a PAMPA member. He fought against the bus-lane proposal tooth and nail. "People know it's the quickest and easiest route in and out of downtown. The lanes are so wide and the blocks are so long, it's an invitation for people to speed."

Carignan lays out his knee-bone's-connected-to-the-thigh-bone theory linking bus lanes to crackhouses: the lack of parking means fewer commuters stop to shop; the speeding traffic makes the street unpleasant for pedestrians; the dearth of shoppers results in a lack of reputable merchants; the lack of merchants means more à louer signs; the à louer signs send real-estate values into a tailspin; landlords become more willing to rent for a song; and businessmen of lesser virtue, confronted with cheap rent on a highly accessible yet relatively deserted city street, know a bargain when they see one.

Deaf politicians

Carignan used to be much more active in the local revitalization drive, but has since "passed the torch" on to others. "I got fed up," Carignan says. "The city administration has been completely deaf to our concerns."

And Carignan has nothing nice to say about Mile-End's high-profile city councillor, Helen Fotopulos. "After seven years, you just have to look at the situation and take stock of the facts. It's the same problem, and it hasn't been fixed."

"Mr. Carignan has never been a supporter of mine," Fotopulos retorts. "A few years ago, when Mayor Bourque took an interest in the situation, Carignan didn't invite me to any of the meetings."

Despite their differences, Fotopulos agrees that the traffic lies at the root of the problem. The solution, she says: "Make Parc like it was before, without the bus lanes and the centre lane. Cars won't be as prone to go there."