|
|
|
Tag-Archive for "Canada"
Go on a vacation unlike any other you have ever been on. While Canada is very near to home, it won’t be just another vanilla sort of family vacation. Canada is full of wildernesses that stretch as far as they eye can see, lively and friendly cities, and picturesque locations that look like they came straight off of a postcard. It’s possible to experience all of this for yourself with a passport or passport card, and having your
Today I am not going to write from a position of a Vancouver BC real estate agent, but simply from a position of a Vancouver’s citizen. If you asked people from from just about any country what the greatest city there is, a great deal of them would probably answer “Vancouver”. Even the 2009 Mercer Quality of Living global city classification showed Vancouver as the best city in America. And yet it is getting negative international press coverage by The Economics and The Independent. Why is that?
For the first three months of 2009 alone, Vancouver (2.7 mil inhabitants) has witnessed 45 shootings, 17 of them fatal. Recalculated per 1 mil inhabitants, it makes 6.3 persons dying a violent death. At the same time, there were only 11 firing conflicts during the same time in Toronto, which has 5.1 mil inhabitants, which makes the violent death rate almost three times lower (2.2 victims per 1 million inhabitants).
Parallel fight: gangs vs. gangs, gangs vs. the police
The amount of gangs working in Vancouver has multiplied 10 times over the last 10 years. Speaking in specific figures, it is over 100 gangs active in Vancouver these days! And as if that wasn’t enough, these figures are topped up with three factors worsening the whole situation: the gangs 1) being poorly organized, 2) having too easy access to weapons and 3) being comprised of mostly very young members.
At the moment, there is a double war in process at Vancouver streets. The first one is naturally between the gangs alone. This war originated from the fact that the price of Mexican cocaine has been rising. Lately, there has been a powerful effort coming from the Mexican government, aimed at the drug cartel operations, which has pushed the cocaine price from $23,300/kg to almost $39,000/kg.
There is a natural question coming up – why is Vancouver such a drug capital? Well, the configuration of the city’s relaxed attitude, geographical area and vast backcountry make the excellent configuration for enhanced drug crime. We could hardly find another Canadian city with such perfect configuration of these conditions. Despite all this, the amount of policemen in Vancouver is lower (recalculated per number of residents) than anywhere else in Canada – concerning mostly big cities. Moreover, the regional politicians are proposing to lower the annual police and court budget by $20 million by 2012. The police would have much better chances in the battle with the gangs, had they got more personnel and money available.
How to handle the situation
It is impossible to suggest some easy instant solution for the current situation. But my logic tells me that right now more cash and police forces must be used, not less of it! Safety and security have to become the city’s important traits again. We are planning to host the Olympics here in 2010, but also and mainly it is in the Vancouver inhabitants’ best interests. Recently, the PM Stephen Harper suggested a new harsh law which would punish gang killings as first-degree murders with at least 25 years in prison. This is of course a right decision, but in order to improve the situation in Vancouver, it is not enough.
