Art District Getting Bad Rap

[Straight Shooter]

After reading this story posted on Castanet about how the criminal activity of individuals are moving from the Red Zone into the safety area of the Art District, I want to add what I observed at the Interior Health Office on Ellis Street. While waiting to meet up with my daughter on Wednesday I noticed a women who appeared to me to be strung out on drugs sleeping underneath a sign that read "No Camping" with her belongings in a shopping cart. I looked around the area and noticed multiple signage saying the same thing. I'm so familiar with the "Tent City" in Victoria and the criminal elements that is happening there under the excuse of "homelessness" which the Liberal Government of this Province under Housing Minister Rich Coleman is trying to rectify. It's my guess that it's just a matter of time that the Interior Health location or other locations becomes Kelowna version of "Tent City"

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-st ... htm#168521

[Gerald Belisle]

Obviously, being homeless is a crime and so being sick because it's all their fault

[Straight Shooter]

Obviously, being homeless is a crime and so being sick because it's all their fault

I think it's a very serious issue that's being addressed by every level of goverment but unfortunately it's the legimate homeless people as well as people with mental health issues that are being mixed in with that of drug and alcohol addiction.

[Catri]

Many "legitimate" homeless people also have mental health and addiction issues.

[MAPearce]

Obviously, being homeless is a crime and so being sick because it's all their fault

Many "legitimate" homeless people also have mental health and addiction issues

This much is true , However there is an "element" that exploits this issue to further their own agenda IMO..

Not all of these people are sick or homeless.. It just makes good cover for them .

[WheelWeaves]

Maybe they can do something about the kirschner area too while they're tackling this problem... but I forgot, not many tourists, just average kelownians in this area, to hell with us....

[LoneWolf_53]

It's only a matter of time, before the art district snobs formulate a plan to move all the ne'er-do-wells to Gordon Drive, like they did the logging trucks.

We certainly can't have them looking down upon undesirables, from their balconies during their daily whine and cheese hour.

[Symbonite]

soon the safe zone will be in the mission

[Catri]

Speaking of art district snobs, when did they change the nickname of their block? I thought we were supposed to be calling that area the "cultural district"? I do like the new name better, not quite as pretentious, probably won't get as thorough a mocking from our big city guests.

[Joe Public]

After reading this story posted on Castanet about how the criminal activity of individuals are moving from the Red Zone into the safety area of the Art District, I want to add what I observed at the Interior Health Office on Ellis Street. While waiting to meet up with my daughter on Wednesday I noticed a women who appeared to me to be strung out on drugs sleeping underneath a sign that read "No Camping" with her belongings in a shopping cart. I looked around the area and noticed multiple signage saying the same thing. I'm so familiar with the "Tent City" in Victoria and the criminal elements that is happening there under the excuse of "homelessness" which the Liberal Government of this Province under Housing Minister Rich Coleman is trying to rectify. It's my guess that it's just a matter of time that the Interior Health location or other locations becomes Kelowna version of "Tent City"

The roots of this problem go back to when Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals assumed power in BC a decade ago, and they cut facilities and funding dedicated to mental health treatment, throwing thousands of mental health patients out on the street, leaving them nowhere to go. It's not too surprising that they group in numbers with their own kind.

It is however a tad bit funny for you to suggest that Rich Coleman and the BC Liberals are trying to fix the very same problem that they created.

[LoneWolf_53]

It's also more than a tad bit funny, smothered with a generous helping of BS, to imply that all the undesirables in the downtown area are mentally ill people. It might make for a good talking point for the anti Liberal trolls, but it's a ways from the truth and reality.

Perhaps those suggesting such are a bit too young, or just too clueless, to note that downtown areas (particularly parks) have had issues with undesirables for decades, and for a certainty long before this overblown mentally ill action taken by Liberals of eons ago.
Funny how when mentioning foibles perpetrated upon the electorate by the NDP, we get reminded how long ago that was, and that it's irrelevant today, yet the same clowns keep bringing up exaggerated crap about a Liberal government that's long gone.

How's that work exactly, we're supposed to forget all the crap NDP pulled more than a decade back, but because they've been kept out of power, we need to keep bringing up Liberal stuff you didn't like, that's about the same age????

FYI
Drug dealers, transients, seasonal workers, along with young people out to whoop it up for the summer, have always been present in both Kelowna and Penticton for as long as I can remember, and it had diddley squat to do with any government policies regarding the mentally ill.

Regatta certainly didn't get cancelled because it attracted too many well behaved law abiding citizens now did it?

You should perhaps get some points for lame deflection attempts.