Worst neighbourhood in Canada? OK if you haven't read the new Macleans magazine this week check out this story Wow what a piece of crap neighbourhood, right? You must need an armed escort to walk to the store after supper. Not even close. And I should know. I've lived in and around North Central for about half my life and while it's not a great neighbourhood it's not half as bad as that reporter portrayed it. In the last couple of years it has went downhill but most of that can be blamed on lack of real effort on all levels of government. The feds do nothing except set up an office in the neighbourhood and then make themselves scarce until the next election. The provincial goofs do even less. And Smilin'Pat only goes into the neighbourhood when there is a camera crew so he can complain about the big guys not doing anything. It's time that one level just does something and forgets about playing the blame game. Get a REAL police presense on the streets to try and stop crime before it happens. Actually enforce the prostitution laws, harrass the johns and pull the underage girls off the street after 11. Get them in school. Get more money into the foster care homes now and start taking the kids away from anybody involved in gang related activity.

Where will the extra cash for all of this come from? Your pocket and mine. But taxes pay for worse things than cleaning up a neighbourhood that needs it. If the hood isn't cleaned up now it will just get worse and cost more later. But this is Regina and people bitch if their taxes go up by $10 a year. But they also bitch when they have to pay deductables when their car is stolen or their house is broken into. And guess what? If the hood isn't cleaned up the problem will move outwards and affect more of the city. It already has when you look at the major drug busts lately. The addresses are in "good" neighbourhoods and that is disturbing. So if you have a new neighbour with a lot of strange traffic and you live in a "good" neighbourhood maybe you should look closer at them. They might be running a grow op while you are BBQing in your nice backyard. And sometimes it's not just a new neighbour. A few of those who have been arrested lately had been in business out of the nice houses for years.

Anyway I could make this into a novel but it's time to study. Thanks for reading.