Toronto Star-Queen West an area in decline
Katie Matthews, owner of MissBehav’N on Queen St. W., recently resigned from her local BIA group in frustration over security and clean-up concerns.
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Residents and shopkeepers have been calling on politicians and police to clean up Queen St. W. for months, warnings that have proven prescient since the stabbing death of Ross Hammond.
Aggressive panhandling and criminal activity have become so bad between Bathurst St. and Gladstone Ave. that 40 neighbours formed the Queen Street West Residents Association in July. "We got together one month ago to talk with the police and the city councillor and tell them that things were getting pretty scary down here," said Kathi Prosser, the group's founder.
Squeegee kids now travel in packs and drug deals have become brazen, she said.
"If people are dealing drugs (in broad daylight) then there's no fear of reprisal," Prosser said, adding that her home has been broken into four times this summer. "The fact that things escalated into murder isn't surprising."
Hammond, 32, was stabbed on Queen St. W. last week and died two days later. The St. Catharines man got into a fight with panhandlers after refusing to give them money.
The day before Hammond's death, Katie Matthews, who owns MissBehav'N, an erotic shop, quit the West Queen West Business Improvement Area in disgust.
On Queen St. W., police don't come when called and politicians ignore the neighbourhood's plight, Matthews said. After a year of campaigning the BIA to clean up the street and hire private security, she gave up.
"It's been very rapidly declining," she said. "On June 30, me and my husband were assaulted by a group of squeegee kids who wouldn't get off the roof. They came after us with shovels and beer bottles."
A Queen St. W. safety audit released by the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas cited graffiti on storefronts, assaults on business owners, break-ins, vagrants sleeping on doorsteps and open drug and alcohol abuse.
"The laneways we examined were `no-go' areas, completely taken over by vandalism and evidence of drinking, drug use and other inappropriate activities. Business owners who rely on access to their establishments through the rear laneway face potential risk any time they open their back door," the report said.
The association also places the blame on four nearby social service agencies, including St. Christopher House. Patrons acted aggressively and harassed passersby.
Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, who represents the area, said one shouldn't let the complaints of a few residents give a skewed perspective of the street, which has the highest concentration of art galleries and artists in the city.
"It's one of the safest neighbourhoods in the city of Toronto. It is now and is continuing to be."
The street has problems, but addressing them takes time, Pantalone said, adding the safety audit is "just an opinion of some people."
Area police say the neighbourhood has a lot of vehicle and pedestrian traffic.
"The police are doing the best they can with the numbers they have in that area," said Sgt. Ozzy Veit. He wouldn't comment as to whether crime at Queen and Bathurst had become worse. "I don't have those statistics available," he said.
The residents' association's Prosser said people who are complaining aren't new to the neighbourhood. Many have lived on the street for more than a decade. "There's never been a summer as bad as this," she said.
