Shot Gun Heard .... And I Called 911

I heard a shot gun this afternoon. It rang out loud and clear. And it was close.
Prior to this last weekend, I would not have called the police unless I heard several shots. But I tell you, I called this time, and I called right away.
The police called back very shortly after for further information. They also let me know there were several police cars in the area looking. Not only that, but they dropped by to talk to us in person. They let us know again that they were being vigilent.
Whether it was the same person as the weekend, or someone else, I cannot speak to that. But I truely believe we will catch this lunatic. If we all work together, talking to the police when we see something, and the police on high alert, we will catch this person.
This is OUR neighbourhood. See a crime, make a call, take a stand. We are all in this together.

We Need To Take Back Our Neighbourhoods

My street was quiet this last weekend. Neighbours were out raking leaves and doing last minute work on the roof. My husband and I went for a walk down the back alleys on one of our garbage patrols. We found a few bicycles, and a set of twelve esspresso cups. You know what they say, one mans garbage is another mans treasure.
My street was probably typical for streets in the North End over the weekend. But there were three streets in the North End that were not so calm. One was Stella, another Dufferin, and the third was Boyd Ave. Two men are dead and one 13 year old girl is still in hospital. On Saturday evening, someone bicycled to three different locations in the North End and shot three people. The police do not know, or are not saying, the reason why. There is no mention if these incidents were related. But I, on my street, want this sort of activity to stop. The big question is "How do we get it to stop?".
People in the North End are afraid to speak out. They are afraid to tell the Police what they saw. They are afraid of retaliation. But as long as we live in fear, the criminals win. As long as we keep quiet, the violence will continue.
I am as guilty as the next person for keeping quiet. Two doors down from me, in the rooming house, a new tenant moved in a few weeks ago. I saw the young individual, along with a few juvenille individuals bicycling over to my back fence. They stopped, and looked over the fence. Then they went back to their house, and climbed on the first story roof of their rooming house to get a better look at the contents of my back yard. They bicycled past the yard a few more times trying to look over the fence as they went past. The whole time they were doing this, I was watching from my upstairs window. If I was in a different part of the city I may have called out to them to tell them to get lost. But not here. If I did, I know windows would break, or worse. I could call the Police and report the actions, but what would they do? Would they come by and take a statement and visit the young individuals? Then what? Would my windows break again? What if these young people have guns? I chose to stay quiet. I chose to be afraid of what these young kids might do.
I often hear gun shots when I am at home. I very rarely ever call the Police when I hear a gun shot. What am I going to tell them. There was a loud noise, sounding like a gun shot. No, I do not know where it came from. It sounded close though. No, I rarely call the Police when I hear a gun shot. I remember earlier this week I was walking over to the Shoppers Drug Mart at Main and Redwood. As I crossed the parking lot toward the door of the Shoppers, there was a gun shot. I looked around me to see if anyone reacted to the noise. There were people walking along the sidewalk on Main Street. There was someone coming out of the Shoppers. There was a group of people sitting outside the Robins Donuts, and a few people walking in the parking lot. Nobody seemed to notice. Nobody turned a head. And I did not miss a step as I entered the Drug Store.
Most of the people in the North End are hard working, friendly people. Most of the people in the North End are not gang members, and are not selling drugs. And most of the people in the North End, I am sure, just want to live their lives in the homes they rent and the homes they own. So, how do we get back to feeling safe enough to speak out?
We all know at least a few bad houses on our street or in our neighbourhood. We need to start paying attention to these bad houses. We need to start talking about what is going on. We need to start reporting what is going on. And if we don't want anyone to know who we are, we need an anonymous way of reporting issues, large and small. We need a place to report issues we see that are not crimes. We need to report excess garbage in the yards, broken windows, loud parties. We need to report By-Law infractions on the bad houses, even if the issues seem small. As the reports pile up on individual houses, actions can be taken against the landlords and/or the tenants.
We need to get involved with our neighbourhood residents associations. I have recently joined my residents association and found others who share the same issues as me. I have found that being a part of a residents association, one does not feel alone in dealing with these issues. As a part of your local residents association you can help develop better safety measures, or assist in carrying them out. You can be an anonymous voice in a safe environment. If you need help in finding information on your association send me an email.
We need to clean up the bad houses.
We need to hold landlords accountable for renting to gang members.
We need to take back our neighbourhoods.

The Visible Cleaning Of The North End

There were signs along our street last night letting us know that we could not park on the street today during the day. This happens every year at this time. It is time for the street cleaners to come down the road, remove the leaves, and give the streets one last cleaning before winter.

On my way out this afternoon I actually saw the street cleaner coming down the road. As I walked to my minivan, yes my minivan (got it back Wednesday), as I walked to my minivan I saw some other cleaning going on. One individual, wearing an orange safety vest, was picking up garbage along the side of the road, and another individual was mowing the boulevard.

I find it funny how the visible areas of the North End get cleaned. They are cleaned religiously, every spring and fall. But the not so visible areas are left out of the equation.
Do the people in City Hall make conscious decisions to clean areas that can be seen by them as they drive home from work along major arteries? How do they decide what gets cleaned on an annual, or semi-annual basis? What makes the few leaves on the front street such a high priority every spring and fall? Why are a few pieces of garbage on the front street getting picked up while the back lanes remain riddled with garbage? What makes the autobins, bulk garbage, and hidden areas such a low priority when the City decides to implement cleaning plans?

Is City Hall so compartmentalized that one department has absolutely no idea what another department is doing? Who decides the budget for street cleaners compared to the budget for autobin sanitization? Is garbage a non-issue for the City when planning fall cleanup because it has been outsourced? Is that why the back lanes of the North End are in the condition they are now in? Is the City so detatched from Waste Management that they never check if the contract they made is being upheld? Is this why my dumpster was rarely emptied prior to my contacting 311 in June? Is this why we have such problems with bulk garbage getting picked up in our back lanes? Is this why the autobins are never included in the fall clean-up of the City?
And when a citizen does take it upon themselves and do some fall cleaning of the autobins, why is it done so poorly?
My email request to 311, in requesting the cleaning and sanitizing of autobins in my back lane went as follows:

Could you please have the bins near my house sanitized. There is cat litter
stuck to the bottom of the bin at the back of xxx xxxxx Ave. There is misc
garbage stuck to the bottom of bins behind xxx xxxxx Ave and xxx xxxxx Ave. I
would like to have them cleaned and sanitized please.
Thankyou

I provided adequate information to let them know I wanted the bins cleaned and sanitized. I wanted the cat litter and rotting garbage removed from the bottom of the bins, and I wanted the bins sanitized. I did not expect to have sanitizing solution sprayed or tossed on top of rotting garbage. I do not consider that a job well done. I have requested a call from a supervisor of Waste Management to see why this was not done.

It's Official - The Dumpsters Have Been Sanitized

Well, I got a response from 311 this morning. I sent an email last night inquiring about the sanitizing of the three dumpsters I had requested last week. The email I received stated the 'tickets' (requests for each dumpster sanitizing) were closed, which indicates the work has been completed.
That being said, I went to the dumpsters and had a look, in daylight this time. I took photos of the dumpsters at noon yesterday, after the dumpsters were emptied and before the sweet smell of bleach appeared in the lane.

The garbage stuck to the bottom of this dumpster still remains. And this dumpster does not smell of any sort of sanitizing agent. I think they forgot to sanitize one of the dumpsters on their list.

This dumpster had, and still has, cat litter stuck to the bottom of the dumpster. But it no longer smells of burned garbage, and the odor of cat litter is not present.

This last dumpster has the same sweet smell of sanitizing product, so it has been sanitized. But how they managed to sanitize it and keep the garbage intact along the bottom and side of the dumpster should be commended.

I had no idea how the dumpsters were going to be sanitized when I made the request. I simply knew that I could request it. I thought I could get them cleaned. And I thought I could get them sanitized. But I guess all I can really do is have someone from waste management drop by and spray a sanitizing agent over the already existing garbage.

Could you imagine if your Dad asked you to clean the garbage can. If he said there was something stuck to the bottom and he wanted you to have it cleaned and sanitized by the time he got home from work? I would not want to be around when he found out that all you did was toss a bit of bleach into the bottom of the can.

If this is all the Waste Management people do when a request is put in to have a dumpster cleaned or sanitized, then why are the 5400 autobins not sanitized on a yearly basis, at the very least. And how much do they charge the City of Winnipeg for dropping by and giving the dumpster a fresh smell of sanitizing agent? I am sure it is tossed in or sprayed, but there could not possibly be any sort of scrubbing or scraping involved in the process. The garbage that was in the bottom of these three dumpsters did not seem to move an inch in the sanitizing process.  Maybe I should just get a jug of bleach and toss some into the garbage bins myself when they start to stink. I will send my bill to City Hall.

I have requested a supervisor from Waste Management call me to explain the procedures of cleaning and sanitizing the autobins.