Cleaner sidewalks, washrooms will help

I live on Government Street and I am quite concerned with the state of Government Street and the whole downtown area. I agree that something must be done with respect to the vandalism.

The streets reek of urine and I have seen human excrement. The bird droppings are also a concern. I see street sweepers on a regular basis but I have not seen sidewalk versions. The sidewalks are much dirtier than the streets.

I believe the sidewalks need to be washed down regularly. I feel over time we begin to accept this as normal. This is not normal, it is disgusting.

I thought Government Street was a source of pride for our city, but we do not take care of it. My daughter visited in December and we were walking on Yates and she commented on the stench of urine. This was in the rainy season. Imagine a hot day in July.

When we lose businesses we will also lose tourists. It will be hard to bring our downtown back once we lose it. The city needs to take responsibility for the homeless situation and the vandalism that entails.

I have visited Montreal and stayed in Old Montreal. The city hoses down the popular streets in Old Montreal very early in the morning. They also have pedestrian-only streets and they have the delivery trucks arrive early in the morning as well. Preparing for tourists.

Many cities have street cameras and maybe it is time for us to do the same, then we could find those responsible for vandalism.

It has been in the news recently that Calgary and Edmonton are participating in a pilot project to address crime and social disorder in their cities, perhaps we need to try something new. We need more boots on the ground, so to speak.

We need to address the homelessness. If we don’t give them washrooms, where do we think they are going to go?

Lorraine Mastromatteo Victoria