By paNOW

VIDEO: Drugs and prostitution rise in the West Flat

Sep 5, 2013 | 12:30 AM

A woman sits, shaded by a tree on a street corner at 13th Street West and Fifth Avenue West, just a block away from St. Mary High School in Prince Albert.

It’s an area prone to prostitution dubbed “a stroll,” according to city councillor Rick Orr.  He said unfortunately, that kind of activity has been on the rise since the summer.

Residents in the area are used to seeing “johns” drive by slowly and pick up prostitutes.

Kendra Flamont moved into the area a few months ago with her children. She sees prostitutes walk past her house on a regular basis, something that she said makes her feel “sketched out.”

Recently, a black truck full of men parked right in front of her house. She was wondering what they were up to.

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“A prostitute had said that it was too much for her company, so she had just, you know, kind of walked away from the truck. Two guys came out and were swearing and talking provocatively so I told them to, you know, move along because I have kids and they don’t need to hear that. They were playing outside at the time, in the front of the yard so of course they were wondering who was around.”

She has gotten along well with her neighbours, who also have young children. The only issue she has with the neighbourhood is what she calls the “riff raff.”

Orr, whose represents that ward, agrees with Flamont. He emphasizes the area is becoming more populated with young families.

“This is a renaissance area. It’s an area where people have been able to buy homes at a fairly good price then they’ve upgraded them … I think that’s one thing we have to realize is that this area is going through a resurgence of families.”

However, he believes lower income properties that are not kept up to proper living standards are attracting negative influences into the area.

He’s not sure why, but residents noticed a migration of drug users and prostitutes from the downtown region over the summer.

“They don’t like the traffic brought by ‘the stroll.’ They don’t like the paraphernalia that’s hanging around. They don’t like some of the things that are going on,” said Orr.

He’s been told of confrontations between the transient people in the area and residents.

“There has been an increase of new people to the area that aren’t familiar with the respect that some of the other people gave to the residents,” he said.

This includes people failing to dispose of needles from drug use in the available needle drop-offs.

Flamont said she picks up needles every time she mows her lawn.

“My daughter who is four years old just started kindergarten. She plays in the yard quite a bit, so I feel like every morning I have to come out and make sure there’s nothing that can poke her, like a needle for example.”

Residents have approached Orr asking to find ways to move ‘the stroll’ to a different area, he said.

“One of the things that some of the other cities have looked at is moving it to industrial areas. I think it’s something that our experts would probably be looking at.”

Overall, he is confident that better-quality residences and less lower-income properties, which he said appeal to people working in the drug or sex trade, will drive away some of those issues in the area.

He added executive council is looking at solutions.

Boarded-up building bylaws and rule changes that will give bylaw officers tools to deal with substandard properties were discussed on Tuesday, he said.

claskowski@panow.com

On Twitter: @chelsealaskowsk