April 2010 Village Vibe

villagevibeNews and views from the heart of Fernwood

April 2010

in this issueTo get the Vibe digitally, sign up at fernwoodnrg.ca

Neighbourhood Non-Profit

Earthfest page 3

Feature

How Safe is Fernwood? page 4

Gleanings

April Gardeningpage 6

›› Stacey Curtis

For those who live a hop, skip and jump from “the square”—the place where hustlers and bustlers congregate Fernwood style—it’s easy to forget about the other centre of things: Haultain Corners, an intersection with its own brand of charm.

The highlights of Haultain Corners, where Haultain Street meets Belmont Avenue, are Koffi and Fireside Video, kitty corner and down a store front from one another.

“The area is densely populated with young couples,” says Koffi’s managing partner Michael Manhas.

When searching for the right location for their business two years back, Manhas and partner Alan Pang concluded that Fernwood was the last neighbourhood remaining for development. “We had a look at the [now] Cornerstone building…this had more of a neighbourhood feel. For Manhas and Pang, giving life to the neigh-bourhood “made sense”; so much so that, to open, the pair hauled 3500 kg of metal out the former laundromat’s doors. An inflow of customers over my 30 minutes in the shop’s sleek and clean-cut interior proves they were doors well worth opening.

Koffi offers the usual modern array of delectable hot and cold beverages and, of note for the approaching summer months, smoothies at a reasonable $4.25. Add a ham and egg sandwich on an English muffin for full-morning energy.

As evening approaches and cuddling with your sweetie and a movie creeps onto the agenda, a trip to Fireside Video provides for you. New movies are $4.00 and old movies are a steal at 3 for $3.00 for 3 days. Fireside’s video collection is viewable online (www.firesidevideo.ca)—what a way to avoid those long and lingering movie-store

fights—and the staff does a stand-up job of recommending. Dip into the Fireside freezer for an assortment of intriguing South African foods: Boerewors; Chilli Bites; and Koeksisters, or browse the shelves for Cape Geno Fig Jam, Guava Halves, ancient issues of National Geographic, novels and other

bits and bobs that make this shop eclectic. Stop in at Koffi for pre-movie excite-

ment on a second/last Friday of the month for an open mic or keep tuned to their website (koffihouse.com) for special events.

Other Haultain Corners stores include The Ministry of Casual Living, Haultain

Grocery, ALT International, the Leisure Recreation Group, UOMO Modern Barber, Adam’s Food Fair and Haultain Consignments. Whatever your visit to Haultian Corners brings, be sure to add Fireside’s movie-style popcorn in a bucket to the mix.

Haultain Corners: Fernwood’s Hidden GemSouth African treats, hot

and cold eats, videos,

art and more await at

Fernwood’s ‘other’

commercial core

Clockwise from top left: A sign on the door of the The Ministry of Casual Living alludes to the gallery’s unconventional operating procedures; Haultain

Grocery’s classic sign still stands the test of time; cherry trees bloom outside Adams’ Food Fair; a sweater warms a tree trunk outside Koffi.

page 2 villagevibe April 2010 News and views from the heart of Fernwood

›› Lee Herrin

Lately, the City has been going out of its way to promote the idea of citizen engagement and to do consultation with community.

In fact, it seems like there has been more public consultation in the past six months than I’ve seen the City do in the past six years. There was a Public Ideas Forum last October, and an online “Ideascale” forum in November, a workbook entitled “Creating an effective public engage-ment strategy: a workbook to support small group discussions,” and even a Face-book page. The City’s website indicates a Strategy will be coming soon. They’ve also extended a Request for Proposal for a “Public Engagement Strategy Consul-tant.” Once that person or firm is hired, you can probably expect to be “engaged” a lot more.

Another stream of activity down at City Hall is the consultation around Offi-cial Community Planning. Again, from the City’s website: “The City of Victoria is updating its Official Community Plan (OCP) to create a powerful vision and detailed plan to ensure that Victoria’s growth and change over the next 30 years is sustainable. The plan sets direction for the city’s growth, urban form, transporta-tion, housing, services and infrastructure.”

The process for this, to-date, has been no less elaborate. There were random

surveys on the street in February along with electronic kiosks at gathering places (including the Cornerstone Cafe) where citizens could complete a survey, another community forum on a Saturday in late March, another workbook for groups of citizens to complete, and a further forum in the works for June.

Are you exhausted yet from all this participation? If not, the Mayor has asked neighbourhoods to organize a forum for him to attend so that he can talk to citi-zens and hear about their concerns and ideas. (A meeting has been scheduled for May by the FCA—watch the May Village Vibe for a notice with the time and place). Be sure to attend!

All in all, I’m impressed with the effort the City is making to engage and consult with citizens. They have obviously learned

their lesson from experiences like Recre-ation Renewal (or more recently, the Blue Bridge fiasco), where a failure to be transparent and to broadly consult before jumping to solutions led to an embar-rassing climb down for the Council.

I’m waiting, though for the other shoe to drop. Citizens, in aggregate, will often want more (services and infrastructure) for less (taxes and fees). All governments are bumping up against the limits of their resources. It might be a good move to get us all involved as governments begin to ask citizens to do more for themselves.

Let us know what you think. Did you attend or

participate in any of these events? How would

you like to be engaged in what’s going on in

Fernwood? Drop us a line at engagement@

fernwoodnrg.ca.

declarationof principles

& values

Editor Lee Herrin

Founding Editor Lisa Helps

Contributors

Lee Herrin Phoebe RamsayGagan Leekha Deryk HoustonAmy Cousins Margaret HantiukStacey Curtis

Art

Gagan Leekha Lisa MatthausSteve Carey Jan JohnsonMargaret Hantiuk Johanna HendersonClaire Hutton

Production

Johanna Henderson

Contact us

1240 Gladstone Street Victoria, BC V8T 1G6T 250.381.1552 F [email protected]

The views expressed in the Village Vibe do not necessarily reflect the views of Fernwood NRG.

villagevibePublished by Fernwood Neighbourhood Resource Group

›› We are committed to creating

a socially, environmentally,

and economically sustainable

neighbourhood;

›› We are committed to ensuring

neighbourhood control or

ownership of neighbourhood

institutions and assets;

›› We are committed to using

our resources prudently

and to becoming financially

self-reliant;

›› We are committed to the creation

and support of neighbourhood

employment;

›› We are committed to engaging

the dreams, resources,

and talents of our neighbours

and to fostering new links

between them;

›› We are committed to taking

action in response to

neighbourhood issues, ideas,

and initiatives;

›› We are committed to governing

our organization and serving our

neighbourhood democratically

with a maximum of openness,

inclusivity and kindness;

›› We are committed to developing

the skills, capacity, self-worth,

and excellence of our

neighbours and ourselves;

›› We are committed to focusing

on the future while preserving

our neighbourhood’s heritage

and diversity;

›› We are committed to creating

neighbourhood places that

are vibrant, beautiful, healthy,

and alive;

›› and, most of all,

We are committed to having fun!

Editorial:

Citizen engagement

Buzz:

Holi Fernwood!

intriguing dullcolour monochromevibrancy quietbelonging isolationsafety emptiness

Separating the fertile from the flammable in 10 words or less —

Fernwood Dead Wood

› › Gagan Leehka

An overcast sky a few Saturdays ago wasn’t enough keep Holi away from Fern-wood.

Holi is known as the festival of colors or spring and is celebrated in India by “playing colors” in the streets. Simply put, it’s a giant paint fight that everyone, by default, participates in: whether you are a friend, neighbor or innocent bystander, if you are outside—game on.

A group of about 25 Fernwoodians had a blast as bright colors flew and laughter filled the basketball court behind the Commu-nity Centre. Everyone, regardless of age, ran around screaming like kids and fully immersed themselves in the freedom that comes with smearing and squirting paint on each other’s clothing, faces and heads rather than the paper or canvas and we are normally confined to. “My experience of Holi in India was bright dyes flying, music and drumming, dancing in the streets, and license to play like a 10-year-old again,” says Lisa Matthaus, one of the Holi Fernwood organizers. “It was such fun there, I had to say yes when Gagan said we should do it here!”

Although Holi has roots in mythological legends, they have little to do with how it is celebrated today. Holi is a day when everyone is considered equal—regardless of class, age, religion, and especially skin colour—because by the end of the day everyone is looking like some variation of Rainbow Bright. It’s celebrated on the last full moon of winter to welcome the onset of spring and all that comes with it—light, colour, and new beginnings. Traditionally, it was celebrated with natural plant dyes that had medicinal properties that would

protect people from getting sick during the season change.

Even though Fernwood didn’t have the clear skies and warmth of the sun that our friends in the East would have had, everyone is already looking forward to next year with anticipation of more people, more sun and hopefully live music and dancing!

For more photos from Lisa’s Holi experience

in India, visit: http://livingdraftily.typepad.com/

photos/holi_in_hampi/index.html

Paint-covered Holi participants pose for a photo in the aftermath of the celebration in Stevenson

Park. Photo: Gagan Leekha.

www.fernwoodnrg.ca April 2010 villagevibe page 3

›› Amy Cousins

The Sierra Club BC presents EarthFest! in partnership with the Victoria Immigrant and Refuge Centre (VIRCS), the Dogwood Initiative, and Fernwood NRG. EarthFest! will be happening Sunday April 25th, in Stevenson Park (behind the Community Centre) from 12-4 p.m., in celebration of Earth Week.

EarthFest! is a multicultural community event open to everyone and anyone who would like to come celebrate the Earth, Nature and an Environmental Spirit with music, dancing, food and more! The focus of this event is one of celebration, com-munity, and positive outlook.

There are some great bands lined up to play groovy tunes throughout the after-

noon. We’ve got Tambura Rasa coming over from Vancouver, with their electrify-ing Flamenco, Balkan and Sharqi beats border bashing dance show, and No-Issues, a local band with sweet New Caledonian/reggae fusion stylings! The rest of the main stage line-up will be filled with great local bands from various cultural styles and dancing rhythms.

Tambura Rasa will also be playing at Earthtones, Saturday evening at Sunset Room. Earthtones is a magical organical phantasmical monthly celebration of art and dance! Find them on Facebook for lineups and additional information.

If you have any questions, or would like to

get involved, please contact Amy Cousins at

[email protected]

›› Phoebe Ramsay

It was around midnight on Tuesday, March 2nd, when I heard the first gun shot. Of course, I didn’t know it was a gun shot at first. In fact, the thought didn’t even cross my mind—a car backfiring, perhaps, or maybe the bookcase fell over in the apartment downstairs. By then, I was used to hearing late night noise outside my window. But then another loud bang, this time rattling my windows and shaking my bed. Loud voices outside —too loud. I opened my front door and stepped out onto the third floor balcony to see a woman on her cellphone, yelling with panic in her voice, and my downstairs neighbour on his knees, screaming.

Someone had kicked in the door of Les Hankel’s first floor apartment and shot him in the face with a rifle.

Police. Bright lights. Crime scene tape. Radio static. Confusion.

Since that night, a suspect—a teen-ager—has been apprehended and charged. The police are not releasing information about exactly what occurred or a possible motive, but to me, at least, these details are less important than the simple fact that it happened at all.

I could not possibly begin to speak to what Les’s death has meant for his family, his friends and those who knew him, except to wish them strength and express sorrow and empathy as they pick up the pieces and deal with the hole left in their lives. I wish I could talk personally about Les himself, about who he was—and he was, by all accounts, a warm hearted, quiet person, who kept to himself—but I didn’t know Les. I saw him around the neighbourhood from time to time, and exchanged the odd ‘hello’ when we ran into each other in our comings and goings from our apartments. Perhaps you knew him this way too, one of those familiar faces you passed on the street every so often, a small piece of your life seemingly insignificant at the time but now suddenly missing.

What I can speak to however, is the way his death has affected me, and the many questions it has raised for me personally; in particular how it has forced me to look critically at how I value and perceive a sense of community.

I moved into Fernwood last October, specifically because I wanted to be surrounded by the vibrancy and life I saw here. I was overjoyed when I found the big, sunny apartment at 1260 Pembroke Street just a stone’s throw from Fernwood Square. I was excited to have my very own place, with no roommates, to call my own for the first time in my adult life. I have adored living here for the past six months, and have come to feel a real sense of belonging in

this neighbourhood. I love that I recognize many of the people I pass on the street, if not by name then at least by sight; I love my part time job in the Square, overhearing the local gossip; and I love sitting in the Cornerstone working on papers for school and feeling the happiness radiating from all corners.

Les’s killing changed that. My safe and beautiful home which before was my sanctuary now feels violated. Every time I walk past the door to Les’s apartment, a knot grows in my stomach and a feeling of profound sadness settles on my shoul-ders. My mother’s reaction, when I told her what had happened, was to inform me in no uncertain terms that I should imme-diately move; preferably back home but a nice quiet street in Fairfield would suffice. However, I do not want to live on a nice, quiet, street in Fairfield. I chose Fernwood as my neighbourhood and I do not want to give up on it because of this one terrible event that was beyond anyone’s control. Deaths, murders, and other uncountable tragedies can happen—and indeed do happen—anywhere and everywhere, and although Fernwood has certainly seen more than its fair share of crime in past years it has become a much safer and healthier place recently.

Today, with the crime scene tape wrapped up and police long gone, Les’s apartment is being renovated in readiness for a new tenant and the story has disap-peared from the news. The spring flowers are

blooming, new turf has been laid in front of the building, and it is easy to imagine the events of that evening never happened. This bothers me, to think that a life can be cleaned up and swept aside in a few weeks with a fresh coat of paint and a new headline to occupy our minds. It bothers me too, that I was the only person to lay flowers at Les’s door, 5 days after his death. I have, reluctantly, decided to begin again the impossible search for a new and affordable place to live in Fernwood; mainly because my home now feels somehow tainted, but also because I do not want to continue giving my rent cheque to a landlord who to my knowledge, made no gesture, phone calls, or even so much as posted a note after the violent death of one of his tenants.

I suppose it is this that bothers me most of all. Although crimes can happen anywhere, Les’s death didn’t happen just anywhere. It happened here, in Fernwood, to one of our own. Les had lived here a long time, was a regular at the Fernwood Inn and a fixture in the neighbourhood. I would like to think that what happened to Les has some significance in the community. I suppose this article is my way of marking his life. There are many people, from so many different walks of life, professions, and ages who live within the neighbour-hood we call Fernwood. Most are people just trying to quietly get on with their lives, as Les did; they are our neighbours, the faces we see in the grocery store and on the bus, our tenants, our acquaintances, our friends. We are all part of this commu-nity, and we all make up the fabric of this neighbourhood. As Fernwood becomes a more popular destination, as more people move in, and as new much needed busi-nesses open up, I hope that it continues to be the inclusive community which I thought it was, and does not lose the ethic of caring for each other simply because we are neighbours. No matter how well we know one another, how active we may be in the community, whether or not we agree on politics local or global, whether we have just moved in or have been here for years, we are all part of this neighbour-hood together. And so was Les.

A neighbourhood together

Neighbourhood Non-Profit:

EarthFest 2010

A personal reflection

on Fernwood in the

wake of a murder

Earth Week Events in Victoria

Westshore Earth Day (April 17): Westshore Town Centre, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hosted by Climate Action Westshore.

Compost Open House for Earth Day (April 22): Beacon Hill Park Maintenance Yard (at the end of the nursery road), 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hosted by the city of Vic-toria, Compost Education Centre and Lifecycles. For more info, visit victoria.ca and click on “What’s New?”

Earth Walk (April 24): Starts at the Legislature at 12 p.m. and finishes at Centennial Square with info tables and music at 4 p.m.

Earthtones (April 24): Sunset Room (401 Herald Street), 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

EarthFest (April 25): Stevenson Park in Fernwood 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. Hosted by the Sierra Club BC, VIRCS, Dogwood Initiative and Fernwood NRG.


feature:

Is Fernwood safe?›› Lee Herrin

Is Fernwood safe?

March 9th was not a great day for Fern-wood, in terms of public perception. There were two articles in the Times Colonist that day mentioning Fernwood, both reporting on serious crimes that had occurred in the past week.

The first article, “Victoria teen arrested in shooting appears in court on murder charge,” discussed the first appearance in court of Andrew Belcourt, 19, accused of murdering Leslie Hankel in an apparent break and enter with the intent to commit robbery at 1260 Pembroke on March 3rd.

The second article, “Two girls injured, dozens involved in Fernwood brawl,” described the events of the previous Saturday early morning where a brawl involving nearly 30 teens sent two teenage girls to hospital with head injuries from having been kicked in the head.

These are extremely serious crimes—and when the apparent motive behind the crimes is considered, in the first case a small amount of drugs, and in the second, a stolen cell phone—it is very distressing to consider that there are some in our community who value human life so cheaply.

It’s also distressing to those of us who have laboured so mightily to repair the fabric of the neighbourhood and to improve its repu-tation, to consider that in one horrible week much of that effort could be undone.

What’s in a name?

The neighbourhood has had a bad name more than once in the past. The Fernwood Neighbourhood Plan from 1994 explored the question of the most universally accept-able name for the neighbourhood. “[The name ‘Fernwood’] continued through the first 60 years of this century, until the area got a ‘bad name’ in the 1960s and 1970s. In the 1974 Neighbourhoods Report, the title of Spring Ridge was suggested…[but the results of the survey] clearly showed that Fernwood was still the name of choice for the large majority of residents.”

And, of course, who could forget Monday Magazine’s helpful branding of the neigh-bourhood as “Funky Junkie Fernwood” in a 2003 article describing the challenges with intravenous drug use that resulted

from a policy at the time of expelling drug offenders from downtown. By August 2004, Monday had changed its tune to “Neigh-bourhood on the Ridge: Is Fernwood on the verge of something big?” but the damage was done. The neighbourhood continued to deteriorate for another year, until Fernwood NRG bought the Cornerstone building, the George & Dragon sold, and things began to turnaround.

What makes a safe neighbourhood?

“At the community level, disorder and crime are usually inextricably linked….if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken.” So said an article entitled “Broken Windows” in the Atlantic Monthly in March 1982, by Wilson and Kelling.

I remember having discussions nearly 10 years ago at board meetings of the Fernwood Community Centre Society (before our name change to Fernwood NRG) and with the Fernwood Healthy Communities Coali-tion (a coalition of service providers from mental health, addictions, social services, the schools and neighbourhood organizations, etc.) debating what to do about the increase in tagging.

We tried a number of responses—we raised funds, donations and contributed our own resources to opening a “youth centre” in a portable building we had sited for the purpose behind the Community Centre itself. We installed a “graffiti wall” behind the Centre, as did Victoria High School on the bleachers behind stadium. We held graf-fiti and hip hop competitions at the Centre, and punk rock shows in the evenings.

Although most of these amenities were well-used, and the events well-attended, the perception was that disorder in the neigh-bourhood was increasing and was getting more serious. Vandalism increased. Drug dealing became more open. Car break-ins were commonplace. And when the former landowner of 1301 Gladstone raised the rents beyond what was economically viable in a declining neighbourhood, the commer-cial tenants left as their leases came due and the building slowly emptied.

At the end of their article, Wilson and Kelling identified what they saw at the time as the solution—enhanced police presence, especially, foot patrols: “Some neighbour-hoods are so demoralized and crime-ridden

as to make foot patrol useless;…other neighbourhoods are so serene as to make foot patrol unnecessary. The key is to iden-tify neighbourhoods at the tipping point—where the public order is deteriorating but not unreclaimable, where the streets are used frequently but by apprehensive people,

where a window is likely to be broken at any time, and must quickly be fixed if all are not to be shattered.”

But by the time Fernwood residents began actively lobbying the Victoria Police Department for more patrols and an enhanced police presence, it was too late. By that time, the Fernwood Healthy Commu-nity Coalition had changed tactics. We were no longer promoting “graffiti walls.” We took the graffiti wall down. The youth

centre was closed (it wasn’t safe behind the community centre on a Friday night). We were working with the City, BC Tel, BC Hydro, Canada Post and the School District to ensure that tagging on public property was painted over as quickly as possible, to minimize the appearance of disorder. But

things continued to slide.I remember meeting with the Mayor

along with numerous others from the core of the neighbourhood. We argued for higher service levels from the City—we wanted our branches and leaves to be picked up first, not left for last creating bare spots on our boule-vards and a mess in the streets; we wanted streetlights that were “cycling” on and off to be replaced; we wanted abandoned furni-ture and other property collected from the

:970 Blanshard StreetVictoria, BC V8W 2H3

telephone: 363-3600e-mail: [email protected] the web: www.denisesavoie.ca

Denise SavoieMember of Parliament for Victoria

Your voice in OttawaYour voice in Ottawa

Above: Fernwood Square sits empty on a sunny day last summer. Below: the apartment building

where Leslie Hankel died on March 3rd.


boulevards; we wanted the unsafe play-ground in Stevenson Park replaced and the park improved and properly maintained; we wanted the streets swept and potholes fi lled. We organized ourselves to be able to check public spaces for needles and other drug trade garbage and dispose of it safely.

But it was all to no avail. Eventually, in 2004, the windows in 1301 Gladstone were broken. Plywood went up. And Fernwood was lost.

Eyes on the street

A completely different formulation for ensuring safety in neighbourhoods comes from Jane Jacobs’ classic Th e Death and Life of Great American Cities, in 1961. She said that “A well used city street is apt to be a safe street. A deserted street is apt to be unsafe.” Later in the same passage, she says “There must be eyes upon the street….Th e build-ings on a street…must be oriented to the street. Th ey cannot turn their backs or blank sides on it and leave it blind.”

The core of Fernwood is wonderfully built in that regard—our buildings do face the street with windows that (in good times, at least) help provide the kind of casual surveillance that is so important to safety. A notable exception is the poorly designed Community Centre itself (at 1240 Gladstone Avenue) which presents blank windows to the street and a blank wall to Stevenson Park, detracting from the safety of the neighbourhood. Also, the fact that Victoria High School is a vast expanse of dark, unused space at night does not enhance safety. And further, the road blockages and the pocket parks (Haegert and Gower) which have so defi ned the neighbourhood, reduce through-traffi c at night and provide places for people to gather with little chance of being observed.

In 2003 through the summer of 2005, the lack of eyes on the street in Fernwood became a self-reinforcing cycle. As safety declined, fewer people felt safe coming into the neighbourhood. With fewer and fewer customers, the remaining businesses either closed or reduced their hours, ensuring fewer people still had reason to come to the neighbourhood. And in the absence of resi-dents going about their business, the square became a haven for drug deals, complete with shakedowns and assaults.

It was this challenge that we responded to when we at Fernwood NRG (then the

Community Centre Society) quietly negoti-ated with the former landowner to purchase the Cornerstone Building (1301 Glad-stone). With the news of that deal, in August 2005, interest rose in the George & Dragon, and when it changed hands soon after, both buildings suddenly were under construc-tion. And with all of the new activity in the core of the neighbourhood, there were suddenly many more people around, and things started to get better. Over the course of the two years, the Fernwood Inn was fully renovated and re-opened, the housing above the Fernwood Inn was upgraded, the upstairs suites of the Cornerstone Building were upgraded into affordable units for families, and the Cornerstone Cafe, Stage and Collective Works opened their doors. Now, from early morning through late at night, the streets are full of life.

Has safety improved?

So enough impressions—let’s talk about the numbers. The Victoria Police Depart-ment changed its tracking system for recording 911 calls routed to the police in 2004, so statistics prior to that time are harder to come by. But even the part year statistics for 2004 show that Fernwood (as defi ned by the civic boundaries) was placing over 13 calls per day to 911 for over 4,800 calls for the year. However, that number has steadily declined for the past six years to just over 8 calls per day or less than 3,000 in 2009 (see Table 1). Th is represents 39% fewer 911 calls from Fernwood. By comparison, 911 calls peaked city-wide in 2006 and have only declined 16% since that time (12% since 2004). In short, Fernwood has gotten safer faster than other neighbourhoods.

And, perhaps more importantly, the nature of the calls has changed. Th e Victoria Police Department’s PRIME (Police Records Information Management Environment) database tracks over 100 call types and all incoming calls are coded at the time they are received. Th is gives us an indication of what the person calling may have said and the operator responding may have inter-preted it. It also gives an indication as to how the police may have responded to the call. Clearly, a bylaw complaint (noise) would receive a different priority response than a “shots heard” or a “fight” call. However, these call statistics don’t tell us anything about the crime rate itself, because it is only after an offi cer responds and investigates (or

decides not to investigate) that a report is fi led by a police offi cer indicating whether, in the opinion of the offi cer, a crime has been committed. Or, more importantly, what the outcome was. For instance, a shots heard call might turn out to have been a car backfi ring. Or it might have been a homicide.

However, if the number of calls is declining, we can judge a certain amount about the relative level of safety in the neigh-bourhood. Table 1, showing the decline in the call rate for the types of calls that are either most threatening or annoying, speaks for itself.

To be sure, some of these declines are not statistically significant (that is to say, they may be more due to chance than to

any lasting change in the environment), but in the overall context of safety, all of these declines are meaningful to neighbourhood residents.

It is safe to say that our neighbourhood is safer now than at any point in the past six years. However, events in the last month remind us that we must never take our safety for granted.

If you have ideas on how we can work together

as a neighbourhood to improve safety, please

drop us a line at [email protected]. A future

article will explore further data from the Victoria

Police Department as it becomes available (Fern-

wood NRG has a request in the queue), including

the data from police reports themselves.

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1302 Gladstone 412-2001

Table 1: 911 calls by call type, 2004 through 2009

Call Type 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Decline over the period

Theft Of Vehicle 87 48 46 32 25 23 -74%

Robbery 14 10 7 9 6 4 -71%

Motor Vehicle Incident 250 256 122 95 77 79 -68%

Shots Fired/Heard 9 8 10 7 6 3 -67%

Drugs 107 92 38 40 42 39 -64%

Theft 615 572 379 279 249 249 -60%

Break And Enter 245 209 182 149 190 108 -56%

Drunk In Public 130 134 130 85 78 58 -55%

Threats 63 62 47 32 42 31 -51%

Property 168 129 116 75 117 83 -51%

Prowler 32 20 24 13 7 16 -50%

Weapon 14 24 10 13 13 7 -50%

Assault incl. Sexual Assault 99 100 95 67 70 54 -45%

Mischief 179 129 115 111 112 99 -45%

Fight 71 53 44 34 43 41 -42%

Impaired Driver 57 51 41 26 31 35 -39%

Suspicious Circumstances 375 345 213 216 208 231 -38%

Disturbance 339 268 233 236 237 250 -26%

All Other Calls 1,973 2,003 1,678 1,486 1,715 1,534 -22%

Total Calls 4,827 4,513 3,530 3,005 3,268 2,944 -39%

To be sure, some of these declines are not statistically significant (that is to say, they may be more due to chance than to any lasting change in the environment), but in the overall context of safety, all of these declines are meaningful to neighbourhood residents.

It is safe to say that our neighbourhood is safer now than at any point in the past six years. However, events in the last month remind us that we must never take our safety for granted.

If you have ideas on how we can work together as a neighbourhood to improve safety, please drop us a line at [email protected]. A future article will explore further data from the Victoria Police Department as it becomes available (Fernwood NRG has a request in the queue), including the data from police reports themselves.

Ta b l e 1 : 9 1 1 c a l l s f r o m F e r n w o o d b y c a l l t y p e , 2 0 0 4 t h r o u g h 2 0 0 9

F i g u r e 1 : 9 1 1 c a l l s f r o m F e r n w o o d v s . V i c t o r i a , 2 0 0 4 t h r o u g h 2 0 0 9

prior to that time are harder to come by. But even the part year statistics for 2004 show that

Fernwood (as defined by the civic boundaries, see map) was placing over 13 calls per day to

911 for over 4,800 for the year. However, that number has steadily declined for the past six

years to just over 8 calls per day or less than 3,000 in 2009 (see table 1). This represents 39%

fewer 911 calls from Fernwood. By comparison, 911 calls peaked city-wide in 2006 and have

only declined 16% since that time (12% since 2004). In short, Fernwood has gotten safer faster

than other neighbourhoods.

Figure 1: 911 calls—Fernwood vs. Victoria, 2004-2009

And, perhaps more importantly, the nature of the calls has changed. The Victoria Police

Department’s PRIME (Police Records Information Management Environment) database tracks

over 100 call types and all incoming calls are coded at the time they are received. This gives us

an indication of what the person calling may have said and the operator responding may have

interpreted. But it also gives an indication as to how the police may have responded to the call.

Clearly, a bylaw complaint (noise) would receive a different priority response than a “shots

heard” or a “fight” call. However, these call statistics don’t tell us anything about the crime rate

itself, because it is only after an officer responds and investigates (or decides not to

investigate) that a report is filed by a police officer indicating whether in the opinion of the

officer a crime has been committed. Or, more importantly, what the outcome was. For

instance, a shots heard call might turn out to have been a car backfiring. Or it might have been

a homicide.

However, if the number of calls is declining, we can judge a certain amount about the relative

level of safety in the neighbourhood. The following table, showing the decline in the call rate for

the types of calls that are either most threatening or annoying, speaks for itself.

61

88

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

Ind

ex (

2004=

100)

Year

Fernwood

Victoria/Esquimalt

Fernwood

Victoria/Esquimalt

Fernwood placing fewer 911 calls since 2004


›› Deryk Houston

At the back of Jan Johnson’s s art studio in Sooke, dark shadows and warm bursts of sunlight compete for equal space on the gentle forest floor.

Like most artists, Mr. Johnson tries to find meaning and understanding in a world that often seems at odds with humanity. He talks emotionally about having a guardian angel. The forest and his house are a tangled artistic expression of that search, there are mannequins and dolls and shrines all through the back forest. Some of the dolls have broken or missing limbs. Most have been moved and altered by time, by weather and even by animals. There is a fascinating beauty in the cathartic, macabre expressions, which at first glance makes one feel like you have landed on the set for the movie, “Apoca-lypse Now.”

Jan created his first sculpture when he came out on a short leave from his military duty in Vietnam in the late sixties.

In ancient times when the mountains and the earth shook and tore apart without explanation, people often sought meaning through the creation of legends and gods. It is no surprise that Jan Johnson sought peace and material for his art in the Hindu legends such as the god Vishnu, known for forgiveness and compassion.

Vishnu is also known as the preserver and protector of creation. Vishnu is the

avatar and embodiment of mercy and goodness and I feel that might also be a way to describe Jan as well.

His studio is jam packed with metal sculptures full of narrative and myths. He takes discarded objects, sometimes found on hillsides near abandoned mines and some things are dropped off at his studio by friends. He then uses these discarded objects in a disjointed way to form a prac-tical, functioning base or sometimes it is used in the very heart of each piece. A steel, rusted shovel might become a mask and a rust encrusted chain becomes the hair.

Jan often uses old machine parts such as cogs and chains, further embracing the idea of Vishnu’s cosmic order. Some-times the broken machines are turned into new and perhaps more whimsical “art” machines. It is interesting to hand crank

the welded, steel figures, which rotate in a smooth, repetitive, predictable motion around a circular chain system.

Jan’s sculpture, “Churning the Sea of Milk,” depicts the Hindu myth where the gods and demons have been churning the sea of milk in an effort to produce an elixir that would make them immortal and incorruptible. Their efforts are exhausting and it gets them nowhere until the gods ask Vishnu for help. They are instructed to work together and keep churning. Even-tually their efforts are rewarded in more ways than they ever expected. The story has many interpretations, including being a metaphor for creation of matter and the cosmos out of the primordial sea of energy. Jan’s work can be interpreted in many ways and on many levels. It is a real pleasure to watch both children and adults interact

with his work which encourages touch and interaction.

Many artists and patrons have been deeply affected by Jan Johnson’s back woods project and steel sculptures. Painters, print makers and photographers discover new meaning in their creativity as they churn their personal histories into the shadows and light. Marnie Miiler is one such artist, and her photographs have been capturing ghost like images that she discovered hiding among the twisted roots, branches and wet moss. Miriam Mulhall is another thoughtful photographer who has been capturing images of Jan’s work over a long period of time and she will be presenting her work with several pieces of Jan’s work at an upcoming spring exhibi-tion at the Collective Works Gallery in Fernwood.

Artist’s Aside:

Avatars of Vishnu

›› Margaret Hantiuk

April is when we really get busy. Weeds have had a head start this year with the warm weather; it pays to get the heavy invaders early before they seed and spread. (Beekeepers do remind us that a few dande-lions here and there are wonderful forage, as most hybridized flower cultivars do not have pollen. Do remember to plant some native and heritage flower species and shrubs for our friendly bees). In the veggie gar-den, cover crops like fall rye should be dug in, wait 2 weeks, then dug again to avoid a crop. Lime parts of your veggie garden: NOT blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, potatoes, and tomatoes. (These benefit from acidic leaf mulch).

Lime your lawn if you haven’t already, and start cutting it regularly, not too short and leaving the clippings as mulch. If you

have bare spots in your lawn, overseed now on a bed of fine compost. Fine compost can be sprinkled on your lawn as fertilizer too.

It’s time to get the hoses, sprinklers and irrigation systems ready, in case dry weather comes up. Check all trellises and supports, and begin staking the peonies and such perennials before it is difficult. Hedges can be sheared, heathers as well—but not into old wood or the old stems (though laurels can be cut into old wood and still ‘break out’ anywhere.) Continue pruning roses, and late blooming (from June on) shrubs. Prune back spring blooming shrubs after blossom drop: take out old wood to the ground if rejuvenation is needed, or just cut back the flowering wood. Dead, diseased and dam-aged wood can be cut back anytime.

It’s still too early for tender veggies (corn, tomatoes, squash, peppers, eggplant, cukes and beans, except broad) and tender

flowers (most annuals except sweet peas, nasturtiums). They can be started indoors or in coldframes and greenhouses. All other veggies can be planted into the garden now. If you are using transplants from a green-house, remember to ‘harden’ them off by putting them out in the daytime, and bring-ing them in at night for a few days, then planting them out.

It’s time to spread your compost, old manure, coffee grounds, leaf mulch or organic fertilizers about, but don’t smother the crown of plants or build a ‘volcano’ around your trees’ trunks. Rather build a ‘well’ as the drip line (the edge of the above canopy where the shrub/tree’s feeder roots are active) is where mulch and watering is most useful. Avoid dig-ging and hoeing around these roots and don’t place heavy objects or paving stones over the root zone.

Garden Gleanings:

April GardeningStars in the April Garden

Ornamental Trees: maples, arbutus, redbud (cercis), crabapple (malus), prunus serrulata (flowering cherry), flowering pear (pyrus), magnolias

Ornamental Shrubs: chokecherry (aronia), aucuba, berberis, camellia, fothergilla, kerria, leucothoe, osman-thus delavayi, shrubby cinquefoil (potentilla), rhodos, skimmia, spirea ‘arguta’ and thunbergii, viburnum carlesii. v.davidii, v. tinus. agnolias (M. stellata, M. Kobus, M. x loebneri); flowering plums (Prunus cerasifera, P. x blireana); flowering cherries (Prunus pendula, P. sargentii, P. X subhirtella, P. x yedoensis)

Perennials: a juga, brunnera, lily-of-the-valley, bleeding heart, epimedium, erigon, wallflowers), euphorbia, candytuft, lithadora, phlox, potentilla, primula, saxifrage, tierrella.

Bulbs: anemone, camas, erythro-nium, fritillaria, bluebells, early Dutch Iris, late daffodils, renunculus, trilliums, tulips.

Groundcovers: ajuga, kinnikinnick, sweet woodruff, sedum, spurge, flow-ering strawberry

Vines: Clematis (alpina and macrop-etala varieties)

“Churning the Sea of Milk”. Sculpture and photo by Jan Johnson.


What’s on in Fernwood: AprilSunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

11Sunday Storytime

9:30am

Drop-In Karate 1:00-2:30pm

Drop-In Hatha Yoga 3:00-4:30pm

Drop-In Soccer 5:00-6:30pm

Victoria Folk Music Society Open Stage7:00pm @ Norway House

12LOL@Laughterama10:00-11:00am @ Orange Hall

Kundalini Yoga 5:45-7:00pm

LifeRing Secular Recovery

7:30-8:45pm

Nuu-Chah-Nuth Drum Group

8:30-10:30pm

13Parent & Tot Playgroup

9:30-11:30am

Hatha Yoga 3:30-5:00pm

Drop-In Co-Ed Hockey 7:00-9:30pm

Food Security Collective Meeting

7:00-9:00pm

Victoria Bluegrass Association Jam 7:30-10:00pm @ Orange Hall

14Parent & Babe Playgroup

9:30-11:30am

Bluegrass Jams 7:30-10:00pm


Parent & Tot Playgroup 9:30-11:30am


Open Mic 8:30-11:30pm@ the Fernwood Inn.

16Seniors’ Exercise, Lunch and Activities

11:00am-2:00pm

Fernwood Youth Fridays 7:00-9:30pm

17Walking Group10:00am start @ Fernwood Square

Work party 3:00pm @ Springridge Commons.

18Sunday Storytime

9:30am








7:30-8:45pm


8:30-10:30pm


9:30-11:30am





9:30-11:30am







11:00am-2:00pm


24Work party 3:00pm @ Springridge Commons.

25Sunday Storytime

9:30am








7:30-8:45pm


8:30-10:30pm


9:30-11:30am





9:30-11:30am







11:00am-2:00pm


1 MayWalking Group10:00am start @ Fernwood Square

Work party 3:00pm @ Springridge Commons.

2Sunday Storytime

9:30am





3Laughter Yoga10:00-11:00am @ Orange Hall



7:30-8:45pm


8:30-10:30pm


9:30-11:30am





9:30-11:30am



9:30-11:30am




11:00am-2:00pm


All’s Well 7:00-9:00pm

8Work party 3:00pm @ Springridge Commons.

Like the work of Fernwood NRG? Go to CanadaHelps.org and make a donation.

Where’s that event?

Fernwood NRG1240 Gladstone Ave.

Cornerstone Cafe 1301 Gladstone Ave.

Belfry Theatre1291 Gladstone Ave.

Fernwood Inn1302 Gladstone Ave.

Orange Hall1620 Fernwood Rd.

Norway House1110 Hillside Ave.

Scene in Fernwood : Holi

Documents

April 2010 Village Vibe