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Vancouver has been long seen as one of the most attractive cities in the world. This year's Mercer's Quality of Living survey outcomes positioned Vancouver as the American top place to live. Nevertheless, The Economics and The Independent have been publishing unfavourable articles about this city. What is the reason for this? While Vancouver has 2.7 mil residents, there have been 45 gunfire incidents from January to March 2009. 17 people died in these. That’s 6.3 violent deaths per 1 mil residents. At the same time, there were only 11 shooting incidents during the same time in Toronto, which has 5.1 mil residents, which makes the violent death rate almost three times lower (2.2 victims per 1 million residents). Two battles: gangs vs. gangs and gangs vs. the police Compared to the contemporary situation, the number of gangs operating in Vancouver some 10 years ago was 10 times smaller. This means that nowadays, there are more than 100 groups functioning in Vancouver! And what is making these figures even worse, is 1) bad organization of the gangs, 2) their easy access to weapons, and ) the average gang member age being very low. Currently there are two battles going on at the streets of Vancouver. The first of them naturally occurs among the gangs. The gangs are at each other's throats since the cost of cocaine from Mexico has gone up. Lately, there has been a intense effort coming from the Mexican government, aimed at the drug cartel operations, which has pushed the cocaine price from $23,300/kg to almost $39,000/kg. What is it about Vancouver and drugs, you might wonder. The answer to this question should mention the general laid-back attitude of the place in conjunction with its position on the map and its enormous low populated areas surrounding it, all this resulting in great conditions for a very active drug scene. Also no other place in Canada combines these conditions to such an extent. Despite all this, the amount of officers in Vancouver is lower (recalculated per number of inhabitants) than anywhere else in Canada - concerning mostly large cities. On the top of that the regional government plans on cutting the police and court annual expenses by $20 million by 2012. The police would have much better chances in the fight with the gangs, had they got more people and money available. What to do now? It is impossible to suggest some easy instant solution for the current state of things. As a Vancouver realtor I have imminent interest on seeing my neighbourhoods safe. My logic indicates to me that right now more cash and police forces must be utilized, not less of it! Safety and security have to become the city's important traits again. One, but not the only reason being the Olympic games next year, but mainly because the inhabitants of Vancouver deserve it. Recently, the PM Stephen Harper suggested a new harsh law which would classify gang killings as first-degree murders with at least 25 years in prison. This is of course a right thing to do, but in order to improve the situation in Vancouver, it is not sufficient.
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