Is our city finally returning to normal?

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan was ready to throw in the towel last week and hand out free drugs to the horde of drug-addled zombies trolling our fine city.

Hold on a minute, Sam.

The cops implemented a zero-tolerance policy for drug use on city streets a few weeks ago, actually arresting people shooting up outside of churches and schools for the first time in years. Since then, I've barely seen any beggars around Granville and Robson; at the beginning of April, the place was literally crawling with them (as I blogged about then. Read about it here).

I haven't seen any numbers yet, but I suspect that hitting at the center of the problem in the downtown eastside has led to a ripple effect at the epicenter - and one of Vancouver's most important commercial neighborhoods.

To all those who are willing to risk this city's future in the hopes of some remote possibility of success, hold on a little while longer. Maybe all we needed to take back our city from the edge was the will to do it.

Here's hoping we've turned the corner.

tags: homeless, Granville, Robson, downtown eastside, ripple effect, beggars, horde