Seeking Safer Streets

A giant map set up at the Museum of Northern B. C. on Thursday night marked street after street of areas that women feel unsafe in. Showing an undercurrent of concern about safety in this city and highlighting a perception that there needs to be something done to make our street safer for all.

The map was set up by the Take Back the Nigh campaign and participants in Thursday nights gathering at the museum were asked to place a sticker on the map in areas where they felt particularly vulnerable or unsafe.

The East side of town was tagged as unsafe along Drydock Road and George Hills Way, with Hays Cove Circle and Seal Cove areas also neighbourhoods of concern.

But for the most part the most troublesome areas indicated by dots on the map were found in the Western half of the city, westward from McBride Street. Particular concern was expressed about the pathways around PRSS and for many blocks in the downtown core.

Participants were also asked to provide details or comments about areas of concern and the majority of the respondents expressed concerns about drunks, drug users in the downtown area and poor lighting and suspicious people walking the streets at night. There was also a perception provided that there were far too infrequent patrols of those areas of concern.

Full details on the evenings program and the scope of the dangers that women feel exist in the city can be found in Friday's Daily News.

Violence fear stalks many women across city
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Friday, September 28, 2007

Page one

Last night's meeting for Take Back the Night highlighted the fear of violence some women feel in certain parts of town.

The event, put on the Prince Rupert Transition Society, saw a solid turnout of concerned residents from both genders who want to see an end to the violence against women in the community.

The large map of Prince Rupert that was covered with stickers gave a good indication of those areas in which women felt safe, and the places where there was a perception of moderately or even extreme danger.

The east side of town was given a clean slate for the most part, with only a few green stickers indicating extremely unsafe areas in spots like George Hills Way, Dry Dock Road, Hays Cove Circle, and the general area of Seal Cove.

The West side was another story, with green stickers popping up all over the map, and being heavily concentrated in numerous areas.

The trail by Prince Rupert Secondary School was felt by many to be unsafe, as was the area around the skateboard park and civic centre.

However, there was barely a block anywhere on the west side of McBride Street that didn't have at least one green sticker, and the downtown core was marked as an overwhelmingly problematic area in many women's eyes.

There were many forms posted at the event in the Museum of Northern B.C.'s Ceremonial Room that women had filled out anonymously expressing why they felt safe and unsafe.

The most frequent answers given for feeling unsafe in certain areas were because of drug users and drunks, previous violent or sexual crimes known to have been committed, little or no lighting, unknown or suspicious people hanging out at night, and infrequent police patrolling of trouble areas. Perhaps more telling was that many women stated the only place they felt safe was in their own neighborhood or even within the four walls of their own home.

Murray Smith had some moving and heartfelt words to share with everyone about his past and how he was able to make a change for the better in his life and that of his family.

"It brings tears to my eyes thinking about how mean I was, and the terror I brought to my wife and kids back then," said Smith speaking about what he described as his former abusive lifestyle.

"When I was asked to do this the memories all came back to me, and I stand here before you in honor of you women. I take responsibility for my actions, so I'm proud to be here and proud I was able to stop the abuse all those years ago," said Smith.

Local Tsimshian dancers performed several songs, including a song of peace, a blanket dance, the Spirit of the Lord, and ended by offering their support and gratitude for being able to contribute to the Take Back the Night event.

"In our culture and media, being strong and in control is identified as what it is to be a man," said Take Back the Night organizer Leigh Murphy. "We need to change that, so to be a man can mean to be caring and compassionate and all those things that are important."

Many people present engaged in a discussion about what can be done to make Prince Rupert a safer place for women. The issue of children being out on the streets until late into the evening was also brought up, as was the societal problem of people being unwilling to come forward and report crimes and the anonymity faced by residents, even in a city as small as Prince Rupert.