WATCH: The Kingsway area of Burnaby is being held up as an example of a sketchy neighbourhood reclaimed from crime. Nadia Stewart explains who kick-started the clean-up and why it’s working.
Residents in a South Burnaby neighbourhood will be holding a party Wednesday night to celebrate the progress they’ve made over the past decade.
About 10 years ago, Kingsway Imperial was dealing with serious issues: an influx of sex trade workers, illegal dumping, graffiti and crime. Area resident Diane Gillis said she was bothered by what she was seeing.
“It was bad in when I saw a teenage girl working as a sex trade worker just shortly up from our house on Kingsway,” she said.
“I was told we are known as the Whalley of Burnaby. Now that’s sad for Whalley and that’s sad for us.”
Gillis rallied her neighbours and businesses and then coordianted their efforts with police and city council. She also helped found the Kingsway Imperial Neighbourhood Association. They organized information sessions and community clean-ups.
“At one of our early clean-ups, an elementary student…used the tongs to pick up what he thought was garbage. It was a human hand attached to a live body,” said Gillis.
Working together, they cleaned up the area. Now, condos are sprouting up everywhere and streets, once feared, are now busy again.
Both Gillis and RCMP say there is still work to be done. However, they also agree they’ve changed the look and feel of the neighbourhood.
- ‘I’m gonna push’: First-time B.C. mother delivers her own baby on way to hospital
- Meter mixup: B.C. woman’s power bill swapped with neighbours for over a decade
- Family says probe into B.C. Mountie’s suicide has left no one accountable
- Burnaby RCMP release sketch of man accused of sexually assaulting 80-year-old woman
Comments