Ward 4 resident wants city to act on ‘drug epidemic’
Seeing a woman openly do drugs in broad daylight near his home was the last straw for Windsor resident Dan Pipitone — who is adding his voice to the chorus calling for action from the city. “I’ve never seen it this bad. It’s out of control,” said Pipitone, 34, a married father of two. Pipitone was confronted by the sight of the female drug user earlier this month in a parking lot across the street from his residence at Pierre Avenue and Erie Street East. It was a Saturday evening. Documented by Pipitone in cellphone photos, a gaunt woman in ragged clothes sat cross-legged by a wall and began using paraphernalia to smoke a substance while in full public view.
“It was crack or methamphetamine or something. She was completely gone,” Pipitone recalled. “I said, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ No response. Nothing. She did not have a care in the world. Except doing what she had to do.” Pipitone said he and his wife had previously noticed the woman acting strangely. The drugs and lighter came out after Pipitone approached the woman.
“I said, ‘You need to get going. Get out of here. Leave.’ She walked maybe 10 steps, sat back down again.”
Pipitone said the woman finally shuffled off when he threatened to call police. “I asked her if she wanted help. She clearly didn’t want help.”
It wasn’t the first time Pipitone and his family have had a bad experience in their neighbourhood. Pipitone said his wife’s vehicle has been broken into twice over the past month, and his nine-yearold son found a syringe in an alley earlier in the summer. There was also the night at the beginning of September when his wife was startled as she watered plants at the rear of their thirdfloor unit.
“Someone came rushing up the stairs,” Pipitone said. “Somebody in black, with an all-black hoodie on.”
“Those are fire escape stairs. That’s not public access at all.” Pipitone said the stranger quickly fled when he saw someone was home, but Pipitone’s wife was still shaken by the encounter. Now Pipitone is nervous for his teenage daughter and his elementary school age son. He’s considering moving again.
“We’ve been going through a lot of issues,” Pipitone said. “I want my kids to be able to enjoy being outside, and not be stuck in the house. It’s not fair to them.” Although Pipitone has lived at his current address for only about a year, he said he grew up in the area. He brought his family back to the neighbourhood after about four years of living in Belle River, with a mind to becoming Windsor residents again.
But the neighbourhood is unrecognizable to him now. Pipitone said he’s shocked at what has become of the city, and he’s wondering what those who promise to represent citizens plan to do about Windsor’s “drug epidemic.”
“I feel unsafe. And I don’t feel like anybody is doing anything about it,” Pipitone said. “I’d like to see some change … I’d like to see an actual neighbourhood watch. Like we had back in the day. People who walk around and patrol their community.”
Current Ward 4 Coun. Chris Holt, who is seeking re-election, said he doesn’t mean to diminish Pipitone’s complaint — but it’s unfortunately nothing new to him. “I get messages like that a couple times a day.”
“What we’re talking about is happening in every single neighbourhood in this city,” Holt said. “This is something that is occupying pretty much all of my time now.” While Holt supports the idea of local solutions to resident concerns such as neighbourhood watch groups, he believes the community also needs to “move beyond that and start addressing the root causes of this epidemic.” “People are doing this because they are sick. Normal people do not smoke methamphetamine in a parking lot in broad daylight. There’s a mental illness factor that we have to deal with, and that is something that needs additional resources from the City of Windsor.”
Holt said he supports a “multipronged approach” that includes greater municipal investment in outreach workers such as those with the Windsor police Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST).
Janice Campbell, the only person challenging Holt for the Ward 4 seat, said she’s sorry to hear of the Pipitone family ’s experiences, and asked for them to reach out to her personally to “chat through some practical options for their consideration in terms of immediate improvement.”
“In the broader context, unfortunately and as you well know, the devastating negative effects and the many public manifestations of the opioid drug epidemic are upon us here in Windsor,” Campbell said.
“It’s disheartening and definitely not the kind of ‘welcome to Windsor’ that I would have wished for (the Pipitones).”
We’ve been going through a lot of issues. I want my kids to beabletoenjoy being outside, and not be stuck in the house. It’s not fair to them.