Neighbourhood watchdog has new plan
New phase in cleanup campaign But will he burn himself out?
The only problem with doing something spectacularly brave is the pressure to drum up an encore.
No, no, I’m not talking about myself. Remember James Russell? In September, he started spending his nights in an unlit alleyway at the edge of a shopping mall at Malvern St. and Sheppard Ave. E.
Apparently, all sorts of disenfranchised youth would mill about in that stretch of darkness all night long.
Russell, who lives a couple of buildings away, had grown sick of the nightly pageantry of drugs, prostitution and perilous potential.
After pleading with the shopping mall owner to illuminate that part of the property, Russell bought a couple of 500- watt lights, vowing to clean it up himself. He pulled up a chair on the evening of Sept. 10, fired up the lights — with a little help from a generator — and let the usual suspects know he had arrived. About midway through the campaign, I wrote about his struggle.
Aside from a handful of people who dropped in on him from time to time, Russell ended up spending 47 straight nights out there on his own.
It seemed scandalous that people who stand up for their neighbourhoods should have to do it alone. But of course, we’ll keep wringing our hands about the state of our neighbourhoods; how some apartment buildings are as dangerous on the inside as they are on the outside — and how nothing ever seems to get done when it comes to ratcheting up community safety.
Well, Russell got something done. On Oct. 26, he lugged his lighting equipment to the old familiar corridor, only to discover the mall owner was finally installing lights. They flickered to life the next night. And a neighbourhood will never be the same. The question is, will Russell? He called the other day to announce the next phase of the operation. A couple of neighbourhood drug dealers have caught his eye.
“ So I’m going after the first one — the big one,” Russell says. “ I’m going to photograph him every time I come into contact with him, as well as record the times he arrives and departs.
‘‘ Basically I’m going to be all over him like a cheap suit.”
His theory is sound — Russell speaks often about how people who hide from trouble can only expect it to show up at their front door.
And, of course, we should be applauding him and volunteering for shifts and organizing power posses to help him get it done. The super neighbour is going supernova. But the reality is, if he didn’t get any support for his first crusade, is Russell only going to burn himself out?
After all, we’re not talking about staking out an alley any more. He’s getting in the faces of people and, well, messing with their income. Not so long ago, I accidentally did the same thing.
I was returning home late one night, with friends, and playing with a video camera. An SUV pulled up in front of the neighbouring coffee shop and the young thugs inside started very obviously distributing drugs to the night’s shambling denizens. The instant I arced the camera in their direction, the operation shuttered to a halt.
“ Were you filming us?” one of them barked up the street at us. Now, dear reader, here’s the real fork in everyone’s road. Did I spin around, and tell that truckload of toothy apes that we were documenting drug dealers in the area? Did I tell them every time they stopped in for doughnuts at 3 a. m I would be on them like a cheap suit? Or did I add an extra spring to my step and hustle back to my apartment?
Well, like I said earlier, I’m not talking about myself. Rental Confidential appears every two weeks. Send email to Christian Cotroneo at:ccotron@thestar.ca