Today I am not going to write from a position of a Vancouver BC real estate agent, but simply from a position of a Vancouver’s citizen. Vancouver has been long seen as one of the greatest cities in the world. Even the 2009 Mercer Quality of Living global city rankings showed Vancouver as the top city in America. However, The Economics and The Independent have been publishing unfavourable articles about this city. Why is that?

While Vancouver has 2.7 mil residents, there have been 45 gunfire incidents from January to March 2009. 17 people died in these. That’s 6.3 violent deaths per 1 mil residents. In comparison, Toronto has 5.1 mil residents and for the same 3 months, only 11 murders occurred, resulting in almost three times smaller number - 2.2 people dying violently out of every 1 million.

Parallel war: gangs vs. gangs, gangs vs. the police

10 years ago, there were only 10 times less active gangs in Vancouver than these days. Speaking in specific figures, it is over 100 gangs active in Vancouver these days! And what is making these statistics even worse, is 1) bad organization of the gangs, 2) their easy access to weapons, and ) the average gang member age being very low.

Today there are two battles going on at the streets of Vancouver. The first of them of course occurs among the gangs. This war originated from the fact that the price of Mexican cocaine has been rising. In the recent past, the cocaine price has gone up from $23,300/kg up to almost $39,000/kg, this being caused by the operation against drug cartels led by the Mexican administration.

Now you might be wondering why the bond between Vancouver and drugs is so strong. Well, the combination of the city’s easy-going approach, geographical position and immense backcountry make the excellent combination for enhanced drug crime. Besides, Vancouver is has quite a unique combination of all these conditions. Despite all this, the amount of policemen in Vancouver is lower (recalculated per number of residents) than anywhere else in Canada - concerning mostly big cities. On the top of that the provincial government plans on cutting the police and court annual expenses by $20 million by 2012. The second war going on between the gangs and the police would be much more favorable to the latter, if the police had enough resources, both financial and personal.

How to handle the situation

I am far from assuming that this situation we are facing can be solved by some quick & easy peace recipes. But my logic tells me that right now more money and police forces must be utilized, not less of it! Safety and security must become the city’s important characteristics again. We are planning to host the Olympics here soon, but also and mainly it is in the Vancouver people’s best interests. Recently, the PM Stephen Harper suggested a new harsh law which would classify gang killings as first-degree murders with at least 25 years in prison. This is of course a right decision, but in order to improve the situation in Vancouver, it is not enough.