A recent Wisteria Lane walk-through for city officials, politicians, the media and the public gave neighbours a chance to show the progress they’ve made
Nob Hill-area residents in Nanaimo, who live along a laneway they’ve named Wisteria Lane, have applied a systematic approach to discourage drug use and prostitution in the area. It’s called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) and it focuses on good design and enhancements to the built environment.
Wisteria Lane residents Tanya and Doug Hiltz, Norman Abbey, and others hosted a walk-through for city officials, the mayor and members of Nanaimo city council, MLA Leonard Krog and the public on Saturday September 13, 2014 to show the progress that has been made.
“The environmental design model includes a plethora of easy-to-do items such as removing graffiti, increase the lighting, adding no trespassing signs, adding garbage cans, and adding public art,” reports Aaron Hinks in the Nanaimo Daily News. “Residents are starting to work on their own properties by lowering their fence height so they can see what’s taking place in the alleyway from the safety of their home.”
John Horn, City of Nanaimo social planner, attended the Wisteria Lane walk-through held in July just as work was proceeding and said neighbourhoods that work together are strong and are able to deter and diminish the illegal occurrences (as reported in the Nanaimo News Bulletin). “If you walk down the alley and you believe everyone in the alley has a lot of capability and they’re acting in a guardian capacity, then that sends the signal that this is not the place to conduct illicit activity…that’s the signal that has to be sent and that’s what changes things,” Horn said.
We shared an extensive segment on Wisteria Lane’s use of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design on People First Radio in July 2014. Now we’ll provide an update from the walk-through on September 13.
We speak with Wisteria Lane residents and others.
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