The advice came quickly and with emotion. There were many comments like Laura Martin: “I often took my kids on the train to visit the parks in the city center / I spent a day at the zoo, places where parking is inconvenient or expensive. Now I would not dream of taking the kids a bus or train to Calgary. “ One of the last times she took a train with her seven-year-old child, a man pulled a glass tube from where he was sitting and smoked it “as casually as if he were checking his phone.” They went out and took a taxi home. We have had hundreds of people write – stories of vomiting, beatings or pushing, watching drug use, experiencing fear and finding a new determination to stay as far away from the train as possible. Many say they use the bus instead when they can, because then there is a driver. Carver Philips said the drugs and harassment got him on the bus, but doubled his travel time. “The whole trip lasted more than two hours, it was four hours of my day every day. I gave up and went back to driving every day. It takes 30 minutes on each route and my safety from someone who was taking drugs or alcohol is no longer a concern. “ A pair of security guards deliver a life-saving dose of Narcan to an overdose man at a bus stop outside Marlborough LRT Station on June 8. CBC News chose to publish this photo to show what is happening, but without identifying a person in crisis. (CBC) We still read and respond to hundreds of messages, but it is clear that this is a widespread issue that prevents many, many people from returning to Calgary Transit. Drug use and crime jeopardize the multibillion-dollar infrastructure resources intended for all Calgary residents.
The complexity of the drug during transport
But there is another story here. What makes possible solutions more complex. Those three men who overdosed on Edwardson that day, all three survived. Two of them were rescued by traffic safety. If the public reaction to drug use only leads to repression, does it just force drugs, homelessness and despair into dark corners where no one can see them? Using drugs away from the eyes can be a death sentence. This is another topic we have heard, especially from a group of supporters on Twitter. If people want to stop “seeing” this to happen. Maybe invest in secure supply, supervised consumer sites and definitely invest in homes Thoughtshttps://t.co/Qyq4uiXqHF – @ HappinessTrying Several harm reduction advocates and reporters criticized the CBC for being surprised and for not reporting Narcan, a nasal spray version of the naloxone opioid antidote, saying it would have to wait to see an overdose during transport and be prepared to do so. reverse itself. Many people who joined the text messaging team initially talked about how insecure they felt. Then they got into the complexity of homelessness and drug use when they talked about solutions. They are afraid but also worried about those who use drugs.
A “pandemic of another kind”
Elizabeth-Anne Johnson wrote: “I believe that the things that make people uncomfortable with transportation – homelessness, drug use, etc. – are caused by the lack of social support offered by the government. No one wants to he smokes at the train station or sleeps in a bus shelter, but we as a society have disappointed these people. “ And Debbie Sellers said the problem can be seen far beyond transit. He said he lives in Forest Lawn, in an apartment outside 17th Avenue SE, where their park is occupied by drug addicts this year. She wrote: “No one can park their cars under the park anymore, the police seem to be limited in what they can do? Ή It was surreal and we are facing another pandemic of a different kind. “They will also come in groups to protect themselves, as some of them do not feel safe, so they start invading the yard to sleep where they felt safest. “I guess even those who are homeless and using drugs feel insecure. I talked to another guy who looked very good, and he said he was beaten and jumped by a lot of other kids.” Passengers board the CTrain at Calgary Zoo Station. (Lucie Edwardson / CBC) Notes sent to the messaging application are confidential. The people we named here gave their permission to share the comments publicly.
What is community-based journalism?
Detailed comments on which stations have specific problems, how the emergency text line helps or does not help, how problems change the rider’s behavior, and what solutions people would like to see explored – all of which help to formulate questions our municipal, transport and provincial authorities and to formulate stories we tell below. This is our next task: to create a list of questions and stories for this project. Because this is community-based journalism. It starts with listening. that listening and reporting go hand in hand. The publication comes in stages. we continue to learn and we can continue to listen. This quest for understanding is a job we face together. We will talk to experts and lawyers. This is important. And we must also land in listening to the community. Because the experience of the people who live this matters. This includes people who are being transported, or expelled from transit, who do not want their children to travel… and includes people who are stuck in a horrible cycle of addiction. This article was just the beginning. If you want to follow, join the text messaging community. And if you are curious about community-based journalism, take a look at our previous works.
