Criminals On The Loose

Things seem to be changing here in the peaceful hamlet of Dain City - and I don't like it one bit.

I'm referring to the recent rash of crimes and disturbances we've been hearing about in the local news. It started out with the guys who broke into someone's backyard to throw a drunken pool party. Then we heard complaints about some kids on bikes blaring their music late at night, which is hardly a crime, but nonetheless goes against what we're used to in this area. Then there was the incident that personally affected me: when my mother's 30-year-old bicycle was stolen from inside a locked apartment building, apparently by someone who must have had a key.

You might wonder why I'm calling two actual crimes and one minor annoyance a "rash," but think about how often we hear about this stuff going on in Dain City. Other than the big lockdown that occurred two months ago today, I can't remember the last time anything even remotely criminal made the news in good old D.C. This area just has a reputation as a quiet, peaceful, and safe place to live, while Welland (sadly) isn't always viewed in that same light. 

Keep in mind that those three incidents I mentioned are just the ones that made it to the top of the Dain City Facebook group. There are others that you don't hear about. I myself have had some issues with a bunch of kids (younger than myself) on bikes in the Old Subdivision, who get a kick out of chasing whoever walks by and yelling what I'll call 'unkind remarks' at them (fill in the blanks). Being a paperboy (it's easy money), I've run into them ever since I started with the Tribune a couple of years back. We even filed a report after they tried to make off with my cart and its contents, including my house keys, but nothing ever came of it. Again, 'attempted petty theft' isn't really much of a crime, but it's out of the ordinary.*

* Tangent: While I'm on the subject of the paper route, I can't begin to count the number of times I get a strong whiff of marijuana from a passing car or a nearby house when I'm out doing my morning deliveries. We might be pretty close to legalization, but for the moment, pot is still an illegal drug, unless you have a medical permit, and I'm quite certain these people do not. Now, we all know where people get illegal drugs from. I am aware of many of the drug dealers who are active in Welland, and I don't know any who only deal in the "softer" stuff like cannabis. It makes you wonder how many degrees of separation are between the harmless Dain City tokers who enjoy a joint on the way to work, and real criminals. They might be closer together than you would assume.

It's not just Dain City that's being affected, either. According to the NRP, all of Welland is seeing an increase in some types of criminal activity (namely, thefts) when compared to last summer. They said the increase is not significant enough to really call it a trend, which seems like PR-speak for "the increase is there, but we're not putting any additional resources into it," if you ask me. But what do I know.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that there have been some thefts in Welland as of late. That's normal. Welland is a decent-sized city, and decent-sized cities have crime. Dain City, though, is not really a city at all. Dain City is a place where people leave their garage doors open to give their neighbours easy access. A place where people leave their dogs out when they're not home, and the dogs are friendly to passersby. A place where the owners of the local corner store know you by name. You get the idea.

But if this kind of stuff keeps making the local news, that reputation is at risk. We could lose our status as Welland's safe haven, the peaceful hamlet, the quiet little town where nothing ever happens. That could all go down the drain. Reputations can be destroyed in an instant, and it won't take a murder to drive people away from here. All we need is one thief, one drug dealer, one serial trespasser even, and the retirees that make up the larger part of our population could start fleeing to Wainfleet's cottage country, or wherever else. And then where will we be?

Quebec or Welland?

Note: The following post is not meant to be taken 100% seriously. To the fine people of Quebec: je t'aime beaucoup.

Those who know me personally, and those who pay close attention to my online presence, will know that I've just returned from spending a month in Quebec in an attempt to pick up French. While there, I kept an eye out for things that reminded me of home, and for things I'd like to see implemented back here. Some of the things I found were surprising, while others were exactly what I expected. 

I suppose there's no better way to restart the Waterfront View than to share my findings. Here are the ways Quebec City is ahead of us:

• Quebec has better tourism. Granted, they have a bit more to show off than we do, what with their European-looking streets, incredibly old buildings, and a military fort smack-dab in the middle of the tourist district. But they also know how to take full advantage of what they've got in order to rake in those tourist dollars. Not a single opportunity seems to have been missed in the entire city. In contrast, many of Welland's historical buildings are unappreciated and deteriorating, and our biggest asset - the Canal - is taken for granted.
• Their murals are in better shape. Quebec City (and the rest of the province) is full of murals, and all of the ones I saw were in excellent condition. The ones I viewed were all created as part of independent community initiatives, and their upkeep was funded by local businesses. Welland's FOA murals do not receive this type of care, and as a result, they are being lost to time.
• Cool street art. We passed under a large highway overpass in the Vieux-Port section of the city whose pillars were all covered with street art murals, each one being done by a different artist. I couldn't view it up close, as we were in a bus heading somewhere else, but I believe it must have been a designated area for such art. I also saw similar pieces of street art scattered around the city.
• Relative lack of urban sprawl. It seems like everywhere you look in Welland, there is another piece of farmland or forest being trampled to make way for a new housing development. This is not the case in Quebec City, because practically everybody lives in apartment blocks. That's what is considered the norm there. According to my professor, you only get a house in Quebec City if you absolutely need the space, or if you have money to burn by doing so.
• Lack of scooter people. Any true Wellander reading this should know what I'm referring to, and I didn't see a single one in Quebec City. They'd never be able to navigate all the hills.
• Finally, strong cultural identity. This one is more of a generalization, but we all know that the Quebecois are very proud to be Quebecois. You never hear that about Ontarians. This could have something to do with the fact that they created an entire dialect of a major world language, whereas our most famous creation is probably bagged milk, or something. But the point still stands.

So yes, Quebec has us beat in some ways. But there were also some things I saw that tipped the scales in Welland's favour. As much as I complain about some aspects of life in Welland, there were some things the Quebecois fell behind in: 

• Appreciation of their public art. For all the nice artwork they had in Quebec City, I never heard one person talk about it - and that's despite receiving a guided tour from a professional tour guide, a guided tour from a professor, and many suggestions on where to go from university students. It seems that the murals are just 'there.' Even if Welland's murals aren't cared for as well as theirs are, at least we have some people dedicated to spreading the word about them.
• Sidewalks. The entire province of Quebec has horrible sidewalks, and I don't know why. The campus of the Universite Laval was particularly dreadful, with large chunks just missing, cracks everywhere, and curbs that had literally crumbled away into nothing. Even in the touristy area of Quebec City, the situation was the same. The most puzzling part of this issue is that their roads, with the exception of the brick ones, were in excellent condition for the most part. 
• Drivers. There are bad drivers everywhere, but out of the places I've visited, Quebec had the worst ones by far. Everyone speeds all the time, and I witnessed pretty much every road-rage inducing technique you can think of. Where the traffic cops are I have no idea, as I only ever saw one police car during my entire stay.
• Fast food. I visited McDonald's restaurants three times during my stay, and each time they got my order wrong, despite clarifying it in both French and English. The one in Welland always gets my order wrong too, but at least they only do it in one language.
• Tourist appreciation. Wellanders (myself included) are always going on about how much we want tourists to come to our city. In Quebec, they have tons of them, as I mentioned before - but you can just tell that they hate them. Sure, they still cater to them, but it wasn't hard to tell that the souvenir shop owners, waiters, taxi drivers, and pretty much everyone else really wanted nothing to do with the dirty English-speaking visitors. I know there are many years of bad blood between French Canadians and English Canadians, but I'm pretty sure the Bajans never had anything to do with it, so leave me out.
• Treacherous roads. You apparently can't drive 10 minutes in any direction in Quebec without coming up to some insane hill that you have to go up, or down, or both. This was especially problematic given that we did all our traveling by bus, and the bus drivers aren't exempt from all that stuff I said about the Quebecois being bad drivers. Even when the roads were flat, there were bizarre cases where a multi-lane, 80KM highway suddenly came to a 4-way stop and continued as a residential road. Even the Quebecois I mentioned this too were quick to admit that their roads are strange.
• Fish and chips. The straw that really broke the camel's back: the people of Quebec do not eat fish and chips. Perhaps that's one long-lasting way of rebelling against the English. In any case, I don't think I could have lasted much longer than a month there with this in mind.

So Welland it is. Maybe it's nostalgia, maybe it's homesickness, maybe I'm just biased, but my hometown comes out on top. Quebec was a beautiful place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Forget about la belle province - the Rose City is where I belong.