After three years of seeing and hearing about sketchy activities in his Port Coquitlam neighbourhood, Ammar Ahmed said enough was enough.
The father of three had watched drug deals go down in and around Fox Park — a 1.5-acre space where kids frequently play — and read reports from Coquitlam RCMP about the neighbourhood being a high-crime zone for home and vehicle break-ins.
Last fall, when a daycare child in Fox Park got pricked by a used hypodermic needle that was buried in the gravel, Ahmed raised the alarm.
A few weeks back, when city staff called on area residents to give feedback on updates for Fox Park, Ahmed used his time to talk to fellow residents as well, most of whom were also complaining about illegalities.
He started a Facebook page — dedicated for residents located south of Lougheed Highway and north of Davies Avenue, and between Westwood and Hastings streets — to network.
Ahmed also contacted the detachment’s Block Watch co-ordinator to glean information.
Sunday, he’s inviting his neighbours to pot luck dinner at Fox Park to officially launch the program and share ideas to keep the area safe. “It’s been proven that just having signage up is a deterrent,” he said, noting he’s had assistance from the city to cordon off part of Lancaster Street for the private gathering.
The city is aware of the social challenges, which mainly sprung up after BC Housing and the city of Coquitlam built a homeless shelter nearby at 3030 Gordon Ave.
“There is a presence of individuals [at Fox Park] who are homeless or have addiction issues,” said communications manager Pardeep Purewal. “We have found drug paraphernalia including sharps and garbage such as beer cars.”
She added, “City staff comb and clean the area daily as do staff from [shelter operators] RainCity Housing.”
With the new rubber surface that will go in this fall at Fox Park, the city hopes it will prevent objects from being buried. The $180,000 park rebuild, which begins later this month or in early September, will also include replacing playground equipment, improving the pathways and adding new benches.
Today (Wednesday), the city also pruned the trees close to the playground to start the spruce-up.
Ahmed said he’s grateful to the city for the park upgrades and hopes it will be a start to stem the crime tide. “We need people to work together to solve these problems around here.”
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
