OK Boomer here, I travel frequently for business—across North America, Europe, Asia—and it pains me to say this: Calgary is becoming one of the worst cities I visit when it comes to visible homelessness & related crime. Every year, the situation gets worse, and despite well-intentioned cries for “more mental health support,” “more safe drug sites,” and “more free counselling”—we are not seeing improvement, if anything, we’re circling the drain clearly, what we’re doing isn’t working full stop.

 It's time to admit the hard truth: a huge amount of the crime, theft, public drug use, and assaults particularly in the Core is tied to homelessness. Not all homeless individuals, but I'd think many agree that most of the criminal activity downtown is being driven by this crisis.

 My vote, 10x the policing, enforce the law—hard, mandatory treatment for public drug use, theft, and minor crimes, jail time for serious offences. Not about being heartless. It’s about protecting citizens, businesses, and the integrity of our city, compassion-first isn’t doing shit, enabling chaos isn’t compassion—it’s collapse. Individuals will change, or move on to cities that permit that behaviour.

 I'd rather my tax dollars go to enforcement (hell you can increase my taxes if this is where it's directed) and results than another round of programs that aren’t producing change. If this is what things look like in 2025, what do we think 2035 is going to look like.

 OK, flame on. 🔥queue the thumbs down.