Carl DeLine

Stephen Avenue Mall merchants are banding together to refuse service to “undesirables” who loiter downtown, says mall manager Dick Roscoe.

But police fear those turned away may retaliate by vandalizing participating downtown stores.

“We will drive them away,” vowed Roscoe. “They are undesirables to us and we don’t want them here.”

Roscoe said the merchants’ campaign includes “refusing admission of certain people” into stores and reprimanding store owners who turn a blind eye to customers’ illegal activities.

“Merchants will snitch on their peers, point the finger at them and say, ‘Okay Joe, clean up your act,’ ” Roscoe said.

He said the campaign to clean up the mall of young people who shoplift, peddle drugs and harass prospective customers will operate much like Block Watch, a program encouraging suburbanites to keep a friendly eye on neighbors’ property.

“They (merchants) all want to be involved,” said Roscoe, adding mall merchants have lost a considerable amount of business because Calgarians are intimidated by mall denizens.

“The only reason no one is here is because of the undesirables,” he said.

But Insp. Bob Jackson says that while it’s the merchants’ right to deny access to their stores, he thinks there may be a better solution to the problem.

“You could have a backlash like that,” he said, adding that the move could prompt a hostile battle between store owners and their unwanted clients.

Jackson said owners of head shops, which sell drug paraphernalia, and arcades are responsible for inviting young people, often transients, who loiter.

“They allowed them there in the first place. They created a monster, either wittingly or unwittingly.”

Jackson said emotions on both sides of the street are running high. Store owners are angry because they are losing business and young mall patrons are frustrated because of a lack of help, he said.

“Calgary is lacking in long-term support in agencies to help these kids,” he said. “It’s up to the government to get involved and set up some kind of long-range employment programs.”

Carl DeLine, director of the Back Door, a program aimed at getting young people off Calgary streets, said merchants are the only ones who will profit from their campaign.

“They will indeed move people out of there, away from the area, but they will displace those problems to other areas of the city,” he warned.

Mall merchants will meet Roscoe and police Wednesday to discuss the campaign.

Originally published September 26, 1988 by the Calgary Herald (Calgary, AB), credited to Carol Harrington.