The crisis in Milton Park
Linda Gyulai has a long, well considered piece about the decline of Milton Park. As she reports, “the entire neighbourhood makes up just six per cent of the area of the Plateau and a tenth of its population [but] accounts for 24 per cent of all crimes reported in the borough.”
DeWolf 11:37 on 2026-05-16 Permalink
“But at some point in the last year or two — no one can seem to peg exactly when — the individual dealers that prey on unhoused people in the area turned into conspicuous groups of criminals that roam the neighbourhood.”
That’s the big difference. You feel it even if you’re just passing through. The crowd at Milton/Park was always relatively chill and it was usually the same people you’d see day in, day out. Then at some point there was an influx of dealers — really nasty-looking types — followed by a lot of strung-out people from outside the neighbourhood.
Kate 11:06 on 2026-05-17 Permalink
Looking at the situation coldly, how much profit can drug dealers make off the homeless?
Chris 15:41 on 2026-05-17 Permalink
“Force” the addict to steal something expensive in exchange for their fix. There are lots of valuable things to steal, then you sell those for profit.
Ian 22:11 on 2026-05-17 Permalink
One guy I knew who became a crack addict but managed to get out of it put it this way – crack is appealing not only because it’s a fast, intense high, but because it’s super cheap. Only 5 b bucks. Everyone has 5 bucks. Until all you want is more crack and you used up all your 5 bucks. Then you need to boost something you can sell to a fence or trade to a dealer. A lot of people turn to prostitution because if you look ok you can make some money fast as long as no pimps come after you and eventually when you look not so great even homeless people that aren’t on crack can scrape up 5 bucks for a screw, so it doesn’t really matter if you’re homeless or in decent condition or not.
This is also why you see so much petty crime like stealing copper or breaking car windows for loose change (for instance) … you just need a few 5 bucks, like, NOW.
Joey 10:41 on 2026-05-18 Permalink
About nine years ago I had a chance to spend some time with a pharmacist operating in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, basically Canada’s skid row. His pharmacy served many addicts, given their location. We were talking about Naloxone, the overdose-reversal drug, and I asked him how often he had to administer it – he said at least several times per week, often multiple times a day (imagine what happens when a bad batch circulates). I suggested that a lot of his patients must be very grateful to him for saving their lives; he said they were more likely to be pissed that the Naloxone, which had literally saved their lives, had robbed them of their high. Feels bleak.
Kate 14:06 on 2026-05-18 Permalink
Jeez, Joey. The logical conclusion is they’d rather be high then dead, than sober and alive. That’s definitely bleak.