a AMBLESIDE, CENTRAL LONSDALE Youths leave a tra of damage, injuries NORTH VANCCUVER RCMP and West Vancouver Police were busy under a full moon Friday when youth violence erupted in the central Londale rea and at Ambleside Park. Trouble began at West Van- couver’s Ambleside Park at ap- proximately 11 p.m. when a large group of youths from Vancouver and Richmond drove in to the park and began fighting with a group of local youths. A 20-year-old Sardis man had his) throat slashed; several others suffered bruises and abrasion:; three people were robbed cf money; and one man * had a watch stolen. West Vancouver Police ar- rested nine males and five fe- males. The females were later released, but charges of ag- gravated assault, robbery and possession of a weapon are pending against the male suspects. Seven of the suspects are young offenders and two are young adults. Twenty-year-old throat-slash victim Brian Wilhelms, who re- quired 12 stitches to close two lacerations on the Icft side of ‘ his neck, said trouble began when more than 40 people ar- rived in the park and began mixing with a group of about 35 people he was with. “It all started when they walked up to our group and asked why we had lipped them off and challenged us to a rum- ble,’? Wilhelms said. ‘“We said we had no problems with them, and that we were just there to have a good time. They started harassing a bunch of girls who were with us. I saw one guy flashing a knife in my buddy’s face.”” Wilhelms said when he tried to intervene he ‘‘got smoked in the face.’” “{ left to go to the beach and 10 of them surrounded me and started punching and kicking MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter me. I was basically just trying to calm them down because they were going all spastic, and that’s when they attacked me. A guy pulled a knife and while I was using my left arra to elbow a guy away from me, I got slashed,’* he said. “After [ got cut, a white guy was standing in my face and grabbed my wallet and took my money, threw it (the wallet) back and told his buddies they had booze money for the night,” said Wilhelms. At first Wilhelms didn’t notice that he had been cut. But he said, ‘‘The guy that took my money said, ‘Only wimps bleed. You're a wimp because you are bleeding.”’? Wilhelms touched his throat and saw blood on his hand. Wilhelms lost $400 cash. He had intended to use the money as a rental deposit for a West Vancouver apartment. Meanwhile, according to eyewitness Phil Magnall, a group of approximately 406 youths started breaking things in the i9th Street and Lonsdale Avenue area at about midnight. Said Magnall: ‘‘It looked like it started in front of Bino’s, when a gang of kids smashed the dome lights on three cabs. The kids went on into the 7- Eleven at 19th and Lonsdale and knocked over displays in the store. When they got out- side they walked down the south side of 19th stomping on the top of parked cars, stomp- ing roofs and smashing win- dows. They went over my car, but fortunately the body work was strong enough to take it. About two dozen cars were stomped on.”’ According to North Van- csouver RCMP, more than 15 vehicles parked in the area of West 19th, between Lonsdale and Mahon, were damaged. Vandals smashed windshields, scratched paint and slashed tires. Said North Vancouver RCMP Staff Sgt. Larry Boan: **We had a tremendous amount of kids out Friday night, just hundreds of them fooling around.” The following night, fighting broke out along Lonsdale at abou: 2:30 a.m. Magnall heard glass smash while inside the 19th and Lonsdale 7-Eleven store nearby. Magnall said the incident began when a bottle was thrown at a group of people from another group near the 7-Eleven store. “‘They went over and started baiting the others. After the fight, one guy was laying unconscious after three guys had jumped him and _ started pummelling him and then put the boots to him. An older guy that was in his 30s had blood streaming down his face. The girl with them was just in hysterics."’ A North Vancouver Unit B.C. Ambulance Service crew responded to the scene at 2:45 a.m. and tranporied a 25- year-old man, who had been assaulted, to Lions Gate Hospi- tal. According to Boan, no charges were laid by police after investigation determined the fight participants ‘‘were horsing around.”’ Said Magnall: ‘*The scream- ing goes on every weekend around there. This weekend the numbers got bigger and the kids got nastier.”’ Youth worker calis for an after-hours facility A FORMER Lonsdale area youth worker believes the opening of an after-hours drop-in facility in the Lonsdale ‘area would go a long way towards defusing some of the social problems created by young people hanging out along the urban strip. Robert Reddington was a youth worker in the Lonsdale area from April to August this year. ‘‘We have resources in the area for most of the youths, in recreation centres and so on. But some youths have problems at home or are peddling drugs and are inclined to stay up until iam. cr 2 a.m, Some resource has to be available for these kids. They need a drop-in or access centre somewhi ‘ong central Lonsdale,’ he said. “There is a creat need, an immediate necd /or somewhere where these kids can go, even if it is just to hang out. They can go and hang out and from there you can go to work on the reasons,” he said. ‘‘Without direction or someone monitor- By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter ing what's going on here, things are going to happen. You'll have kids Mipping out at each other and before you knew it, the safety uf the community, of pedestrians walking by is just not there.’ Local teens are attracted to the strip by late night fast-food outlets, games arcades and drug pedilars selling marijuana, hashish, coke and some crack. The cat and mouse game be- tween police trying to keep a lid on the local drug trade, and people selling drugs has focused much of the late-night action to the central Lonsdale area. Reddington said action by store owners frustrated by youths hanging out near their store fronts and police crackdowns on specific areas favored by drug traffickers simply translate into a shifting around of problems rather than leading to community solutions. “You can't simply pick a problem up on a trailer and move it. That won't work, The kids will just go somewhere else, They necd counselling con drug abuse, sexual abuse, a place that's open late,’' he said. “When you see kids out ¢iil 1 a.m. or 2 a.m., your first reac- tion is, ‘Well do their parents know where they are?’ And you ask the kids and they say, ‘Yah, my parents know where I am, what's it to you?’ These are 12 to 13-year-old kids. What are they going to do when they're 18, 19? Be down on Granville Street? It’s a scary thing, because you can look at Lons- dale turning in to another Granville Street."* 3 - Friday, September 22, 1989 - North Shore News SUNDAY IS still a day of rest in West Vancouver, it seems ... North Shore News photographer Mike Wakefield recently captured this photo on Marine Drive at the entrance to the municipality, NEWS photo Mike Wakelleld 28-storey towers’ permits withheld PLANS TO erect two 28-storey towers in the central Lons- dale area are on hold following North Vancouver City Council’s move Monday to withhold two building permit applications submitted to the city earlier this month. Council unanimously supported two motions to withhold for 30 days building permit applications made by M&M Investments Ltd. for the construction of two com- mercial-residential towers at the southeast and southwest corners of 17th Street and Lonsdale Avenue. The 30-day freeze is in effect from the Sept. 8 application date. The city put the permits on hold on the basis that the proposed de- velopment conflicts with an of- ficial community plan and a zon- ing bylaw currently being prepared. If adopted, bylaws would limit building heights on the properties to no more than 80 feet under outright zoning and 120 feet under the official community plan. The city invoked its power to withhold the building permit ap- Euitorial Page.......... 6 Home & Garden.........13 Mailbox............... 6 What's Going On........25 Automotives............19 Real Estate............37 Classifieds.............29 Auto Classifieds........22 Inquiring Reporter.......12 By MICHAEL BECKER News Reporter plications by way of Section 941 of the Municipal Act. Said ciiy plan- ner Fred Smith: “‘The 30 days give council time to decide what the next steps will be regarding this particular application.”* 2 twin towers proposal was discussed Wednesday night at a ci- ty Advisory Design Panel meeting. Smith refused to comment on the discussion. But said George Cadman, a lawyer working on behalf of M&M Investments Ltd.: ‘In a brief discussion with my clients, it seemed they were reasonably pleased with the outcome of the meeting. The ball is squarely in the city’s court at this moment." WEATHER Au ow Friday, mostly sunny with morning fog. High near 22°C. Saturday and Sunday, mostly sunny, highs 18°C-21°C. Second Class Registration Namber 3855