A woman living in downtown North Bay says a frightening incident last Sunday has left her more certain than ever she wants to sell her home.
"Our whole neighbourhood, the whole downtown is completely ruined," Stacy observes. "I'm fed up. I bought a house down here and it's the biggest mistake ever."
Stacy has owned her home for five years and lives in an area nearby the vacant lot located off Wyld Street — where the train trestle has been removed — between Second and Third Avenue.
Early Sunday evening, as she cut across that vacant lot to head home from a walk with her dog, Stacy says she heard a commotion in the bushes, followed by a man's voice.
"Who is there?" shouted the unseen person. Then, "Get out of here, I’m going to kill you."
Stacy says the incident occurred around 7:30 p.m., just as the night sky turned dark. She says she called North Bay Police Service after fleeing the lot and an officer visited her house an hour later.
"Of course, by then, whoever was in the bushes was gone. The police said there was not much they could do," Stacy relays. "If anything, I'd like women to know it's not safe to walk downtown by yourself or anywhere in this neighbourhood now. It's absolutely out of control."
As far as the abandoned lot goes, Stacy says a call to the City of North Bay did not leave her feeling any safer about her experience.
"They told me it's a Toronto company that owns this crack den in our neighbourhood and there's nothing they can do about it," says Stacy. At the very least, she hoped the City could compel the property owner to "get the bush cut down and lights put in over there for safety," and she was given the paperwork to fill out to lodge a complaint against the owner.
In the past, this same property had become a pet project of sorts for the late Mike Anthony to eliminate illegal dumping. The photos above have all been taken in the past month by Stacy, including the grainy shot taken from a distance for safety reasons of what appears to be a couch on fire.
Stacy says she is shocked at how much the situation has deteriorated in her five years at her current address.
"Maybe the first summer, you might see the odd person sleeping in the vacant lot," she says, "but there are needles everywhere now, garbage everywhere, people walking around screaming at themselves. There was a guy in a van living over there. They are over there doing drugs and yelling and screaming all night."
Stacy estimates she has had at least 100 unwelcome visitors on various parts of her property in her stay.
"They come on my porch to take cans, steal anything that's not nailed down. It's very frustrating, the City can't do anything, the police can't do anything." Stacy says. "Let me tell you, if this was happening on Airport, something would be done about it."
Thanks to the real estate seller's market, Stacy hopes she might be able to break even on her house and start fresh somewhere else. She figures someone might buy it and make apartments out of it.
"It's getting to the point you can't live downtown, you can't go for a walk outside," she adds.
As far as recommending downtown living to someone she knows?
"Absolutely not," she responds, "especially for a single woman."
