HAIR SCHOOL BEHIND STYLIN' DRIVE CLEAN-UP

Every Tuesday morning for the past two months, students and staff of a Commercial Drive hairdressing school have begun their day with shovels and rakes, not scissors and shampoo.

The 50 or so women and men use tools, along with gloves and tongs, to pick up used needles, condoms and other garbage on the street and in the alleys.

"Someone had to do something," said Beth Crescent, principal and co-owner of Joji's Hair School, near the corner of Napier and Commercial.  "If you see ugly, you're going to feel ugly.  If you see filth, you're going to feel filthy.  But if you see beautiful, well, that's beautiful."

On the first day of the clean-up drive, Crescent said the crew filled 25 garbage bags after working for 45 minutes between Venables and Napier.

Crescent is now urging businesses along the Drive-from Venables to 12th-to do their part to clean up a community that has seen an increase in garbage along with a spike in drug activity and homelessness.

Working with the Grandview-Woodland community policing centre, the hairdressing school has come up with a program called Adopt-A-Block.

Crescent got the idea on a trip to Bangkok in January, where she noticed merchants sweeping in front of their storefronts.  "The city of Bangkok is cleaner than Commercial Drive," she said.  "It was really amazing to me that in a city of millions of people that they could keep the city clean."

Crescent said the weekly clean-ups not only keep alleys and sidewalks clean, but make the community less inviting for drug dealing and other illegal activity-particularly when more than 50 people are out at a time.

Students Tomoko Sato and Kris Nielsen never anticipated that their education would include cleaning up the streets, but both are glad to be making the community a cleaner place.

"It's a cleaner and nicer environment-not as gross, and I know people in the neighbourhood appreciate it," Sato said.

Nielsen said friends who live in the area have noticed the neighbourhood is cleaner, and she plans to continue the tradition when she opens her own hair salon one day.

"I think we've started something here-I saw a dad and his two kids the other day picking up garbage," she said.

The start of the hairdressing school's campaign began coincidentally as the Vancouver police drug squad conducted an undercover operation on the Drive, making 46 drug buys that led to 56 charges.

Police identified 27 dealers, including 11 who had previous drug dealing offences.  The most popular drug being sold was marijuana, followed by cocaine.

Eileen Mosca, board president of the Grandview-Woodland policing centre, said the Drive has become a much safer and welcoming place because of the efforts of police and Joji's hairdressing school.

"The police are doing everything in their power to make it better, and it's time now for us to do what we need to do," said Mosca, noting volunteers are now approaching businesses to get involved in the clean-up.  "It's a brilliant idea of one business, and we're trying to expand it to the whole Drive."

Both Mosca and Crescent said Adopt-A-Block is not meant as an affront to city garbage crews, noting the city only has so many resources to dedicate to the Drive.

"We can whine and crab and tell the city we want more of this and more of that, but this is a real challenge to the people on the street to do the job themselves that you'd do if it was your house," Mosca said.

Crescent said if businesses can't find the time to help out, she's hoping they will donate money towards posting Adopt-A-Block signs along the Drive, advertising the business responsible for the clean-up.

Next month, the hairdressing school plans to plant two pathways of sunflowers at the corner of Napier and Commercial in memory of Irma McInnis, who died recently of cancer.

McInnis used to run Dream Futon on the Drive and was dedicated to cleaning up the street, participating in activities such as Earth Day, Crescent said.

"We love being on the Drive, and we want to make it a more happier, safer place for all to enjoy," she said, noting her next project is to find shelter for homeless people.  "I'm not doing this for publicity, I'm doing this because I care.  This is my community."

Businesses interested in participating in Adopt-A-Block should contact the Grandview-Woodland community policing centre at 604-717-2932.