Point Douglas is one of the toughest parts of town: a North End neighbourhood of small, dilapidated homes, seedy hotels and dogs – everywhere, dogs.
But there's almost no garbage littering the streets. On every block, it seems, work crews are fixing roofs, painting, mending broken steps. Crime is down. You can thank Sel Burrows for some of that.
The Point Douglas resident and community activist rails against both the NDP and the Progressive Conservatives as they fight over the crime issue during this election campaign.
"If only they'd realize it's not about being tough on crime," he said, pointing to a former crack house that is now back to being a regular home, in part thanks to his efforts. "It's not about being soft on crime. It's about being smart on crime."
Everywhere this year, in federal and provincial elections, crime has been an issue, with conservatives of various stripes vowing to crack down, and other parties trying to match them even as they point out that crime rates are actually falling.
In Ottawa, the opposition is howling after the Conservatives decided to limit debate on the government's sweeping new omnibus crime bill to two more days.
Here in Manitoba, Progressive Conservative challenger Hugh McFadyen is vowing to bring down Winnipeg's crime rate, one of the highest in the country, by creating a new gun unit for police, by making temporary police postings permanent and by requiring sex offenders to wear GPS-monitored ankle bracelets.
Greg Selinger, not to be outdone, is promising to put 50 more cops on Winnipeg's streets if the NDP is re-elected Oct. 4. He, too, would expand the existing ankle-bracelet program, which is currently used on car thieves.
It prompted Liberal Party candidate Paul Hesse, who is running in the Winnipeg riding of Fort Rouge, to accuse the NDP of "trying to out-Tory the Tories on crime, and failing."
Although Mr. Burrows is an ardent NDPer, he doesn't believe there is much to choose between the his party and the Tories on crime issues. Neither, he says, understand the causes of crime in the community, and how to fight it.
After a lifetime of working on poverty and justice issues, Mr. Burrows, 67, is now retired, sort of. He and a small band of volunteers have spent the last few years fighting to clean up Point Douglas, which has a large aboriginal population grappling with poverty, drugs, crime and unemployment.
They created Powerline, a number and website people can use to report anything they think needs reporting. He encourages residents to point out houses where drugs are being sold, and then gets the tenants evicted under a recent Manitoba law that makes this possible.
"Eviction is far worse than conviction for minor criminal offences," he says. The practice also fosters community self-policing, because residents see gang members being forced out of the neighbourhood.
Powerline's volunteers harass the city to pick up discarded furniture, clean up laneways and enforce building codes. Mr. Burrows works with residents to deliver food to those who need it and to match jobs to those looking for work.
"There have been a lot of positive things going on" in Point Douglas, said Constable Jason Michalyshen, a spokesman for the service. "The people there have taken ownership of their community."
Michaëlle Jean, when she was governor-general, took an active interest in the neighbourhood's efforts to clean itself up, celebrating the 70-per-cent drop in crime there over the space of a single year, with 32 crack houses put out of business.
The community was scarred, though, when a deliberately set fire killed five people in a rooming house in July.
A crime agenda written by Mr. Burrows would focus on giving police the power to remove alcohol from disruptive houses, encouraging private-sector summer jobs for unemployed kids and fixing up and funding community centres.
"Kids who don't wear team colours wear gang colours," he maintains.
None of that is likely to sway middle-class voters in suburban ridings, however. Instead, the political parties will continue to compete over who will hire the most cops and crack down hardest on offenders.
Even if none of that will mean much to Point Douglas.