Editor: Langley has become drug central. Eleven years ago, I moved my family out of our Langley City home due to the large number of street addicts, thieves and problems related to the huge drug activities and homelessness that plague the City.
We loved our home and its convenience to shops and bus routes for my children, but we were tired of it. The problems that come with these social issues were parked on our doorstep every day.
I thought by moving to the top of Willoughby Hill, with all its new development, the City problems would be left behind and, indeed, for 10 years we lived without any of the headaches that made us move in the first place.
Now it seems, Willoughby Hill has become the “new” Langley City and it, too, is plagued with drug-related issues.
The difference now is the drug dealers drive SUVs, live in $700,000-plus homes or the basement suites of these homes and peddle their wares on our streets and in our parks.
A half-a year ago, new neighbours moved in near to us. These are people that hold down full-time jobs, but engage in low-level drug crime, and my quiet neighbourhood has become a gong show, with people coming and going at all times, and the endless smell of marijuana wafting through our yard.
I guess this is the new normal, when your SUV-driving neighbours are the druggies, and although they might not be riding around on bicycles, they are just as dangerous and serious about their side business.
These are people without any scruples and have every intention of keeping their side-job, operating out of their home. The police aren’t too interested in our complaints and even Langley Township bylaws said, “Well, I guess you’ll have to move.”
Yes, it looks like I will have to sell and move and the search is now on to find another quiet, up-and-coming neighbourhood that isn’t riddled with these problems — yet.
Sandra Steffan,
Willoughby Hill