By Julie Delaney
It’s dark. A woman walks alone on Lorne Street. What’s that shadow at the bottom of the stairway? Is that a noise coming from the bushes?
These are questions women may no longer have to ask themselves while walking in the Dalhousie Community Centre neighborhood. A safety audit of the blocks surrounding the 755 Somerset St. W. building was carried out this week.
The audit was organized by Women’s Place and Women’s Action Centre Against Violence.
Women’s Place employee Ann Rose says the audit is to help area women determine the level of safety in their neighborhood.
Audit participants walk up and down streets, keeping a checklist of safety hazards such as poor lighting, overgrown bushes that obscure visibility, and lack of pay phones in case of emergency.
Women’s Place encouraged members of the community association, people from neighborhood businesses, nurses from the nearby hospital and area politicians to participate in the audit.
Rose says within a couple of weeks, audit participants will draw up a list of suggestions to make the neighborhood safer. The suggestions will be presented to the city, which will pass them on to the appropriate departments.
Keri McNulty, 24, says she walks alone through the audited area about five nights a week. Even though she’s never had any serious problems, she admits it can be an unsettling.
“It is quite dark and there is nobody around to help you. There are all these little dead-end streets and stairways.”
Although Rose hasn’t heard any reports of women being assaulted in the area, she says such incidents often go unreported.
“Audits are an important tool in helping women feel confident walking alone at night,” she says.
Coun. Elisabeth Arnold has been involved in similar safety audits in Centretown.
She says most of the concerns she hears about from her constituents are related to safety.
Arnold says audits almost always improve the level of safety on audited streets citing an audit conducted in the Gladstone Avenue and McNabb Park area.
A direct result of the Gladstone Avenue audit is an upcoming notice on Ottawa Hydro bills inviting people to light up their neighborhoods by keeping their porch lights on at night.
“Walking down the street and seeing houses with porch lights on really helps you orient yourself and it gets more people on the streets,” she says.