By Lindsey Cole
The Oshawa Express

Large gardens flourish with flowers outside of a few quaint homes on Celina Street in Oshawa.
The well manicured lawns and sparkling homes are an unfortunate rarity among the street, says one resident who didn’t want his name used.
Instead, the street is known as the ‘strip’ because of the criminal activity that occurs regularly with hookers, pimps and drug dealers frequenting the area.
“That’s a terrible name,” he says, adding it’s a constant battle to try and get the street cleaned up. “At what point do you stop watching?”
But this man calls himself the voice of the neigbourhood. He and several others have banded together to try and get Celina Street cleaned up, ultimately ridding it of the harsh stigma it has attained over the years.
He says this group is working hand-in-hand with police to change the face of Celina.
“If we see something going on I’m going to call the police. The neighbourhood is taking plate numbers down and reporting them to police,” he explains.
“What we’d like to see is that we’d all work together as a neighbourhood. We stick together.”
One resident on the street, who also didn’t want her name used for fear of being exposed, says johns and prostitutes are rampant.
“The sad part is I have an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old that know what hookers and pimps are,” she says.
But what’s important to these residents is the fact that police and good neighbours are helping to make the street a better place.
“We should be a prime example of what a neighbourhood should be,” the man representing the neighbourhood says.
‘The cops are vigilant in what they’re doing. They’re doing an awesome job. We have had enough negative press. It’s the community that’s doing things. Have we seen an improvement? Yes.”
“We want the street cleaned up. I know it’s going to take time. These (criminal) houses bring in people that don’t live in the area. We know it’s going to get cleaned up… If we all work together.”
Dave Selby, of the Durham Regional Police Services, says thanks to the residents of Celina, police can be more effective at tackling crime.
“We’ve been working with a lot of residents in the area. They have been very helpful. We can start tracking things and putting together an enforcement plan,” he says, adding he couldn’t reveal numbers of the exact crime stats in the area.
“We wouldn’t release statistics on a neigbourhood in general. They (residents) have been very vocal and that’s been very helpful to us.”
Oshawa resident Mike Kalynko says one woman who lives in the area of Celina and Albert streets won’t even open her door during the day because she worries what could be on the other side.
“My observation is that at the end of the month there is a lot of money down there,” says Kalynko, adding this is when incidents of crime seem to rise.
“I’ve been there a number of times. Anytime of day you can see three to four prostitutes out.”
Kalynko says there are three houses of particular concern and he is lobbying to both police and council to deal with this issue as a way to clean Oshawa up.

“It’s been getting worse every weekend. We need some awareness and we need to get people to see what is going on,” he explains.
“The houses are devalued, it’s unbelievable. Council and police have to keep on them. There’s a lot of heritage there.”