Open Drug Use, Violence Plague Businesses in Duncan, BC—But One Shop Owner Is Trying to Turn the Tide

When Will Arnold set up a bike shop in Duncan, B.C., more than 30 years ago, he didn’t realize he’d spend nearly a decade dealing with littered streets, graffiti, and open drug use. He certainly never thought he would be threatened with a gun or have a knife pulled on him in the once-quiet community of 5,000 people. When Mr. Arnold first moved to the tiny city on southern Vancouver Island in 1991, Duncan was a peaceful place to live and run his bike shop. That all began to change approximately eight years ago, he says. As the owner of Experience Cycling, which is located on the Trans Canada Highway that runs through the community, Mr. Arnold has had a front-row seat to the homelessness and public drug use plaguing many parts of the province....