[CliffFletcher]

My kids are between 9 and 11.

I hear what you're saying about LRT stations. No doubt there are unsavoury people who hang out there. And the trains themselves at night feel less safe than they did 20 years ago. But I don't know what exactly you'd be afraid of sketchy people at stations doing to kids during the day, when there are all kinds of people around.

Getting accustomed to being in the presence of dirtbags and weirdos is an urban life skill. We can't protect kids from it their whole lives. Better they learn to be comfortable and streetwise when they're 12 or 13 than shelter them so they're totally freaked out the first time they see someone muttering to themselves in a hoody when they're 20.

I used to work with someone who moved to Calgary from small town Newfoundland when she was around 30. She was absolutely horrified by homeless people, and almost had a panic attack whenever someone sketchy came within 20 feet of her. She would never take public transportation, or walk around anywhere downtown except a few major streets during the day. When she saw a dude drinking a tallboy in the park down the street from her house in the far burbs, she called the cops.

I don't want my kids to be raised with that kind of fear, to restrict where and when they go out so they never come into contact with anyone but other middle-class suburbanites.