Mayor Sam Sullivan has unveiled a plan to battle crime and public disorder in Vancouver by attacking homelessness, the open drug trade and aggressive panhandling.

Sullivan said the new initiative he calls "Project Civil City" will use the 2010 Winter Games as a "catalyst" to reduce by half incidents of public disorder in the city's downtown, but maintains the plan is not just about the Olympics.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan says the Winter Olympics will serve as a catalyst for a program to reduce street disorder 50 per cent by 2010.
(CBC)

"And for anyone who makes the mistake of assuming this is all about 2010, let make me make it very clear and in no uncertain terms, this is about Vancouver," he said.

"Project Civil City is about us: It's about our downtown streets and alleys, it's about our neighbourhoods."

Sullivan said he will ask city council to redirect $1 million of the proposed Olympic Legacy Fund toward responding to nuisance and noise complaints. He also wants to spend $300,000 from the city contingency reserve to set up a Project Civil City office and hire a commissioner to run it.

The mayor is also establishing a Project Civil City leadership council that will include federal and provincial cabinet ministers, including federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, B.C. Solicitor General John Les and Attorney General Wally Oppal.

Sullivan is also taking aim at Vancouver's entertainment district — the three-block stretch of bars along Granville Street infamous for late-night drunkenness and brawling.

Within 60 days of his initiative being passed by council, Sullivan said, bar owners will be put on notice that if the late-night problems persist, their closing times will be rolled back.