As the mayor sees it, the 2010 Winter Olympic Games should be a catalyst to achieve real targets in reducing homelessness and public disorder on the streets.

'If we simply host a successful Olympic and Paralympic Games, we will have failed,' said the mayor. 'Instead, we must use these Games to create social and human legacies.'

The legacy is elimination of homelessness and open drug use in the Downtown Eastside.

Mr Sullivan's utopia would also be a Vancouver free of aggressive and disorderly behaviour. An easy way to dismiss a goal such as this is to leave it at that, but Mr Sullivan has wisely lowered expectations by tackling the overwhelming job in half stages.

By 2010, he wants to gradually achieve these goals. That is, 50 per cent fewer complaints about aggressive begging, 50 per cent more housing for the homeless.

Just a few months into Project Civil Society, the city had some unexpected benefits and some not-so-encouraging preliminary results.

The good news first: The British Columbia province put in C$80 million (HK$544 million) in supportive housing this week, including the purchase of 10 single-room occupancy hotels in the Downtown Eastside area.

The push for the province to pony up dollars for low-cost housing in the most troubled neighbourhood has been going on for years and if it had acted earlier, it could have saved some money.

One owner paid US$1.4 million for a rundown building last year and flipped it to the government for US$2.05 million less than a year later.

But these are minor quibbles about a move by the province to recognise its duty to keep housing for the poor out of the hands of developers. Such support was heralded by even some of the government's harshest critics.

The results of Project Civil Society's other goals are more difficult to ascertain. From January 1 to March 16, 212 tickets have been issued, but only 41 of those infractions have been paid.

If the window to the darker side of a city's soul could be reflected in these transgressions, here's what we know:

About one-fifth of the fines were for people disobeying traffic signs, about 10 per cent were issued for fighting, but the biggest problem appears to be those uncivil enough to treat Vancouver's public places as their own private toilet. There were 87 tickets issued for people caught urinating or defecating in public.

Presumably 0 can put that paper to good use. Penalties range from C$50 for not wearing a bicycle helmet and C$100 for public urination and defecation to C$250 for not having your dog on a leash.

Opposition city councillor George Chow said although the mayor had repackaged ideas that were being considered or in place before he took over, most people noticed a change.

'People have been saying that they think the streets look better. The thing that gives people a good feeling on the street is cleanliness,' said Mr Chow. But tickets did not issue themselves and the mayor's plans fell woefully short when it came to proper staffing to ensure compliance of these measures, said Mr Chow.

For now, the mayor has time on his side. A broad goal with incremental, measurable results can do much to divert attention from the excrement on the ground.