alex maiolo wrote:The junkie part of town is pretty disturbing, but at least they treat them like human beings there.

-A

For the record, they're treated by establishment political figures and the business sector for what they are to them: a blight. Human waste.

Homelessness in this booming city of luxury condo development rose 40% between 2000 and 2004 (most recent figures I've seen). A lot of these leaky, million-dollar condos sit as unoccupied investment properties while scenes you wouldn't expect to see in Haiti transpire blocks away. It's despicable, and I have no doubt that only the vigilance of a few incredible coalitions and organizations keeps the city from disappearing these people or drowning them in cargo containers for the 2010 Olympics.

One incredible thing about the E Hastings street scene is just how social the destitution is. Everyone knows everyone. Hundreds of the most ravaged, marginalized people in N. America congregate with almost no public violence. I feel safer on E Hastings than I do on Granville on a Saturday night (Granville is the main club and bar strip downtown).

Some facts about the downtown east side:

-- 5000 injection drug users live within a 10-block area

-- overdose and suicide are the leading causes of death

-- residents who don't sleep on the street primarily live in Single Room Occupancy rooming houses (which the city won't even be coerced to inspect; which often lack plumbing or electricity; and from which residents are evicted w/o notice as developers buy them up from the slum lords)

-- 30% of residents are First Nations (10 times the national average); the majority of the 65 murdered sex workers from the area were aboriginal women

-- HIV infection is endemic (30%)


"Most livable city."

Andrew L. wrote:One incredible thing about the E Hastings street scene is just how social the destitution is. Everyone knows everyone. Hundreds of the most ravaged, marginalized people in N. America congregate with almost no public violence. I feel safer on E Hastings than I do on Granville on a Saturday night (Granville is the main club and bar strip downtown).

I'll back that up.
Back in 2002, I was working as a process server, and I would have to go in to E. Hastings Street hotels all the time to serve family court documents. No one ever gave me any trouble despite ample opportunities. I get the impression that alot of people living there just want to be left alone to pursue their vices. In contrast, I have been called names and had things thrown at me by coked-up rich kids on Granville at nighttime more than once. And of course, certain coked-up rich kids are ruining the world right at this moment !

Andrew L. wrote:A lot of these leaky, million-dollar condos sit as unoccupied investment properties while scenes you wouldn't expect to see in Haiti transpire blocks away.

I have been to, and lived in, places that could readily be described as "fucked up," but nowhere did the gap between poverty and affluence strike me as much as is in downtown eastside, which is probably why I took note off it in my earlier post. You just don't expect it there. I didn't see these contrasts in the centres of major American cities. The "scenes" there are more underground, or suburban, I presume. Hunted down.

There was something similar going on in Bern, Switzerland and in Rotterdam in the early nineties, but things seem to have taken a course for the better.